PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1881.

Patea Mail, 10 February 1881, Page 2

PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1881.

Government are advertising tenders in Gazette for the supply of one hundred tons of cement. The cement must be manufactured in'the colony . „ At a meeting held in the Wesleyan Church, on Tuesday night, it was determined to go on at once with the building of a new parsonage. Cable messsage dated Loudon, February sth, mentions the death, after a lingering illness, of Thomas Carlyle, the eminent author ; aged 80. The P. and 0. Co’s steamer Peshawar arrived in Melbourne on the 7th with the inward Suez mail. Nominations for member of Waverley Local Board, through the resignation of Mr McLean, must be made before noon this day. Some of the Patea County cricketers who are to play in the match with the Australian Eleven at Wanganui, passed through Patea yesterday, en route for the scene of action. A public holiday has been proclaimed in Wanganui for Friday, the day of the match. A brilliant bush fire was burning last night on a ridge beyond Okutuku. It threw up tongues of flame, and seemed not unlike a large gothic church filled with fire, and with a play of varying lights at the windows. Rich gold specimens brought from the mines at the Tiki district, Coromandel Goldfields, Auckland, arc likely to cause a rush to that locality. The New Zealand Timber Company, which holds a large estate there, advertises it open for mining leases on most liberal terms. “ You are keeping your grain out a long time—why don’t you get it stacked ?” “ Well, —I have had ten men and four drays going the last fortnight : what more would you have ? ” The question put by a Patea resident on Tuesday, and the reply from a Whenuakura farmer, as above, tend to show the value of agricultural operations to wages-raen. Reports of indifferent results from cropping have come from several quarters. There are, however, exceptions. One handful of wheat from the thresher, from a holding on the Whenuakura block, submitted to two experts separately, was pronounced by one “ superb,” by the other u firstclass—grand sample.” The grain on another Whenuakura holding, judging of it as a standing crop, promises better even than the sample referred to above, and both wheat and oats show for heavy yields. A better knowledge of the requisite conditions for success in graingrowing, it may reasonably be hoped, will lead to better general results. If a few are successful, why not more ? Non-success this season should be no bar to future effort. An article in the Church Chronicle for February, pointedly alludes to the apathy of church people about church matters, and after referring to the difference in circumstances of state endowed churches in England, and the little need therefore for monetary aid from parishioners, and to the vastly different circumstances of Episcopalian colonial churches says, “ Nobody would be so foolish as to suppose that a church in this country could have been endowed by the state. Whatever private persons may have done, or may in future do towards providing endowments, these must necessarily fall very far short of the requirements of the church.” The necessity for liberal voluntary help is therefore apparent, and it urges churchmen to bear in mind that as there is no established church, that the state does absolutely nothing for the support of religion, it would appear to be the duty of every one to resolve to give something; and when he has so resolved, to give it cheerfully and regularly. King Solomon or some wise man has stated that patience, perseverance, and a little sweet oil will accomplish anything.

Kaknramea news is held over till Saturday. A gold prospecting party is working up the Mokau river, where gold has long been rumored by natives to be plentiful. Barry, a Thames miner, heads the party. Mr Dale calls for tenders for the erection ot auction rooms on the site of his present auction premises, which are to be sold for removal to clear the ground. The cricket match at Wellington, 22 against the Australian 11, was concluded on Tuesday. The Wellington team made 68 in their second innings, leaving the Australians an easy victory in one innings and 22 runs to spare. The Government auditor, Mr Yaldwyn has been in Patea during the week auditing Harbor and other local Board accounts. The ordinary as well as a special meeting of the Harbor Board takes place on Monday, when it is possible Mr Yaldwyii may furnish his report. The respective prospectors’ claims for the Mount Arthur reefs, Nelson, having been adjudicated upon by the Goldfield’s Warden at Collingwood, the reefs will be thoroughly tested, the Panama Company being fully determined to push on the work. Dr Hector’s report on the stone from this reef gives over 14 ozs of gold to the ton. Ixdecext Assault. —A man named Louis, a foreigner who hawks fruit and vegetables about Patea, and lives in a cottage south of the English Church, Taranaki road, was charged yesterday, before Mr Wray, R.M., and Dr Croft, with committing a rape on a girl aged nine years, daughter of Joshua Packenham, laborer. Louis was charged at a later stage with indecent assault. The evidence was taken in private. -It appeared the girl had been sent at times for parsely to Louis’ house, and her evidence was that he asked her to go in, and once committed the offence. He asked her to go again. She did notary, and did not tell anyone, because she said he told her not to do so. She went to his house after that, and was found there by Mrs Stroud, who suspected from the girl’s clothes that some improper relation existed between the girl and Louis. The girl did afterwards tell, when asked, and described what he had done. Dr Keating was called, and stated in effect that there was no trace of forcible penetration. The Bench at this stage dismissed the charge of rape. A second charge of indecent assault was then gone into, on the same evidence ; and Louis was committed to take his trial on this charge at the District Court, to be held at Patea in April. Mr Hamerton defended the prisoner. The Auckland Harbor Board sent specimens of jarrah and totara piles to the Melbourne Exhibition, to show how the worm affected the jarrah. The exhibition was much to the annoyance ot the South Australians. In reply to a remonstrance by the South Australian representative, Dr Hector, the N.Z. exhibition commissioner admitted that it was perhaps hard on South Australia for New Zealand to show off the inferiority of a neighboring colony’s products, and he would not willingly be a party to it, but it was necessary to keep the jarrah on view in order to exhibit the specimens of New Zealand marine worms. The Taranaki harbor demonstration on the occasion ot laying the foundation stone took place on Monday. The day was observed throughout Taranaki as a general holiday. The weather was all that could be desired ; in fact, a finer day would have been impossible to have chosen. At an early hour the streets of the town showed an animated appearance, and became busier as the hour approached when the ceremonial proceedings of the day were fixed to begin. It is calculated that over 3000 people were in town to witness the spectacle, although many of the farmers were no doubt debarred from taking a holiday owing to their being engaged harvesting. Through the temporary shears which had been fixed to hoist the stone in its place giving way, a delay of an hour beyond the time appointed for the stone-laying ceremony was occasioned. The Taranaki Herald contains five columns of small print giving a history of the settlement, and harbor propositions, from its first occupation by Europeans about forty years ago. Beyond the accident to the locomotive on the railway in the morning, and the hour’s delay in laying the stone, the proceedings appear to have been most successful.

The late Hon. Robert Stokes, long a resident in Wellington, who died last year iu London, has left to the Bishop as Trustee, the sum ot £SOO to be invested iu land, the rents derivable from which are to be devoted to religious purposes in the diocese. Mr C. Hunter Brown of Nelson, has sent to the Bishop of Wellington the sum of £lO to be spent at his discretion, in promoting the extension of religion among the Maori population in his diocese. He has further intimated that this may be regarded as an annual contribution. At a swimming match in Thorndon baths, Wellington, a platform on which a number of spectators were standing suddenly gave way, and, says the correspondent of a contemporary, dozens of persons instantly found themselves struggling about in the water. They screamed, they grasped at each other, they began to say short but extremely emphatic prayers, and one or two who could swim were heard, I regret to say, to swear a little. The water was only up to about their necks, and all were got out without having sustained any more serious injury than a severe ducking. The report on Government Insurance business to the end of last June, but which was only gazetted on the 4th February mentions that new proposals were received by the department to the number of 3,033, for a total sum-of £1,037,252. Of these proposals, 759 were either declined or otherwise failed of completion. The others, numbering 2,274, became policies assuring £725,254, and yielding a new premium income of L 23,210 17s Bd. These figures show an increase of 365 proposals received, and of 202 policies issued, as compared with those received and issued in the immediately preceding year. The deaths for the. year number 67, representing 78 policies, assuring L 32,500. Since the establishment of the department in 1870 it has issued 15,170 policies, assuring L 5,259,029. By lapse, surrender, or death of the assured, 3,463 of these have been discontinued, leaving at the end of the year 11,707 existing policies, representing an assured sum of L 4,175,890. The usual accounts presented with the report show the year’s income from all sources (including L 247 6s lOd in the Industrial Branch) to be L 146,452 lls 3d., being an increase as compared with the previous year of L 13,379 16s sd. The amount of the accumulated fund of the department at the end of the year (including L 722 14s 6d standing at the credit of the Industrial Branch) was L 460,058 lls 6d., showing an additional accumulation during the year of L 87,403 17s Id.