COUNTY NEWS.

Patea Mail, 24 February 1881, Page 2

COUNTY NEWS.

The Homeward ’Frisco mail closes to-day in this district. A herd of deer is reported near Tongariro, and one has been shot and eaten. The Australian cricket team have scored at Auckland 14:4 runs for first innings; Slight 51, Spofforth 30. The Patea Coach Factory is about to be be rebuilt on a larger scale, and Messrs Williams Brothers are calling for tenders. Messrs Mace and Bassett are rebuilding the auction premises of Mr Dale, who occupies the Patea Town Hall in the meantime. The Rev John Lloyd Keating, M.A., Church of England, has been gazetted officiating minister under the Marriage Act. The Education Board met at Wanganui yesterday, when the names of the Woodville School Committee were received, with boundaries of district. Major Atkinson’s daughter was married on Tuesday to Mr Clement Govett, son of Archdeacon Govett. There were thirteen bridesmaids, and the church was filled with spectators. Sir W. Fox arrived in Patea yesteiday afternoon, having been engaged in apportioning reserves among natives on the Plains. Some Waitotara natives have also reached Patea, and presumably another conference is intended.

Mr Walton Pell is reported to be the successful tenderer for station building contracts both at Hawcra and Norman by. Mr W. Sinclair, senior clerk at the Bank of New Zealand, Patea, has been moved to Wanganui. His place is taken by Mr Smith, formerly agent at Halcornbc. A decision by the R.M. at Patea on Tuesday, as to the sale or felonious conversion of two drays, is one deserving of careful legal review. The ground of the decision appears open to question. H. Chadwick and J. Kitching sailed on Tuesday for Nelson, to compote in the N.Z. Rifle Association meeting at Brightwater, about twenty miles from Nelson. O’Shaugnassy, who stands committed for trial for maliciously shooting a horse at Kakaramea, was released yesterday on bail ; his sureties being Patrick Burke, Whenuakura, and W. Skelley, Patea. The sale of forest land behind the Plains, and of township and suburban sections at Manaia and Opunaki, commences to-morrow. It is highly probable the bush sections will go off well, judging by reports from those who have been inspecting them. The boy John Risely, who broke his leg by falling from a horse at Wood villc, has been removed to the Patea Hospital for convenient nursing, and is now doing very well. His high spirits are remarkable even in a boy. A re-hearing of the native claim Ruhira Tuhoto, to land called Tutaeariari, on the Patea river, has been gazetted, and the proceedings at Patea last July annulled. Two claims for laud on the Upper Waitotara are also to be reheard, called Mangapapa. Taranaki sends the following representatives to the Rifle competition at Nelson—Lieutenant J. Hoskin, Nelson Okey (champion), F. Okey, E. Howell, Lieutenant J. Dingle, J. Loreridge, and W. Lauder. The Civil Service Library Prize for essays on “ The Development of Constitutional Liberty in England ” has not been awarded, none of the three essays received being considered by the examiners as worthy of a prize, SIGNS OF MINISTERIAL WEAKNESS. Mr Rolleston holds five portfolios, viz., those of Lands, Mines, Native, Defence, and Immigration ; Mr Dick holds two, Colonial Secretary, and Education; Major Atkinson two, Colonial Treasurer, and Customs; Mr Hall one, Premier; Mr Oliver one, Public Works ; and Mr Whitaker one, Attorney General. The cricket match, Town y. Country, which is to be played on Saturday at 1.30 sharp, will be resumed the Saturday following if both innings are not finished. The players for the Town team will be chosen from amongst the following names:—Dr Croft, Rev. Fairclough, Messrs Jacomb, Dixon, Tapliu, Coutts, Tenneut, Pringle, W. Da sent, Cowern, Bagget, Eyton, Black, Gibbous, Houghton, Owen, and E. C. Horner. The Country team will comprise Messrs F. T. Horner, Fetch, T Read, F. Read, Arundel), Shi«>ls, T. Turner, Drake, Nicholson, the remainder being made up from uou-members residing outside the town. At last meeting of the Taranaki Waste Lands Board, the Ranger forwarded a statement of expenditure of £2,000 by Mr Fookes on the Midhurst Special Settlement block in terms of agreement. A bridge had yet to be erected, to cost about £230, and a further £SOO on road on each side of the bridge. The Ranger concluded his report by stating that “ The block consists of forty-nine allotments, to each of which a good road has been made; about thirty of the allotments abutting on the formed road. Altogether I can safely assert that the settlers of no bask district within the boundaries of the Taranaki Province have been favoured with such unusual facilities for getting to their homesteads as those in the Midburst Special Settlement!”

The Canterbury Agricultural Society J has been incorporated under the Agri- j cultural and Pastoral Societies Act oi' j 1877. | The creditors .of D. M. Hogg agreed on Monday, at Wanganui, to wind up the estate at once. Liabilities £296, assets £331. Item from Feilding Guardian :— Monster cabbage received. The “ head ” weighs over 16 lbs, and is about the finest specimen we have seen in the district. Catterpillars are doing much damage to crops near Turakina and at Martou. Mr Hammond has had five acres of turnips destroyed. The stranded ship Hyderabad, at Horowhenua, caught fire on Tuesday morning, and is completely gutted out. Cause of fire unknown. The Wanganui boating men, finding out their weakness at the late Foxtou regatta, are putting crews at once into training, in order to warm the Foxtou f ■pen up at regatta time. -J. W. Liddell, of Foxtou, has challenged George Cummins, who made the highest aggregate score in the Wanganui Rifle Association firing, for £5 a-side match. The challenge has been accepted. The Tiraaru local organ says there is hardly an institution, from the Hospital to the Education Board, in which the members do not sit and unblusbingly vote money into one another’s pockets. Even the Cemetery Board is not free from the tar-brush. James Contts Crawford, formerly ' R.M. of Wellington, and who only returned from a visit to Edgland on Sunday, was horse-whipped'on Tuesday by G. Styles, who has on other occasions exhibited eccentricities. The grievance is believed to be a decision given on the Bench some three years ago. Styles was sentenced yesterday to two months’ hard labor. It is reported from Grahamstownthat Mr George Nathaniel Brassey, who is solicitor for the accused man Procoffy, has been threatened with violence if he defends the prisoner. The intimation was conveyed to him from Piueha, chief of the Ngatihako tribe. The prisoner was charged on Monday at the Resident Magistrate’s Court, with the murder of Hamiona Hagea, at Te Aroha, but a remand to Thursday was granted at the request of the police. Taranaki Borough Council has finally arranged to raise a loan of £25,000, the Bank of New Zealand undertaking to float the debentures for a commission of per cent., and will at once advance £IO,OOO on the debentures. A committee was formed with power to call for and accept tenders for waterworks, 6 councillors voting for and 3 against the motion. Bonuses will be paid by Government on articles produced in the colony as follow: —£1000 on 125 tons of sugar from beet, £SOO on 10,000 gallons linseed oil, £IOO on 50 tons of oil cake from linseed grown in;the colony, £3OO on 50 tons starch of marketable quality, fifty per cent, on the value realised for the first £IOOO worth of cocoons of the silkworm, £SOO three years in succession on 50 tons sulphuric acid, £250 on first £IOOO worth of household earthenware at marketable prices and qualities. - Full particulars obtainable at the Colonial Secretary’s office. For stealing one pear from the garden of the Yen. Archdeacon Gbvett, at New Plymouth, an eight year old boy was taken before the R.M., and admonished. The mother of the boy stated in Court she would much rather the boy had. received & sound flogging instead of being brought before the Court. Mr Watt, R.M. at Dunedin, for stealing fruit from a nurseryman’s garden, sent three boys, from 9 to 13 years, to be imprisoned for six hours, to be birched once during that time, and then to be sent to the Industrial School for a lengthened term. Mr Watt is the subject of much inlavorable comment by the Press, while by a portion he is championed.;

The timber trade is reported on the increase at Fielding, nearly every mill in tlie district being now I’nll of orders. The valuation of Wanganui Borough totals about £46,000. A reduction of only £7O has been made on appeal. A fire occurred on Saturday on the Heslerton run, in the Ellesmere district, Canterbury, which destroyed a straw stack, some twenty acres of wheat in stock, about sixty acres of grass,; and some miles of fencing. At the annual meeting of the Wanganui Harbor Board, Mr Ballanco was unanimously elected chairman, members holding different views as to the manner in which the harbor works should be prosecuted being quite agreed that Mr Ballauce was in the right place as chairman. The total estimated income of the year was £7,420, which included interest £1,380 on two deposit accounts amounting to £23,000, and a further sum of £l4O interest due by the bank. The Board has to pay interest and sinking fund to to the amount of £4,200 on £60,000, and £1,020 on £17,000 worth of bridge debentures. The account £2,080 for dredge was passed after discussion. The harbor master reported the result of one week’s dredging to be that they had emptied 20 punts, averaging 39 cubic yards each, making about 780 yards, at a cost per cubic yard of 9d. At the annual meeting of the Wanganui Auxiliary Bible Society on Monday, the Rev W. Lee said the local sale of books has been—Bibles 305; Testaments 79, to the amount of £34 14s 3d. The stock in hand in the town depot is 424 Bibles, 254 Testaments, valued at £B6 18s 3d. The balance sheet to be presented by the treasurer will show a credit of £lB Is 3d, and as £25 have been sent to the Parent Society as a free contribution, and £65 on purchase account, the Committee have no reason to be discouraged with their work. The contributions during the year - have been £39 11s, as compared with £29 2s 10d last year, showing an increase of £lO 8s 2d. The following Committee was elected for the present year ;—Mr R. W. Woon, President; Mr B. N. Manley, Treasurer ; Rev J. Treadwell, Secretary; and Messrs P. Bell, Benven, Carson, Campbell, J. Hurley, H. Hurley, G. Howe, Liffiton, John Stevenson, and C. Davy.