COUNTY NEWS.

Patea Mail, 5 April 1881, Page 2

COUNTY NEWS.

Tiik Football Season is about to be opened here, and the Patea Club arc to hold a business meeting on Saturday, A meeting of creditors in the estate of Edwin Hills will be held on tlio 7th April, instead of the 17th as previously notified. The Customs receipts for the financial year ending 31st March, show that the return is fully £60,000 above the estimate of £1,250,000. The first prize taken at the Melbourne Exhibition by Reid and Gray, of Dunedin for double-furrow ploughs has led to a considerable increase of orders from the neighbouring colonies. On Friday night last the bush on the hill away back from Wellington caught fire and burned furiously. The fire came through from the direction of Karori and swept the whole of the Goathurst farm. The Public Trustee is travelling through this district with the object of making better known the duties of a public trust. The State has created this office to meet a social want. If a will is to be made, executors have to be named in it. If a man dies intestate, leaving property, who is to see to its fair administration until infant children come of age ? The public trustee is ready to act in such cases, and his honesty is guaranteed by the State, which would have to make good any defalcation in his department. The trouble and uncertainty of getting the consent of suitable trustees, and the unwillingness of friends to take such duties can be avoided by simply applying to the Public Trustee to take the duties. The expenses of a trust cannot exceed 3 per cent, of the property administered by the Public Trustee, whose accounts are checked by the Audit Department. Mr R. C. Hamerton, brother of the barrister at Patea, has held this office for some years, and is now making a tour of the colony for the purpose of making the public better acquainted with a convenience which seems unknown to most.

The District Court will open next Monday at Patoa. The criminal cases arc (1) the prosecution of John Walters, coach-driver, in connection with the smash at Manawapon bridge; J. Packenham v. J. Louis, for indecent assault on a young daughter; Burton v. Cunningham, stealing a watch-chain at Hawera ,• and the police against J. Gildon, indecently assaulting a young daughter of Mrs Hunt at Waverley. Two civil cases are to be heard and several applications in bankruptcy will be made for orders of discharge. Two Actions against the County Council are to be tried at the District Court next week. Both are by J. M’Lean, contractor, Wellington, and have been a long time in dispute. He claims £1,625 on various contracts. His first claim is for £SOO on contract 15, Mountain-road ; and to this the Council plead not indebted, having already paid £IG2 as the amount of his tender, and denying that the other work was authorised. His second claim is : £4OO on contract 12, £250 on contract 13; and £250 on contract 14; besides claiming £250 for extras. The Council denies indebtedness on this claim, and makes a counter-claim of £406 5s for nonfulfilment of contracts and cost of completing same and for penalties. The cases will come before special juries, and a number of witnesses are to be examined.

Over £250 was taken at the Catholic bazaar 1 , New Plymouth, during the time it was open. Mr John McLaren, late of Patea, and formerly for 20 years harbor master and pilot at Wanganui, is about making a trip to the Old Country. The Stella having paid a visit to Cape Campbell lighthouse, took back to Wellington the body of Mr Hendall, lighthouse keeper, who had died from heart disease. Among the drawers of winning horses in Cottier’s Taranaki Jockey Club Handicap sweep of £SOO were Hugh Owen, Hawera Hotel, and Frank Ferris, Stratford. A Wellington paper says on March 30th, about 11.30 p.m., Mr Gillon, manager of the United Press Association, and with him Messrs G. Humphries, Croumbie Brown, and R.Winter were standing at the door of the Press Association office, when a sudden shot was fired towards them—the ping of a bullet, evidently, by the sound, coming from a smooth-bore rifle, was heard as it struck an adjacent building, and the smouldering paper-wadding was picked up a short distance away. The person who fired the shot, and who had been noticed standing some minutes before in the shadow of one of the doorways of Dawson and Co.’s, warehouse, instantly scudded away and who he is, has not yet transpired.” Mr Charles Parker, gaoler at Wanganui, is being dispensed with at the end of April. Dunedin Orangemen have subscribed £7B for the assistance of persons “ Boycotted” in Ireland. A man named Patrick Ryan, who retired to his room at the Criterion Hotel, Wanganui, at nine o’clock on March 31st, was shortly afterwards found dead. Ho suffered from heart disease. Information received by the London police of threatened outrages by Fenian emissaries, has led to tbe force in charge of the Houses of Parliament been doubled. An Imperial decree lias been issued in St Petersburg!! announcing that the form of representative municipal government will forthwith be initiated. Loans for Tasmania for £300,000 at 4 per cent., and for Fiji for £150,000 at 44 per cent., were issued on the London market at end of March. The quantity of stone crushed by the Golden Fleece Company,lnangahun,during the year was 3755 tons, with a yield of 44070zs 15dwts of gold. Dividends were declared to the amount of £B4OO, or 3s 4d per scrip. During threshing operations at Crofton on Friday, three stacks of wheat belonging to Mr James Golding were totally destroyed, a spark from tbe engine having lodged in one of the stacks. The Lord Mayor of London, Alderman M’Arthur, M .P. for Lambeth, has received numerous threatening letters which arc supposed to have come from FeniansThe matter has been placed in the hands of the police, and precautions against any attempts at violence have been taken. Mr Gorst, the member for Chatham, has withdrawn his motion tabled in the House of Commons for the issue of a writ for Northampton, pending the final decision of the Law Courts whether Mr Bradlaugh is legally entitled to hold his seat. The revenue returns of Great Britain for the March quarter amount to £27,875,500, showing an increase of £750,000 compared with the corresponding quarter last year. The revenue for the year amounts to £84,062,500, showing an increase of £2,750,000 compared with last year. Mr Bradlaugh having determined to resign his seat for Northampton, in view of the recent decision of the Law Courts, applied to the Crown to be appointed to stewardship of tbe Chiltcrn Hundreds, tbe ordinary mode of vacating a seat. The application was refused on the ground that the legal points involved in the ease had not yet been definitely settled. Bishop Redwood arrived at Christchurch on the Ist April, by night express train from Timaru, and was received by a large party and driven to tbe Catholic Church, where addresses from the clergy and laity were read. Sixteen hundred persons were present. His Lordship replied at considerable length, giving particulars of his visit to Rome, and his audience with the Pope.

His Lordship Bishop Moran, of Dunedin, will leave on the 21st April for a visit to Italy. Forty Chinamen were brought over from Australia to Greymouth by the Hero on her last trip. The Customs returns at Napier for the March quarter amount to £9,439 17s 9d, being an increase of £1,580 on the corresponding quarter of last year. News has been received at Dunedin that the local whaler Splendid, since leaving in September, captured seven fish, yielding between 70 and 80 tons oil. Mr Rolleston left Auckland on tbe Ist April for Waikato to inspect the portion of the Patatere Block surrendered to Government. The Lyttelton Times special correspondent says it has transpired that the West Coast Natives wrote direct to Mr Bradlaugh, through an interpreter they employed or instructed. It is claimed, on the authority of a London medical paper, that in point of quality Wanganui flour cannot be beaten, the nutritious properties of the grain not having been ground out of it in order to obtain a perfectly white meal. The amount of the Customs duties collected at the Port of Wellington during March was £44,382 12s 4d, a slight increase on the corresponding quarter of last year. The amount of beer duty received in Wellington during the quarter was £1,142 11s 2d. The Lyttelton Times in a leading article defends its special correspondent, Mr Crombie Brown, against the attack made on him by Mr Bryce. It does not believe its correspondent capable of publishing “ unblushing falsehoods,” and says in making tbe charges he did, the “honest” Minister lias done the most dishonest thing that any New Zealand politician has ever been guilty of. Mr Speight, in addressing his Auckland constituents last week, reviewed the last session unfavorably, and accused Mr Sheehan of falsifying every principle he had formerly advocated in regard to native lands. He thought the lands of the colony, if honestly administered, would be able to bear the whole cost of Government, He strongly condemned the Charitable Institutions Bill. There were some good honest men in the present Ministry, and some the reverse. The first successful ascent of Mount Egmont from Midhurst, on the Mountain road was made on Saturday the 26th March, the party returning to Midhurst on Monday. The trip has proved that if a proper track were cut a horse could be ridden to the Waipuku, and from thence there could be no difficulty in performing the journey in two days, and the route would present the advantage of an absence of intervening ranges. It is reported from Grahamstown, that that Hone Werahiko, the Te Aroha prospector, has discovered a new reef at Omaha, Te Aroha. It is 17ft thick, and has been traced for a quarter of a mile, shows good gold, and in the opinion of the finder will eclipse anything yet found in the vicinity. Referring to Major Atkinson’s address at Patea, the Canterbury Press says the Colonial Treasurer suffered from the inconvenience of addressing a rustic audience, who probably took but little interest in general politics, and some of whom had not even the manners to restrain their impatience in connection with subjects of local irritation. Hence a speech that is by far the most important of the recess, was marred in its delivery by stupid interruptions, and the telegraphic abridgement, from which the great majority of the public will judge of its tenor, was rendered pointless, disconnected, and obviously inadquate to tbe occasion. The Wanganui Herald correspondent interviewed Titokowaru on Ist April, upon the report that Sir W. Fox and Mr Parris saw him concerning the reserves, and that he appeared satisfied. Titokowaru says that whatever his appearance might have been his expressions to the Commissioners wore anything but expressions of satisfaction ; in fact, he said he had no faith in the honafides of any promise made by the Commissioners, because after saying last year that 25,000 acres were set aside by tbe Government for the Maoris, he heard tbe axe of the settlers throughout the block set aside for the natives. A Chinaman, who was standing on the platform of a railway carriage on the Wellington railway, fell off, as the train was rounding a curve, pitching upon his head. He was picked up and returned from the Hutt to Wellington by special train. Medical examination showed that he had sustained an injury to the left shoulder, but his head did not appear to be seriously injured.