COUNTY NEWS.

Patea Mail, 9 April 1881, Page 3

COUNTY NEWS.

An Illustrated Weekly Supplement is presented with this issue of the Mail. The Pope has received a threatening letter from a lady. An Easter excursion to Nelson for the Encampment is announced for next Thursday, per Patea steamer. The King of Dahomey has had another bloody sacrifice to his deity, over a hundred natives being slaughtered. A meeting of footballers will be held at the Albion Hotel, Patea, this evening. All interested arc invited to attend. Persons discharging firearms within the town boundary (including the recreation ground) are warned that they will be prosecuted. Instead of Thursday as first advertised Mr Jackson has decided to hold his next Waverley sale on Saturday the IGth instant. At the Supremo Court in Wellington on Thmsday, Henry Adams, formerly Crown prosecutor at Nelson, was struck off the rolls. Ho did not appear. At Nuknraaru the house of Mr Dempster was destroyed by fire on Thursday. Loss probably £1,000; insurance £450. Mrs L. L. Walker having arrived with seasonable novelties invites the ladies of Patea to inspect the same, in premises opposite the Mail office. Mr Hamerton made a complaint yesterday, before the R.M., in respect of unreasonable delay in service of summonses at Opunaki, at Hawera, and in Waverley district. Mr Wray said that at Opunaki no provision exists for serving summonses, as the A.C’s are ordered not to do this duty. If written complaints were laid before him, he would represent the matter to the Minister of Justice. The District Court will sit next Monday at Patea; but as the Judge can stay only two days, the civil cases and bankruptcy business will have to be postponed to a date not yet fixed. M’Lean’s two actions against the County Council must be postponed ; and those bankrupts who are in a position to apply for orders of discharge will also be kept in suspense.

Natives and Crown Grants.— When the announcement was made that Sir William Fox intended to issue Crown grants in respect of lands where the title appeared sufficiently clear, whether the natives concerned signified assent or not, it was feared difficulties would arise. Representations on this point were made to him at Opunaki last week by natives who objected to names which had been inserted in a certain grant at the instance of Honi Piharaa, and other names were brought forward for insertion. Sir William was inclined to be accommodative, and offered to refer the matter back to the trustees; but Honi Pihama objected, and expressed himself decidedly satisfied with the grant as made out. Sir William Fox explained that he had come prepared to mark out boundaries and issue grants to any natives who desired to receive them. He bad, with the assent of the natives, commenced subdividing the land south of the Waingongoro, and was ready to do so on the north.

At the Patea Court House yesterday, Mr Dale obtained judgment against Wm. Euro for £2 3s and costs, amount of freight of goods brought by steamer Clyde, Defendant did not appear. Census Returns and Creed. —On account of the collector of census papers at Patea having in some cases struck out tho word “ freethinker ” and substituted some other word which bo considered better or more appropriate, a resident telegraphed to Dunedin, and received the following reply from Mr Robert Stout—“ Census enumerator must accept return made. You should decline to alter it, and wire Colonial Secretary. I have wired him protesting on behalf of freethinkers, and instanced what has occurred at Patea. No objection has been raised here.” Prior to the date fixed for taking the census, tho society of freethinkers in Dunedin had forwarded circulars all over the colony requesting all who could conscientiously do so to insert the word “ freethinker ” in census returns. The Mayor of Wellington has proposed the abolition of Education Boards. The New South Wales Parliament was prorogued by proclamation and without any formal ceremony, on the 7th April. A side wheel steamer is being built in Auckland for tho up-river trade of the Thames. Tho New Zealand panorama, which met with doubtful success in the home of its birth, has found better friends in the old country. Offices for the N.Z. Loan and Mercantile Agency Company have been erected at Napier, the contract price being £2,419. The building is of brick. The public room measures 34 feet by 17 feet. Mr R. W. Emerson Maclvor, tho agricultural chemist and lecturer, having returned to Auckland from his professional inspection of the sulphur deposits on White Island, informed the Herald that his report on the property will be highly favourable. At the Auckland Crown Lands Board on March 31st, a telegram was received from Mr Chamberlin offering to purchase the Ruakituri block, Hawkes Bay, at os an acre. The block, it is stated, comprises 20,000 acres. Several offers for portions of the land had been received at about the same rate, and it was decided to dispose of it in two blocks of 10,000 acres each. It is estimated that the census of the British Empire, counting all the subjects of the Empire, and of the dependent States, will be about 350,000,000, of which about 50,000,000 will be of British blood. New Zealand will contribute nearly 500,000. The population of the Australian colonics will amount to about 2,500,000, so that the Australasian group will* contribute 3,000,000 to the Empire. On the subject of prayers for rain the Wairarapa Daily sa} r s—A late incumbent of a church in this district on one occasion proposed this expedient, but did not receive much encouragement from his flock to try the experiment, excepting from one ardent member, who suggested to him that while he was about the business he might as well throw the church debt into the special petition. Inspector of Prisons. —An order issued by Captain Hume forbidding the giving of all information connected with prisons to the Press or to any person has been widely criticised. The days of secrecy in the administration of public institutions in the colony is now over, and the late Wellington Asylum enquiry shows that more publicity is requisite. Captain Hume is in some quarters considered a military tyrant, and desirous of ruling as such. Tho Lyttelton Times says—The Prisons Bill, of which, it is said, he is the father, is very suggestive. Now-a-days in New Zealand we teach our long sentence prisoners trades, so that on their return to a world winch has forgotten them they may have a means of earning their broad in order that they may, on their return to society, not be the outcasts and pariahs they once were. But the Bill proposes to keep them at - tho treadmill (long since exploded). This kind of thing is retrograde. If the new Inspector, who was expected to be progressive, is retrograde, wo should.lose no time in dispensing with his services. Whatever the cost to the Colony of breaking bis appointment, Captain Hume ought, if his views are really such as have been represented, not to dwell a day longer in the Government service. A tropical maid said she would rather be a black bombazine band on her adored one’s bat than live without him.

(Hass sand, apparently of excellent quality’ - , has been discovered in large quantities in two separate localities in Canterbury. The special agricultural reporter to the Melbourne Leader has been giving the results of bis experiences in a lecture in Christchurch on Farming in New Zealand and Australia. A Wellington paper says the total Customs receipts for tho financial year are nearly £60,000 in excess of the estimates (£1,250,060). Mr Walter Johnston has arranged for the daily mail service from Wellington to Foxton at an extra cost of only £l7O over tho alternate day service. A Feilding correspondent says—“ We have had a terrible depopulation lately. I don’t suppose one house in three in the township is inhabited. In Halcombo it is still worse.’' By proclamation in tho Gazette, the operations of tho Maori Prisoners’ Act, 1880, have been extended for a further period of three months. Edward Garten, Secretary of Wellington South Pacific Loan Society, has absconded. A professional auditor reports that there is a deficit of from £2OO to £3OO. Mr Joseph Mackay, M.A., Aberdeen, now and for twelve years past resident and mathematical master of Nelson College? has been appointed to be Principal of Wellington College. Hearn, of Wellington, lias accepted the challenge of White, of Mercury Bay, to row a match in Wellington for £IOO a-side. Nominations for the Taranaki Champagne Stakes 1882, for two-year-olds, and for the 1884 Derby, close this evening, Dtb April. Crown Lands Banger Robinson lias reported to the AVeliington Waste Lands Board having visited tho Momahaki deferred payment holdings, thirteen in number, containing 1,129 acres. Only two allotments fell short of the required improvements. On the 7th April, William Young, fireman on the Westport railway, when putting down the brake on a coal train slipped, and a truck went over bis body killing him instantly. The Wanganui County Council lias appointed a deputation to wait upon tho members for the district, and to confer with them on the best manner to obtain a grant from the Government for the purpose of carrying out the unfinished portion of the bridle track from- Wanganui to the Taupo Plains. In Sydney the administration of justice by Justices of the Peace has reached such a pass that it is frankly confessed in Parliament that the time has arrived when it will be necessary to dispense with the services of unpaid Justices, and have Stipendiary Magistrates, It is urged against the postage savings bank scheme that it tempts office boys to steal stamps, as they have now an easy way of disposing of them ; and tempts postmasters to increase their commission on the sale of stamps by placing them on theso slips as if they had received them for deposit. Grand Fire. —A contemporary says— Those who resided on elevated spots in the city of Wellington had an opportunity of witnessing a grand sight on the night of Ist April. The whole range of hills from the sea in the Makara district round to the Tinakori road were aglow with fires. The darkness of tho night and the northerly wind blowing added to tho effect, and gave the scene a grandeur rarely witnessed in Wellington. The hills arc covered with the decaying trunks and stumps of trees, and these, as time went on, became red-hot and, aided by the breeze, gave out a twinkling glare which was quite dazzling to the eye. Scores of people, seeing the lurid glare high overhead, ascended the bills in the neighborhood of the town to witness the imposing sight. Te Kooti. —A settlement has lately been formed on the Wairoa river, Ilawkos Bay, half-way between the township and the Constabulary station at To Kapu, by disaffected natives on tho East Coast. The village numbers about 300 in population, and is increasing every week. A church has boon erected, dedicated to Tc Kooti’s religion. A regular chain of communication has for a long time past been established between the King country and tho East Coast. r lTie fiiendly natives think Tc Kooti is preparing a place of residence at Wairoa, and regard the aspect of affairs as detrimental to the peace of the country. They express astonishment at the supiuoness of the Government in this matter.