PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. TUESDAY, MAY 10, 1881.

Patea Mail, 10 May 1881, Page 2

PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. TUESDAY, MAY 10, 1881.

Education Boards are not to receive capitation grants for children under five years of age, after June 30tb. Five directors of the exploded Glasgow bank are reported to be revelling in wealth, if not affluence. Mr Barker’s second monthly stock sale at Norraanby takes place to-morrow. The entries are moderately heavy. It is denied that Mr Halcombe has purchased the Patetere block for the Colonists’ Association. A rumor is current that a second public hall is to be “ run ” iu Patea, and that its location will be near the site of the old Town Hall. The fine of £SO imposed on Leslie, re the illicit still at Wanganui, was paid yesterday, just in time to save him from gaol. Two vessels were lying off the harbor yesterday, waiting for a tug or a change of wind. One is supposed to have railway iron, the other timber for the railway contract. The increase of population in Taranaki County within three years is 2,841, being the same increase as in Patea County, and 840 more than in Wanganui County. Mr T. Dawson, formerly at Waitotara, has taken charge of the Patea Post Office for one month, during Mr Long’s holiday. Elections to the Town Board will take place iu June, the retiring members being Messrs Howitt, Aitchison, Adams, and Milroy. The last meeiing of the present Board will be held on the first Monday iu June. The opening meet of the Wanganui Hunt Club took place on Saturday, about forty riders joining in a drag hunt (Mr Bradley master) over Mr Abbott’s property. The hounds are described as rather wild and unbroken. Mr James Crawley’s horse dropped dead on returning from the hunt. The Appeal in the civil action of North v. Williams is not yet settled. The defendant’s counsel is expected to go to Wellington to make an application before Chief Justice Prendergast for a new trial. A public meeting is called for Wednesday evening, to promote a society for holding regular Flower Shows in the Patea district. Mr H. Williamson, Mr Chapman, Mr J. Riseley, Mr Barker, and others interested in floriculture are carrying the proposal to an issue which we hope to see successful. The meeting is to be held at Mr Barker’s Auction Rooms. Hunting. —The Wanganui Hunt Club’s hounds will be in Patea on Thursday, when a run will take place, probably on the Whenuakura side of the river. The notice of their coming is rather short, but we have no doubt a large number will run out to witness the sport. Thursday morning’s issue of the Mail will contain full particulars as to time and locale of the meet. The hounds are under the mastership of Mr Bradley. Parliament is to be summoned on the 9th June, about the usual date, for the despatch of business. No programme or sketch of policy is put forward by any member of the Ministry. Major Atkinson’s suggestions were in the direction of “rest and be thankful.” Mr Oliver’s policy is to “ clear out.” Mr Hall is supposed to take his policy after it is framed by the strong minds of the Cabinet —by Mr Whittaker and Major Atkinson. Politics are in a state of stagnation, needing some leader of commanding ability to give them a push from without. The Opposition have nothing to offer that can be called a policy. Though the Government are much weakened, they are the only group of capable men who have a decent claim to the colony’s confidence at present.

Mr G. A. Hurley announces that the second quarter of the book-keeping class will begin on Tuesday next, and that a senior class will be formed. Samuel Lloyd died at the hospital on Sunday last. He has been a frequent inmate during the last nine months, and was last admitted a fortnight ago, suffering from bronchitis and emphysema. For the past week his recovery had been hopeless, though he lingered on in a partially conscious condition. He was 54 years of age, and bad lived at Wanganui, and as a boatman and miner on the West Coast of the South Island. Once again the question of granting a Road Board to the Waimate Plains is to come before the County Council, Mr Gane having given notice for the next monthly meeting. There is no practical donbt that separate road government will be then granted to the new district, that being the date for annual election of Boards. It is to be regretted that this natural demand from Waimate was not granted at first, for it cannot be reasonable to withhold from one district what is already granted to all other districts within the County. If there were a near prospect of the Road Board system being abolished by Parliament, it would be prudent to wait ; but havingwatched for sig-ns of this sort, our opinion is that the tendency is rather to reform the constitution of Counties, leaving Road Boards with not less power than at present. The second through coach between Hawera and Waverley was discontinued on Saturday. Mr Young has found it unprofitable. The discomforts involved in travelling were enough to deter men of business from using this extra coach. It would start from Hawera at 3 a.m. and reach Patea at 6, where hot coffee and a sandwich could be had; going on to Waverley for the train, which reached Wanganui about 10.30. Then breakfast had to be got under difficulties, owing to the late hour. The return journey by the extra night coach to Hawera was a repetition of the prolonged discomfort, the weary traveller leaving Wanganui at 4.15, and reaching Hawera at 12 midnight. It was facetiously said that the return journey from Hawera to Wanganui could be done in a day. Mr Young meant that it could be done in a day and two nights. The public are indebted to him for trying to increase the facilities of travel ; only there are limits even to the pleasures of coaching. The previous plan is reverted to, the early coach leaving Patea at 6 a.m. for Waverley, and the late return coach stopping at Patea. Frozen Meat. —The Orange (N.S.W.) Slaughtering Company has made arrangements for entering upon a steady trade in the exportation of frozen meat. A contract has been made with the agents of the Orient line of steamers for the whole of the space fitted with freezing chambers in their fleet. The first cargo of 300 tons will be dispatched at the end of May. It is said this will consist of a consignment sent by squatters on their own account. The Orange Company was one of the first in the field, but probably owing to its inland position, little has been heard of its proceedings until now. Prior to the removal of M’Gahey (under arrest for murder) from Reefton, some sympathising friends called at the lock-up with an offer to procure the assistance of counsel for M’Gahey. Prisoner, however, did not consider it necessary to have counsel in the enquiry before the Magistrate, but that counsel would be provided when the case went to the Supreme Court. It is reported from Hawera, that a man was shot on the Mountain Road, on Saturday. Two men were on a bullock dray and gave chase to a pig ; in the excitement one shot the other through the thigh. Dr Richards, from Hawera, attended and dressed the wounds. The case is serious, and as slugs were used it *s feared the limb will have to he amputated. It is stated in Wellington that the Hon. R. Oliver resigns the portfolio of Public Works. The reason given is alleged pressure of private business, caused by the drowning of his nephew in the Tararua. Eighty-one cases of infectious diseases have been reported in the Christchurch district for the quarter ending March 31.

Mr Ballance will address electors in Wanganui on Wednesday evening. Mar ton has a population of 662, Bulls 642, Foxton 733, Palmerston North 1364, Feilding 912, and Halcoinbe 464. The executors of the late Mrs Hair have sent in a claim for £13,000 for the Virginia Lake and adjoining land. A bush fire at Tahoraite, Hawke’s Bay, burning for a fortnight, has destroyed at least £SOOO worth of totara trees belonging to the Maoris. The total population of the Colony of New South Walesis approximately 850,000> and that of the city of Sydney and suburbs 220,000. A subscription list for the relief of the Tararua sufferers has been opened in Wellington by the Evening Poet , and is receiving laudable support. Treble-furrow ploughs are in use in Hawke’s Bay, and Captain Russell gives a prize of 5 guineas for the treble-furrow competition in the annual ploughing match. The yearly balance-sheet of the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club showed receipts to the amount of £2446 7s 5d ; and expenditure £2367 6s 9d, leaving a balance in the bank of £79 0s Bd. A merchant of Dunedin asks the Chamber of Commerce to recommend the Union Shipping Company to establish monthly steam communication with Great Britain. It is stated that as Mr John Sheehan does not stand a chance of re-election for the Thames, he will offer himself as a candidate for for the representation of Napier. A man named James Gough, in the R.M. Court, Wellington, on Friday, was fined 20s and costs for cheating the dog tax. He took the collar from another dog and put it on his own. Three more sections in the Parihaba Block have been sold—section 8 and 9, block 4 ; and section 79, block 8. There is only one section amongst the deferred payment allotments left. A telegram received at New Plymouth from Wellington states that Mr James Charles Yorke, Hawera, has been appointed a member of the Harbour Board, vice Mr George Curtis, resigned. At a meeting of the Taranaki Education Reserves Board last week the transfer of section 10, block 19, Carlyle, from G. L. White to E. S. Dale was allowed. An application was made by J. G. Beamish to transfer part of the town belt at Mokoia to P. Murphy, but the application was postponed until certain enquiries could be made. The report on the Cereberus torpedo calamity at Melbourne concludes that the explosion was due to the presence of an electric current between the battery and torpedo. The arrangements which had been made for carrying out the experiments are judged to have been faulty. Whitelaw’s Case. —The civil action brought by the Government against Whitelaw, relative to his mother’s salary as matron, has been dropped, Mrs Kettle having signed a document giving full discharge for the same, Whitelaw stands committed for trial, for illtreatment of patients but obtained bail and was liberated on Friday, Andrew Young and W. V. Jackson having become securities. The new Wellington Hospital, which has taken seven years to build and cost £45,000, exclusive of seven years prison labor, will be ready for the reception of patients within the next two weeks. The governors have informed the Government to that effect. The building is the largest of the kind in the colony. New Coin. — A recently issued Gazette announces that worn coin may be exchanged for new at any of the branches of the following Banks :—Bank of New Zealand, the National Bank of New Zealand (limited), the Colonial Bank of New Zealand, the Bank of New South Wales, and the Bank of Australasia, The Hokitika river being in a condition especially favorable for the construction of a training wall, a deputation waited upon the Government Engineer requesting him to urge Government to allow the work to be pushed on. The reply was—“ The Minister for Public Works has acceded to your request to have the sea-wall pushed on as fast as possible while the present favorable state of the river continues.” Hokitika people are thankful. On Thursday morning last, a young man named Nicholas Pcpperell, living at Bell Block, Taranaki, employed on a farm, was found lying full length in a trough with only eight inches of water in it. He was quite dead, and how he got into it is a mystery. For some time prior to the occurrence deceased had been an invalid through an injury to his back.