COUNTY NEWS.

Patea Mail, 4 June 1881, Page 2

COUNTY NEWS.

The quarterly Licensing Court will sit at Pateanext Tuesday, at 12 o’clock. Mr Bryce will address Waverley electors next Wednesday. The bankruptcy of Mr Jas. Rhodes, bootmaker, Patea, is announced. Mr Huff, photographer, Wanganui, has postponed his intended visit to Patea till next spring, Mr H. F. Christie is taking a month’s relaxation from bank duties, and Mr Hargreaves has arrived to act as locum tenens.

The English Derby. —The following cablegram, dated London, June Ist, says, the Derby Stakes were run to-day, and resulted as follows ;—S. Lorilland’s Iroquois, 1; W. Sharpe’s Peregrine, 2; J. Watson’s Town Moor, 3.

The Patea Domain Board have resolved to make a beginning in treeplanting this season, but having no funds, they are appealing to the Town Board to advance £SO for this purpose, on the plea that planting will be a town improvement. The Domain area beyond the lake is to be leased in two paddocks, but rent will not accrue for some months, and then the revenue will be in small driblets. It would be a generous act for some liberal resident to advance £SO for two years, free of interest.

It is understood that Mr R. O. Tennent is about to be gazetted a Justice of the Peace for this district. Mr Tennent will, in our opinion, do credit, to the office by filling it with discretion and dignity. A second new justice will be added to the local bench when the borough of Patea elects its Mayor, which we hope to see accomplished within three months. The Mayor will be a Magistrate of the borough during tne term of his office. The Town Board are expected to pass a final resolution next Monday for incorporating the town by petition to the Governor.

The local bailiff and two assistants have failed to enter and take possession of a certain house whose occupant has assigned his effects for the benefit of creditors. The Sheriff’s officer got possession of an out-building, but his rank and file being insufficient to hold it against superior forces, the representative of the law of distraint was ejected forcibly. During the time the house itself was under official siege, the bailiff could not effect an entrance by sap or mine, nor by assault or statagem. The law allows a bailiff to go down a chimney, but forbids him to break lock or key. Yet he saw the house was being entered by others, who used not the door but a window. As to the question whether a bailiff who has entered say a garden without breaking any fastening can be ejected therefrom by force, we should have thought the law was clear on that point.

Is it possible to find a more pitiful spectacle of an ill-used horse than that just sent for curative treatment to Mr Haase’s stable at Patea ? Our information is that the animal was lent by Mr Gillighan, farmer, to Messrs Scelly and McLoughlan, contractors on the railway near Kakaramea,. After being worked, the animal was returned to Gillighan, but in such a condition that he had to choose between shooting it or getting its wounds cured by skilled treatment, if that could be done. The gear marks on the shoulders are open festering wounds of the worst kind ; and the cart saddle has made a shocking sore on the back, and open wounds down each side. These deep festering sores are all exuding matter which stinks at a distance. The mare looks to have been a good animal, and is not very low in condition ; but to work it till the gear has worn into the flesh in this way is a brutal outrage of the worst kind. Whether the contractors who borrowed the horse have had personal knowledge of the unfeeling and criminal extent to which it was being worked we do not know. This is not on£ of those cases where cruelty is a matter of opinion. The cruelty is disgustingly palpable. Those who cannot see the result may smell it.

Mr R. Whitham notifies that he has

taken oyer the store business of Mr Foreman at Manutahi,

Bishop Redwood, the Catholic Bishop of Wellington, will arrive at Patea today by first train from Wanganui, accompanied by Father Kirk and Father Le Menant, A number of Catholic residents will probably meet the Bishop. The ceremony on Sunday is certain to be largely attended.

Claims are being “pegged off” in the House of Representatives by the familiar process of placing a card on the seat which a member wishes to reserve. The right of user to particular seats becomes recognised as a matter of courtesy and convenience. It localises the composition of the House. Mr Bryce and Mr Oliver have “ pegged off ” close to the Government benches, indicating a sort of connection though no longer in office. Mr Macandrew and Mr Gisborne have “ selected” their old seats on the front Opposition bench ; and to the left of the Speaker’s chair and against the wall are a separate Opposition triumvirate, Messrs Ballance, Montgomery, and Turnbull, who are described as leaders without followers. One card bearing the new name of Mr Dodson is placed over a reserved seat. Who is Mr Dodson ? The House knows him not, at present.

The Taranaki daily says :—Great excitement has been created among the natives on account of the prospect of the immediate release o£ the remaining native prisoners. Already the natives have commenced to assembly at Parihaba, in order to welcome their friends from the South, and every preparation is being made tor the occasion. A large conveyance, drawn by four horses which passed through New Plymouth, was crowded with natives, who were greatly elated at the prospect of receiving their friends back again after their long absence. Tree Planting. —The Tree-planting Committee of the Wanganui Borough Council, have planted a row of Eastern planes along Taupo Quay, each tree protected by a proper fence. The plane grows rapidly, and, if proper precautions are taken in surrounding the roots with properly made earth, is a healthy tree. A number of Chinese, who arrived in Auckland by the Arawatu, have created a fright. Talk about leprosy, a common Chinese complaint, has so alarmed a number of people that they have stopped purchasing supplies of vegetables from Chinese hawkers. At a meeting of the Cabinet in Wellington, on June 2nd, it was decided to release the whole of the Maori prisoners now in gaol in the South Island. Orders have been sent to the different gaols to have the Natives in readiness to embark in the Hinemoa and Stella. At the Native Land Court sitting at Greytown, the vexed question of opening the Wairarapa Lake will come up for adjustment. It is stated that the natives interested are likely to demand a very high figure, as the price of abandoning their favorite eel pond. Woodville Forty Mile Bush settlers want the Gorge railway constructed with as little delay as possible, and in the meantime desire that a strong but inexpensive bridge be built at the Lower Ferry. The value of vessels of all nations, with their cargoes, wrecked during last year is estimated at £68,000,000. The total number of wrecks was 1680 j 4000 lives lost ; 200 vessels were lost through collision. One of the first measures to be introduced during the approaching session of Parliament, is a bill to repress the introduction of Chinese. Mr Carson, of the Wangaoi Borough Council, has been sent as delegate to the conference on local government questions now sitting in Wellington. A cabman named Brennan found drowned at Pelichet Bay, near Dunedin, on the 2nd June, is believed to have committed suicide owing to domestic disagreement. A man working on the public works near Waverley was bitten on the hand by an insect which is supposed to have been akatipo. The Parliament of New South Wales is summoned to meet for the despatch of business on the sth July. The barque Cambria, about which some anxiety was felt, arrived at Launceston on the 31st May, from Mauritius.