COUNTY NEWS.

Patea Mail, 21 June 1881, Page 2

COUNTY NEWS.

A new Weekly Supplement to the Mail is in .preparation, and will be ready about the end of June. The illustrated Supplement conld not be continued, the cost of large engravings being found too expensive for those newspapers which joined in the production. This is to be regretted, as that ment was the best hitherto issued. Patea Rifles will parade this evening for half-yearly inspection, and a full muster may be expected. Herr Bandman’s dramatic company announce a performance at Patea next Friday. Mr Bandman is a clever impersonator of Shakesperian characters. The petition in favor of a municipality has been in circulation since Friday, and most of the residents have signed already. It is said two tradesmen in the town refused. Such summer-like weather as that of yesterday could not be expected at the darkest period of the year. This 21st of June is the shortest day, and we may now turn onr faces springward j looking for longer days and early budding. “ The fame of Taranaki has reached even to the Salt Lake.” So they say at New Plymouth, but the statement must be taken cum grano. The political sins of Taranaki must have reached even farther than Salt Lake, if they arc recorded in the proper place. Saturday being the first day for running trains to Norraanby, an engine ran off the rails towards evening, the points for shunting being set wrong. There were no jacks for lifting the engine on to the rails, and the engine is therefore useless for a time. A Parliamentary return shows that since the session of 1880 nearly 450 officials have either retired, services been dispensed with, or been dismissed ; 20 have been pnt on half pay, 16 have died and their places not been filled up, amj numerous others are holding office merely temporarily. The Cemetery Trustees have accepted the tender of Mr Laird, Wanganui, to plant five acres of hill overlooking Patea Cemetery. Nine tenders were received for erecting mortuary chapel, fencing, &c., and that of Mr C. Johnson is accepted, The hill to be planted affords the most commanding prospect in the district, and will be a most attractive resort when the trees begin to show—a landmark to be proud of. Sportsmen who ride to hounds in these parts will have to mend their ways, or they will be “ pulled up ” to mend the fences. The theory is that the hedges have to be leaped. The practice is that a gap is first made by some horseman running amuck at a fence and going .a cropper in the farther ditch while bis horse is plunging half over fence. Others make for that friendly gap, and before the brigade have scrambled over it the gap is trodden about level with the field. That is called hunting.. But who is to compensate for the gaps ? This sort of thing will induce bad blood. Parties are complaining of four or five gaps in a single fence after the fast and furious run last Wednesday, which was supposed to have been a day of flying leaps.

Mr Redgrave, an assistant clerk, is added to the Land Office staff. The annual display of batcher’s meat at Mr Gowland’s is fixed for Thursday. Dunedin Exhibition was overcrowded on Saturday evening, £l2O being taken for admissions. Bishop Redwood passed through Patea yesterday for Wanganui, where he will stay a few days, and then return to Wellington. Mr Barker’s stock sale in Patea takes place to-morrow. The entries are about 470 head. He sells Wanganui trees on Saturday. The agitation to obtain a sub-division of the large runs continues, and further petitions are being sent to the Otago Land Board. During the present season a Dunedin man has exported 9000 rabbit skins to America, and has 30,000 on hand for export. The Canterbury Farmers’ Cooperative Association have purchased stores at Timaru for £4600. The stores are centrally situated, being almost in front of the breakwater and contiguous Vtp the railway station. A railway engine is to be shipped to Patea at an early date, for use on the line now almost finished between the harbor and Manutahi. Fifty tons of railway iron are also to be freighted here, to complete the section. A painful accident happened yesterto a young son of Mr Job Saunders, Waverley settler. The boy was playing with a chaff cutter, and his hand got entangled, two fingers beingc ut off at the knuckles. He was brought to Patea last evening, and his wounds were dressed by Dr Keating at the Hospital. Mr W. Dale reports that at his land sale on Saturday last bidding was rather dull. The only properties disposed of were section 18, township of Kakaramea, £10; section 17, township of Woodville with small improvements, £ls; 6 sections Stratford Extension, £ls; the sub-loase for 20J years of sections 1 and 2, block 5, Patea, £5 per annum. After the land sale a large assortment of merchandise and sundries was disposed of, at prices in favour of buyers. Elder Sorensen, a Mormon saint on the rampage, is winning weak-headed converts at New Plymouth. People return from his lectures disappointed because he says nothing naughty about plurality of wives. His gospel is not strong enough for them. Elder Sorensen up to 1870 was a West Coast digger, but now he is a latter-day saint. His pay is increased, and he is allowed more wives. The new humbug pays better than digging. Salmon Breeding. —Mr A. M. Johnston, Canterbury, writes—As compared to a previous winter’s flood, which caused the escape of about 8000 salmon from my breeding ponds into the Heathcote river, little damage has now been sustained beyond the mixing of the various fish of different sorts, ages, and sizes, who will therefore be at liberty to freely indulge in their cannibalistic propensities. The Wanganui Exhibition was formally closed on Saturday, when the following statement was made—No fewer than 7554 persons have paid for admittance to the Exhibition, exclusive of 265 adults’ and 28 children’s season tickets which have been sold. The receipts have amounted to £566 4s 6d, and the expenses are £340, leaving the nett amount to be handed over to the Public Library at £226. A public trial is to be made on Saturday, at Mr Livingston’s farm, near Hawera, of the working of one of Hornsby’s paten fc hedge cutters. Auckland footballers have resolved to with Wellington in the formation of an intercolonial team. A brigantine is about to trade regularly between Sydney and Wanganni, taking timber and returning with fruit and general merchandise. The receipts of the Wanganui Exhibition up to Friday were £503. Wanganni people are well satisfied with the exhibition and its results, and are now returning exhibitsYoung trout are being supplied by the Wakatip Acclimatisation Society at £3 per thousand.