COUNTY NEWS.

Patea Mail, 16 July 1881, Page 2

COUNTY NEWS.

The Public Meeting to be held this evening in the Town Hall will be invited to pass resolutions on three important questions, mentioned in the requisition which is advertised in another column. A committee to give effect to the resolutions will also be proposed. A few promoters of this last evening and drew up relating to the topics to be discussed this evening. The New Zealand Insurance Company’s half-yearly report states that after appropriating £275 in reduction of the Company’s premises, and writing off the whole furniture account, £24,725 is available for distribution. The Directors propose the payment of a dividend of 3s per share, £15,000 ; balance carried forward, £0,725 ; total, £24,725,

Mr T. Kells has resigned his position

as executor in the estate of the laic Francis Williamson, of Waitotara. Mr Taplin announces a superior lot of seed wheat and oats, shipped from Oamaru. Among others Mr John Thomson, late Engineer to Patea Harbor Board, has reported to the Wanganui Harbor Board on the expediency and cost of procuring and working a steam crane for dredging operations. The total length of the new railway station about to be erected at Wanganui will be 110 feet, and there will be but one platform, some 20 feet longer. The building will resemble the new station on the reclaimed land at Wellington, superior, if anything, in external design. A Costly Dress. —The Patea County Council having requested the loan of a diving dress from the Wanganui Harbor Board, that body resolved to lend the dress for £1 a day, not to exceed fourteen days, all damage to be made good, and the dress to be returned immediately should the Board require it. Mr Barker’s fortnightly produce sale takes place to-day. , He will sell next Wednesday the dairy stock of Mr W. Keith, who has disposed of his interest in the lease of Mr Coutts’s farm, Paten. Mr Barker will also sell this day another lot of Mr Laird’s frnit trees and shrubs. The projected Frozen Meat Company, with head quarters at Wellington, is likely to be well supported. About half a dozen of provisional directors promptly put their names down for an eighth of the total shares of the company, two or three taking 100 five-pound shares each, and others fifty shares. A Dangerous Accident happened to Mr L. Bremer, Whenuakura, on Thursday. He was out sporting with a gun, an old family weapon of German make, and the first discharge burst one barrel, blowing a piece out near the lock, and gashing his hand severely. No bones are broken, but the hand will be useless for a time. A friend visiting Mr Bremer’s had been out with the gun the previous day, accompanied by a lady, but not getting a shot the gun was brought back undischarged. Mr Bremer knew the gun was loaded when he took it out next day. A Swiss settler has commenced cultivating vines on the swamp near the fellmongery, Patea Bridge. He is now getting plants in the ground, and will also grow ornamental shrubs. Grapes from this locality, grown in the Spaniard’s garden, have been sent to Wanganui during several years, to be there made into colonial wine. Vine culture is easy and certain on low flats or in gullies, even close to the sea. The annual meeting of the Wanganui Jockey Club was held on Wednesday evening, when a pregramme for the spring meeting was agreed to, the autumn meeting to be further considered. The balance-sheet showed receipts for the year ending 30th June, with balance of £6 8s 6d, to be £3,021 9s Gd. The expenditure for stakes was £2,717, other charges for working expenses and improvements bringing the total to £3,621 9s 6d. The spring meeting will be held 4th October. A local doctor was summoned to. attend a case of accident recently at about one o’clock in the morning, but he refused to go, and urged that the other should be colled, that other being then in attendance on a member of the same family. Dr A. could only be persuaded to attend by the assurance that Dr B. was absent at Waverley—a theory into which a good deal of imagination seems to have entered, and regarding which Dr A. expressed utter incredulity. It afterwards appeared that the only foundation for the polite fiction (!) about Waverley was that Dr B. appears: to enjoy the blessing of sound sleep, and no response could be elicited at his house in the “ wee sraa’ hours ayont the twal,” when the world generally should be left to repose, and when it is somewhat unreasonable for accidents to occur.

A notice of the Harmonic Society’s concert is held over. Another case of typhoid fever is reported in Patea. The Detached Squadron arrived in Sydney Harbor on the 4th. The Victorian Parliament will shortly be asked to authorise a new loan of £4,000,000 for public works. Two vessels left Wanganui for Opunaki on Tuesday, the small steamer Waitara, and the cutter Annie. Excursion trains put on for the Dunedin Exhibition for one day took between 1,500 and 1,600 persona. Brooking and Sheppee, of New Plymouth, have purchased the old Opunaki flax mill premises at To Namu, and intend starting a brewery there. At Wanganui during June, 48 vessels entered inwards, registered tonnage 4560 ; 50 outwards, registered tonnage 4898. Mr T. Nicholson, of Waverley, had the misfortune to break his leg on Thursday, by catching his foot between the spokes of a cart-wheel. The limb was set by Dr Keating. The Wanganui Harbor Board having a credit balance at the bank of £4,785 resolved that £2,000 should be deposited for three months and £2,000 for six months. Mr Walker, photographer from Christchurch, will visit Hawera and Normanby after his stay in Patea. He has taken several local views. Madame Lotti Wilmot gave her lecture last night, in the room over Mr Dale’s auction mart, on “ Courtship and Marriage.” The audience was moderately numerous. Mr Dale’s sale of fruit trees from Mr Mitchinson’s nursery at New Plymouth will be held to-day. Mr Dale is in Wellington, and Mr Cowern will act for him, Mr Robert Erskine, livery stable keeper, had his leg broken near the ankle on Thursday night, or rather early on Friday morning. He seems to have been wrestling with someone, when he fell, with this unfortunate result. Mrs Erskiue sustained a similar accident a few days previously from the kick of a horse ; so that husband and wife are truly partners in misfortune. Mr Erskine was taken to the Hospital on Friday, where all appliances had to be removed from the limb. The break is not an unusually bad one, but the sufferer’s constitution is somewhat unsatisfactory. A Bold Dash to seize a deed of lease was tried yesterday in Patea. Mr T. Quiulivan, of Hawera, had placed in the hands of Williams Brothers the lease of 25 acres at Hawera, as security for a debt of £7O. This deed was lodged with Mr Hamerlon, solicitor to Williams Brothers, and Mr afterwards called on the solicitor and asked to have the deed given up, saying he never intended that they should keep it. He had, however, signed a memorandum banding over the deed as security for the debt, and Mr Hamerton refused to give up the deed. This was last Tuesday. The next move took place yesterday. Williams Brothers having put the lease in the market for sale, a cousin of Mr Quiulivan applied to Mr Barker, auctioneer, for information as to some 25 acres of land at Hawera, the lease of which he understood was for sale. Mr Barker took the enquirer to Mr Hamerton to inspect the lease. The fact that the enquirer was Quinlivan’s cousin was not known, and the deed was put in his hand to examine. He read it, put it in his pocket, and said, “ This deed is mine.” Mr Hamerton insisted on its being given up. The party said he had a mortgage on the property, and he therefore claimed the deed. Mr Hamerton said he must not leave the office without giving up the deed. Mr H. locked the person in, and fetched a constable, and the person was taken to the lock-up. He persisted in keeping the deed, but at length surrendered it and was released. His name is said to be James Quinlivan.

Bricks are being supplied to Opunaki from Wanganui.

Mr Driver, of Dunedin, has sold Sir Modred, Somnus, .and Idalium, for £3,000. It is understood they will now run in Mr H. Prince’s name. The Premier states that the endowment clause in the Timaru; Harbor Bill will'be opposed. The borrowing clause might stand, but of what use will it be without security ? The Bank of Australasia lias opened a branch at Hawera. Mr G. H. Norman has been removed from the Patea branch to take charge. Mr Alexander Campbell, from Sandon, takes Mr Norman’s place at Patea.

The Meddlesome Governor.— Replying in the Assembly to a question, Mr Hall stated that it would be detrimental to the public interest to at present produce a certain despatch from the Governor to the Imperial Government in reference to the detention of the Maori prisoners.

Replying to an application from the Hawera Institute for Hansard and Parliamentary Papers, Major Atkinson, in unusually courteous terms, promised to forward them, and expressed himself pleased to find the people in that district taking such an interest in politics as the application gave evidence of. A principal chief of Waitotara natives wrote to Mr llolleston objecting- to the Native Land Court being held at Upokongaro instead of Wanganui, and concluded by requesting Mr Rolleston “ hot to permit Kemp to be king of the land,” and that if the “ destruction of the Waitotara Maoris ” is to be completed, asking that it may be done by Government, and not by Kemp. ' The Harmonic Hall, designed by Mr Knott, has been modified in the plan for cheapness, by making the sidewindows square-headed. The difference may be important financially, but the round-headed lights had a flowing beauty which rectangular lines cannot give, these being less in keeping with the elegant Italian style. The contracting firm which is commencing the building is Mitchell and Clegg, Wellington. Maori members’ speeches in Hansard ' are to be translated into Maori and printed.