PATEA DAILY MAIL. Published every Evening, Price 1d. Circulation nearly 600 : average last quarter 510. Politics, Independent. Thursday Evening, Janry. 12, 1882.

Patea Mail, 12 January 1882, Page 2

PATEA DAILY MAIL. Published every Evening , Price Id. Circulation nearly 600 : average last quarter 510. Politics, Independent. Thursday Evening, Janry. 12, 1882.

Accounts due by the Harbor Board were passed at last meeting as follow : Mr Hamerton 18s 4d, Mills & Co. £l, Star for advertising 16s 6d, York & Cornfoot for timber £1 13s Bd, Mail (advertising) £3 7s, M‘Carty & Hunger £2 14s lOd, S. Taplin 2s 4d, Combes for surveying &c. £2 16s 6d. The Fire Brigade has procured additional hose, making the total length 1000 feet, thereby enabling the pumping engine to be connected within considerable distance of a fire. This is a judicious precaution in a town which has no water service laid on. The Brigade is in need of funds to pay for additional plant recently purchased ; and when residents and property-owners are waited on for subscriptions, they will be acting sensibly by treating the appeal as one made in their own interest, for the protection of everybody’s property. Mr John Sperrey supersedes Mr R. 0. Hamerton as Secretary for Stamps at New Plymouth.

A rifle match is arranged between Color-Sergeant Hatching, Patea, and - K Mr Clegg, builder, ex-Mayor of Golbourne. The ranges are 200 yds standing, 500 and 600 yds any position ; 5 shots at each range. Mr Clegg is reputed to be a crack shot, and there is likely to be powerful scoring on the range to-morrow morning. The Inward Mail, due here to-day, is delayed in part by the fumigation to destroy infection of small-pox. The Postmaster at Patea has received the following advice : “ Your portion of the ’Frisco mail per Penguin consists of one bag of letters. The balance follows by the Te Anau. Make this information public. Fumigation has caused delay.— W. Gkat, Wellington.”

Resolved to form a Town Board at Opunnki. Mr Noble, Hawera, has been thrown from a horse and bruised seriously. W. Box has burnt a kiln of bricks on the Plains. Mr M’Rae’s stock sale at Manaia on Tuesday did not secure much bidding. A few pens were quitted, and some private bargaining followed, T. Richardson, Hawera, is arrested on a charge of horsestealing. The autumn racing meeting of the new Egmont Racing Club is fixed for March 24. York and Cornfoot are rebuilding the engine-house with brick instead of timber, the shed having been recently burnt t down at Wanganni. The Wakatu Inquiry has resulted in the certificate of the second mate, Mr Saunders, being suspended for six months. Captain Grigor was acquitted of all blame. Messrs Kelly, Standish, Crompton, and Syme have been re-appointed members of the Taranaki Land Board. Mr Jackson’s stock sale at Waverley to-morrow comprises over 2,000 head, including 900 sheep. Mr Murray Thomson advertises several Opunaki sections for sale next Saturday. The auction will be held at Opunaki. Arnndell and Ross are offering their stock of sheep for sale. They are increasing the herd of shorthorns at Otouto. The prince of fiddlers is not coming to Wanganni. Herr Wilhelmj writes to decline the arrangement, having learnt that there is not through railway communication from Wellington to Taranaki, as he first supposed, and his piano and baggage being too much to convey overland.

At the R.M, Court this morning, before the Mayor and Mr Tennent J. P.’s, a man named John Grotty was charged with being found last night in Mr McKittrick’s stable without lawful excuse. Ordered to be detained 24 hours in the police gaol at Patea. A charge of drunkenness against him was not pressed. A Memorial for a bridge to be erected at Hukatere over the Fatea river has been signed by about 150 persons at Kakaramea, Manutahi, &c., also at the Whenuakura block and around Waverley. The memorial was despatched yesterday to the Minister of Public Works, by Mr. H. Chadwick. If another bridge be erected across the river, it should be on the suspension principle, or with not more than one mid-pier, as the tidal outflow which ought to deepen the bar is found to be seriously checked by the railway bridge lately erected. Those piers act like a dam partly open. Facility for traffic is very desirable, if it can be attained without mischief of another kind. How soon will the Government send some competent person to test the alleged inefficiency of the wire fence along the railway line near Kakaramea and at Patea? A settler informed us the other day that scores of sheep at Hukatere plunged through the wires, following each other as sheep will; and they went through so easily and rapidly that the fence seemed to be only a slight hinderance, and not at all a barrier. The wires are too wide apart for sheep, and the fence is not fixed firm enough for cattle. The top wire is also too high for use. When Major Atkinson was here, he saw the fence, and said the wires were wide enough for a ram to get through. Yet although the settlers have memorialised and the press has grumbled, what is the good of it all ? Is it necessary to shoot some officer of Government, in order to get this fencing nuisance attended to ?

A committee of the Wanganui A. and P. Association are drawing up rules for the proposed Farmers’ Club, which it is intended to engraft upon the Association.

At the Native Land Court sitting at the Thames Mr Gill, Under-Secretary, in attendance for the Government, is securing several large and valuable blocks. In the Wanganui County Council yesterday, Councillor Dyraock moved for the abolition of St John’s and Warrengate toll-gates, at the expiration of the present leases in March next. In doing so he pointed out that Patea County had always been free, and now both Manavvatu and Rangitikei were free also. After a long discussion the motion was unanimously adopted.