PATEA DAILY MAIL. Published every Evening, Price 1d. CIRCULATION nearly 600 DAILY. Average circulation last quarter, 510. Thursday Evening, March 23, 1882.

Patea Mail, 23 March 1882, Page 2

PATEA DAILY MAIL. Published every Evening, Price Id. CIRCULATION nearly 600 DAILY. Average circulation last quarter, 510.

Thursday Evening, March 23, 1882.

Delivered every Evening by mounted messengers —at Hawera by 7-30 o’clock, at Normanby by 8-15, at Manaia and Waimate Plains by 8-30, and Southward at Waverley (for train) by 6 o’clock.

An emergency meeting of the Masonic lodge is called for this evening. Subscriptions to the Harmonic Society are requested to be paid to the honorary treasurer.

The successful tender for painting railway bridges is that of Mr R. Neilson, Midhirst, at £132.

Local option at Hawera has resulted in a poll favorable to increase of licenses during the next three years. The increase will be limited only by the discretion of the Licensing Committee.

The Mountain Road contract—which of them is doubtful, for there have been several such contracts —is to be enquired into by Mr Kelly, M.H.R., and Mr Lysaght, on behalf of Government. Some of the work is known to have been scamped shamefully ; and results speak for themselves.

Mr J. Knowles, Under-Secretary of Public Works Department, is making a walking tour of this Coast, as a holiday recreation. He passed through Patea northward yesterday, walking short stages to see and enjoy the country.

It is definitely arranged by the Ministry that Parliament shall meet for business on Thursday, the 18th May. A trial of the strength of parties is to be looked for pretty early, as the Oppositionists are pledged to oppose, if they do nothing else.

It is now ascertained that the inferior condition of frozen meat and butter shipped in the Protos was caused by bad packing. Yet the average price realised for mutton was a pound, the better carcases fetching probably 6d to 6£d. These rates will be remunerative to this colony, whenever the frozen-meat trade gets properly organised. The news of this last shipment by the Protos is really very favorable.

Laud claims by old soldiers and Volunteers are accumulating to an extent which will give serious trouble to the Commission, unless they reduce the number by enquiring into and deciding on a few selected cases as representing the others in each class. To enquire singly into many hundreds of claims would be a serious task. Three hundred claims are said to have been lodged at Auckland ; and there are many on this coast also.

A dweller in New Plymouth found a cow trespassing in his flower garden. He hurried that cow to the pound, and then felt satisfied at punishing cow and owner together. But returning home he found a cow missing from his own paddock ; and then thinking there might have been a mistake, he went to the pound again, found it was his own cow he had so neatly pounded. But the keeper of the pound insisted on his fee, mistake or no mistake, and the money had to be paid.

The cost of the new gasholder for the Dunedin Gasworks amounted to £9600.

The Government has determined to commence snagging operations in tin* Thames river. It is not thought that the natives will now offer any objections to the work being done.

Mr J. M. Dargaville, north of Auckland, introduced a French vine-dresser, with whom he entered into a sort of partnership. The agreement was that Mr Dargaville should give £IOOO in land and money. The vine-dresser was to give an equivalent of labor and a draw-back from wages earned. The experiment was to produce a vineyard in New Zealand. There has however been a disagreement between the contracting parties.

A paper canoe is being built at Wellington to the order of S. Percy Smith, of Auckland. This is the second paper canoe turned out by the Wellington builders. The lines are as true and the surface of the canoe als smooth as a polished carved boat would be; but the paper is said to possess twice the strength and durability. The first paper canoe was well tested by Mr Fitzgerald among the rapids and snags of the Manawatn river.

Referring to the retirement of the Rev, T. Buddie from the active work of the church, the New Zealand Wesleyan says : For forty-seven years, nearly all the time in the colony of New Zealand, Mr Buddie has faithfully served the church of his early choice. Amid the perils incidental to a new country, perils that have proved fatal to the honor and reputation of many, it is no light thing that Mr Buddie has passed without incurring the suspicion of reproach, ‘ wearing the white flower of a blameless life.’

At a meeting in Dunedin the following resolution was passed, and a committee appointed to carry it out: “ That a memorial be addressed to the Council of the Otago University, urging the expediency of taking the necessary action, by application for a Government grant and otherwise, for establishing an Agricultural College in this district, and strongly recommending the matter to their favourable consideration.”

Hobsonville, imthe Auckland district, is the centre of a local industry of no small magnitude, there being three potteries constantly working. It is richly provided with clay of the best quality. Drain pipes and potteryware of great -strength and good finish are being manufactured.