NEWS OF THE DAY.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1039, 25 May 1883, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Mr Willis received a consignment of oysters by the Waverley to-day. ; There is likely to be some legal trouble between the owners and builders of the Waverley. : The contract time has been considerably exceeded, and the builders want every allowance for extras and penalties remitted as well. : . The company don’t quite see this, and the services . of the E.M., at Auckland, are to he-enlisted, by the contractors in an endeavor to ibririg: the Company around to their way of thinking, Mr Flood, who for the past 31, years lias : successfully held, the position of second ; master at'tlie School here, leaves to-day for ' Palmerston: North, to enter upon his new i duties as Master of the Karcre School. Mr ; Flood stakes with 1 liiiri the good wishes : of liii pupils, and a large circle of friends. -Mr .Coventry, .Hie new master, arrived .by coach : to-day. A little boy named- Mercer, who happened to get in the way of one of theathleles yesterday,; had his enthusiasm at the sports somewhat damped, by getting; the runner’s spiked boots run into • his leg. uTlio-injuries are not of a serious nature; * - / Amongst-those.who successfully passed the Civil Service; examination; we notice the name of H. G. H. Wray, son of our respected resident Magistrate; The young gentleman. ; has been educated at the Wanganui Collegiate ; School. " ‘ The Post says it is rumored that Mr Bryce purposes proceeding to England directly after the session, to institute personally a prosecution against the author of the recent history of New, Zealand in which grave charges are ; made against the Native Minister. A novel device for keeping the people from going too near the arena when the tug of * war”: was going oh at the Sports, ‘and;whichmight be called . a little more forcible than polite', was practised yesterday. It consisted of hoisting a young fellow into a man’s arms, and the said man; walking- up and down the line - ofspectators, while. the said young fellow kicked mightily with his heels. We hear that Mr D Coutts has sold his farm at Auckland, and will probably return to Patea before long* His eldest son has entered the bank,- and is about to lead a charming bride to the alter of HymenMr Coutts’ youngest son will also enter upon mercantile pursuits. Economy seenis to bo : the order of the day in Waitara. The Press says.that one individual (a Confirmed bachelor)' did the whole of the shops the other evening to try and get a pound of candles one penny cheaper than the vendors were disposed to sell them for. .He said he would rather go to New Plymouth for them, which we believe he did, and-paid three shillings in railway fare to save one penny on candles* .1 An attempt will be made this session to amend the Harbours’ Act. The Wellington Chtmiber of Commerce have' recommended the Government to make provision! for compulsory, pilotage, f and the handing over to the Board of fines inflicted in the Resident Magistrate’s Court for breaches of the Board’s by-laws. Special legislation is wanted by the Wellington Board to enable them to lease the foreshore, the use of which has been granted by the' Government. At present, however, .the .Board are unable to give proper tenure and are losing revenue in consequence. The following comical report from the Borough Inspector of Nuisances was read at tlm Councilmeeting, .says the Marlborough Express. “I have the honor to say that I do not think barbed wife is a nusiance. My reason for this is that it prevents idlers from sitting on, the fences and passing rude and impertinent’ remarks on females and; other respectable .persons passing by.” : , There is still .a vacancy in the Borough. Auditbfslnp, • ; Owing, ,'as ; vvve said to Mr Horner’s absence from Patea, that gentleman’s consent to nomination could not be obtained, and the Returning Officer was forced to declare the nomination informal. Mr Hamerton is elected, and nominations for the . Vacancy, will ;be received at the Town Clerk’s office until noon, on Friday, June;'!. At Goulburn (N.S.W.), the other day, a young,, man appeared in the Police Court charged witli. .‘‘ being a.lunatic.”-: His brother, who laid tile information, was put into the box to give evidence, and upon being interrogated as to the reasons why he,considered his brother a lunatic, calmly replied, He won't work.” Senior-Sergeant Fenton tried in vain to elicit any further explanation—the witness admitting that the defendant ate arid slept well, but could not be induced to work. The presiding magistrate said if the witness’s version was correct, there were a great many lunatics in the colony. In our last issue we published a cablegram to, the effect that the, Victorian Premier had telegraphed to their Agent-General to protest against the proposed deportation of the Phoenix Park informers to Australia. As we had received no previous intimation of any sucli,intention on the part of the Imperial Government, the telegram, seemed rather curious but on looking through our exchanges we observed a message dated London, May 20, which fbrriishcs an explanation. The telegram runs as follows :—lt is intended to send Kavanagh, James Smith, O’Hanlon, arid Peter Carey, the approvers iri the Phcenix case, to Australia.

Since the 10th instant it is estimated that 445 tons of potatoes have, been landed at. Auckland from Southern ports, and further consignments are arriving. The defunct Hawera Rifles were in a very satisfactory position financially. A statement of accounts submitted to a meeting on Saturday, showed a balance in hand, after paying all accounts, of £57 9s Bd. Besides this there was the drill-shed, now let as a grain store, which cost £515, and has all been paid except £133, Mr Meredith, the late secretary, was voted £lO for his services, and it was decided to give onc-half the remaining balance to the drill-shed trustees, and the rest towards the purchase ■of new instruments for the band. The Taraimhi News learns that a company has been formed and the necessary arrangements made for theopening up of the Mokau country. With the consent and help of the natives the company alluded to will endeavor to ship away from Mokau a portion of the vast deposits of limestone and coal which arenow lying idle there, the quality of which has already been favourably-commented upon. In connection with the coal trade from Mokau,.a.-'nofrcl application' will be made to the Harbor * Board, viz., an application to lease one of (he outer Sugarloayes for a coaling station. The idea is far fi'bm a bad one, and the originators of it deserve every encouragement. ■ . ' - 1 M It now being some time'since any 'pro-; fessors of legerdemain' visited Patca it is in no way surprising t that a well-filled house" greeted “ Kudarz ” in his entertainment last evening in spite of the counter attractions of the Forester’s Ball. 'Rome of,the, tricks performed during the cVcning Wefe so marvellous that the 7 audience were simply lost in bewilderment, that being especially noticeable in the case of the card and half-crown' tricks with many others.-The evening was concluded with an expose of the cabinet scene, one of the most prominent performances of ‘the Davenport Bros;, during the progress of which considerable amusement was caused by a clever trick of the conjuror. Two gentlemen having been invited on the stage to thoroughly inspect the cabinet the performer, who was firmly /bound, requested one of Them to lend him’ his coat, having previously got rid of his own. When -the cabinet door was opened z. the performer was discovered sitting, as before, but with the gentleman’s coat on. .He-then,asked for -his. own, which being placed in the cabinet, he offered that the gentleman’s should be thrown out and that he (the; conjuror)- AVOuldT have his /own coat put on-in-less time than'the gentleman would put on; bis. The gentleman agreed but found* that when the coat was thrown out, the sleeves were turned inside out, and consequently he : was; badly; beaten in- the race with the conjuror. Kudarz will perform at St James’ Hall to-riight for the last time, and we would advise; those who' have not already seen him not to miss the opportunity for doing so. His entertainment' is one of ; the cleverest and most amusing yet seen here. Kficlarzwill appear in Hawcra next week'.’ Not a few were amused at the Volunteer Sports, by the vagaries of an elderly gentleman, who had been imbibing a “ drap o’ the : cratur.” After “ Hurrahing ” to his heart’s content, he bethought himself that he must needs join the quadrille party that were dancing on the green. However, he could not find any of the lighter-booted sex willing to become his partner, and so did a waltz by himself in their midst, to the great delight of the youngsters, who pelted him with pieces of orange peel and grass, that lay scattered ; about. He thought it about time to desist, when he received a few pushes, that sent ] him off his equilibrium. A great improvement to the comfort of the public who attended the sports yesterday, was] noticeable., ■■*. Several- forms . had been obtained and placed bn the hill round the ground, but they were not utilised, owing, no doubt, to the absence of most of the ladies, who stayed away through a just fear of bad weather. , Bedford-street is in a fearful state. About the middle it is a veritable slough of despond which has been intensified by a quantity of loose earth depostied on top of the clay formation. To attempt gravelling just now would not be of much more use than a similar operation upon ihe river, although perhaps lesstdbstr active. The Electrical Power Storage Company had an experimental trial of one of their trarncars on the West Metropolitan Company’s lino from Shepherds-bush-common' to Kewcridge, recentlj 7 , When about 100 gentlemen were carried for one mile at the rate of six miles an hour, and at the rate of a cost of 6s 3d, as against , a cost of 265, the ordinary expense of tramcar working per day. The Electrical Storage Companj 7 also ran a yacht from Millwall to Kew Bridge, and, thence .up- the river, which carried o number of the. company from iihe bridge /above Brentford eyot, against wind and tide, in a most successful manner. ’ - A 1 Homo paper says that the complete returns,of the volunteer .force, for the last .official'.''year li.dve ; just been presented to Parliairient. Tbe total- enrolled .strength' is 207,336, .of whom 198,874 are efficients, or a percentage of 9616, as against ,96 08 in the previous returns. 5,692 officers.(32B of whom passed the examination in tactics) and 11,928 sergeants have earned the extra grant for proficiency, and -175,878 of all arms were present at inspection. The efficients of each, are as follows Light horse, 210 oiit of 260 ; artillei'y, 36,591 out of 38,261 engineers,. 8,551 put of 8,896 ; mounted . rifles, '3B out .of 52 ; and rifles, 153,984 out'of 159,867. The London, scientific correspondent of the Australasian writes :—Another comet is reported. It. .was; first, seen on ,23rd February, when its right ascension was 12h 60m,; and its northern declination 28deg.It iß.,;now in the r constellation Andromeda,/but its daily motion; will soon carry it out ;of ‘that region, ’Wo are beginning to lose all our faith in cornets heralding hot summers, just as we are Itisihg fkith in' the barometer. : ’ Lately, with us, the latter instrument seems to have .been “ going up’ ; 'nin .proportion/as .tlio rain has persistently come down. It is calculated that (here are over T7,000 .“Macs”.in New Zealand. Not a bad ad-j mixlurti of the gentle Celt in the; community, . , I