The Patea Mail. Established 1875. MONDAY, JUNE 25, 1883. NEWS OF THE DAY.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1051, 25 June 1883, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Established 1875. MONDAY, JUNE 25, 1883. NEWS OF THE DAY.

The notice of insurers is directed to an advertisement which appears in another column giving notice of a meeting to be held at the Albion Hotel, this evening, to consider the action of the Insurance Companies. The Brethren of the “ mystic tie ” will notice by advertisement that there is to be an Emergency meeting held this evening ; also, a Lodge of Instruction, after business is disposed of. The firing for Messrs Christie and Haywood’s medals took place this morning in pouring rain, \yhich probably accounts for only three competitors turning up. The following are the scores :■ —Sergt Carey, jr., 48; Lieut Kitching, 42 ; Vol Kitching, 42. There not having been sufficient members or ratepayers present at the Schoolhouse, Whenuakura, on Saturday last, the 23rd instant, the both meetings called for that date, viz., Patea East Road Board meeting, called to confirm the striking of the rate, and the annual meeting of ratepayers, lapsed. The following was the statement of the receipts and expenditure of the Board for the year ended Slat March, 1883 ; balance in hand Ist April, 1882, £7l 14s 2d ; amount received for rates during year £l7l 9s 8d ; for subscriptions towards Little Taranaki Road, £3—Total £246 3s 10s. Expenditure—Amount paid for repairs and improvements to Roads, £162 18s Od; salaries, £24 0s lOd ; Printing and advertising, £7 19a 9d ; Sundries, £3 5s 5d ; Total expenditure—£l9B 4sod; Balance in hand oh 31st March, £47 19s lOd.— Total, £246 3s lOd. Through an error in our last issue, Mr Cowern’s Lincoln-street Sale, was announced to take place on the 14lh of July, whereas it should have been 4th July. At a meeting on Saturday afternoon last, the preliminary steps towards forming a company to take over and re-start the Patea Saw Mills were taken. A report appears in another column. A woman named Mary Brookes, has been arrested in Auckland for stealing the flowers from the graves in the cemetery there, and selling them. Mr Wilson, a South Australian farmer, who has arrived in Auckland with the intention of settling reports that a large influx of farmers from South Australia may be shortly expected. , The General Manager of the New Zealand Railways publishes in a Gazette of the 14th iust., a table of the cost of construction of all lines up to 31st March last. The table shows the expenditure on opened and unopened lines and portions,- but while giving the length of lines opened omits to give the length of lines opened was 1358, of which 451 are in the North Island, and 907 miles in the South Island. The total cost of construction of the 451 miles of opened lines in the North Island, deduced from the figures given, was £3,155,620 12s lid, or £6996 18s 9d per mile, and the cost of the 907 miles in the Middle Island £7,001,316 2s Id, or £7729 15s 8d per mile. Total for both Islands,; £10,159,936 15s. In the North Island £678,701 4s 2d had been expended on unspecified lengths of unopened line in the; North Island, and £490,039 5s 9d on un-' opened lines, also of unspecified lengths, in the Middle Island. A sum of £80,802 0s 4d ; expended on Harbour works at Greymouth, is included in the table. The total expenditure on opened and unopened lines and those Harbor works, was £11,409,479 5s 2d. Contrasted with the rowdy conduct of the English “rough,” the treatment of the Salvationists by the New Zealand “ larrikin ”is mild and gentlemanly. Here is a specimen of the pure unadulterated Home made ruffianism, as described by the Exeter correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette. The Skeleton Army riots at Honiton on Sunday and Monday prove qn investigation to have been even worse than was at first reported. In the course of the disturbance on Sunday an attempt was made to force 1 Captain ’ Lotjias into the coffin which was carried in the ranks of the ‘Skeletons •’ He, however, sucessfully resisted, and the coffin was subsequently smashed over the heads of some of the Salvationists. The windows of several tradesmen’s shops have been broken by the volleys of stones thrown, and in some cases goods in the windows have been destroyed. One Salvationist had his face dreadfully disfigured by a brick which was thrown at him. Mrs Lomas is still suffering severely from the brutal kicking she received. On Monday night, after the Salvationists had struggled through the mob to their hall to the ‘ tea,’ they weae kep in the building till long after midnight by a howling mob two or three thousand strong. These first directed their attention to the windows, which were soon smashed, and the Salvationists then barricaded them with forms so keep out the stones. An attack was then made on the doors, a sledge-hammer being employed for the purpose. A hole was ultimately made, and the Salvationists had to barricade the door also to keep out the mob. Volleys of stones were then directed on to the roof of the building, part of a wall near being pulled down to supply material. The mob gradually died away, and the imprisoned people then made their way to the houses of various friends to pass the night.”

Sir George Grey, says a Wellington paper had on Thursday one of his eloquent and wordy “ dings ” at things that happen to be established. Not only did he once more denounce the Governor’s Speech as a sham, but the whole ceremonial of opening Parliament was a sham. We had to import a Governor at much expense, and having got him, we had to dress him in clothes of great splendor, costing at least £2OO, for the mere purpose of opening Parliament by reading a, sham Speech which sham Ministers had composed for him. The expense and the sham did not end there, for we also had to draw out lines of Volunteers, and post Artillery on the reclamation, to blow off so much expensive gun powder, to attract and amuse those particular pets whom Sir George usually calls the people, but who in this connection were described as “ those fools.” The following story of the Bank of England is related as having happened some time ago. A sewer workman, while poking around under ground, found that by raising a flagstone he could penetrate into the bullion-room of the Bank. Amazed at the discovery, he pondered over it, and finally concluded that he would utilise it to his pecuniary benefit without stealing. He therefore wrote to the Directors, asking what reward he would receive if he should meet them at any appointed hour of the night in the bullionroom, and thus reveal to them a mode of ingress of which they were entirely ignorant. They named a sum which would make him independent for life, and to their overwhelming surprise he kept his promise by popping up through the sewer, for which be received £IO,OOO or so. , We have machines (says the Chicago Times) for doing almost all kinds of work in field, shop, and factory. But in many departments of industry little has been dojje to lighten the burdens of human labour.' KatchenJ work is performed in about the same way as it was when the first kitchen was constructed. Clothes, dishes, and floors are washed after the most primitive fashion. Our methods of doing all kinds of housework are twenty centuries behind our methods of doing farm and factory work. Knives and forks ai'e made by machinery, but are scoured by hand. A new tin dish is made in a factory quicker and with less trouble than an old one is cleaned in the kitchen. When drudgery was driven .out of the field and workshop it took refuge in the kitchen, seemingly with the determination of making it its permanent place of abode. It clings to it with desperation. New dishes for the table and new garments for the person all make work, but the persons who bring them out produce no labour-saving machine for cleaning the first or keeping in order the last.