NEWS OF THE DAY.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1078, 27 August 1883, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The Railway Demonstration Committee, will meet at the Harmonic .Hall this evening at 8 o’clock. ’ We hear that Mr Lett intends giving up his present business and will enter upon a fresh venture in the course of a few weeks. He finds that the close confinement of the shop is detrimental to his health which is hot particularly good at the best of times. Two misprints occurred in Mr Batten’s letter. Near the commencement “ the bonus to each policy would have been £ls 3s” should have been £l6 3s, and at .the conclusion “ ten per cent ’’ was substituted for lOsld. Mr W. Handley, the gentleman who has leased the Steam Sawmill has now taken up his abode here. The mill is now almost in running order and Mr Handley, after a visit to (he Manawatu to arrange for limber &c, will commence operations. We wish him every success in his venture. For the convenience of our subscribers, we have published a brief Railway time table, which will bo found upon the second page. ■/ > ■ The addresses of both Mayoral candidates appear in our advertisement columns. The sailing of the sfearners Napier and Waverley has been put off till to-morrow evening' at-five.o’clock. Both vessels will be hauled alongside the Railway wharf and decorated with bunting, which will add considerably to the gaiety of the scene. The station will also be decorated with evergreens, and an arch is in course of erection at the station yard. A meeting of the Football 01 fib was held at the Albion Hotel on Saturday evening, when it was decided to send a team to Wanganui, and the following were picked for (hat purpose, viz., Carey, Adamson, Sargeant, Powell, Paterson, Kitcbing, Turner, Fowler, Howie, Sim, Williams, Locker (2), Harden (2). Tins is not the strongest force Patea cap muster, but it is thought they will acquit themselves creditably. The team will leave by the 8.10 a.m. train to-morrow. Nearly 700 draught horses have been shipped to Queensland (and Sydney from Lyttelton and Port Chalmers during the last three months. Considerable alterations in the limes of closing the mails have been made, conspqucnt'upon the railway service. They will be found noted el.-cwhere. It will be seen that the:c is a southward mail now at 7 a.m., which will prove a ercat convenience to badness men and others who may have occasion to reply quickly to corrc-pondence received the previous evening.

There has been much boisterous weather lately all down the Coast. According to a Wellington paper, Captain Edwin bslioves that a series of what we may call sub-cyclonic centres are passing by and does not anticipate settled weather for some little time to come. Mr A. W. Williarnaon has shown us some handsome work in silver executed by Mr C. Parkinson, of Marton. This gentleman has constructed some telephones which were used the other day between Marton and Bulls with complete success. The local paper says that great ingenuity has been bet n displayed by the maker of the instruments. The late Mr Ppwdrill’s rating stud will shortly be submitted to tbo hammer by Mr Cowern, On Friday evening a report was in circulation about town that rockets and blue lights bad been seen in I lie direction of the beach away to the west. As the Napier was expected in that evening, and a strong swell was setting in shore, it was at once surmised that the vessel had been driven to the northward of the river, and had been stranded. A parly of four, one armed with a bull’s eye lantern, s t out with The laudable object of rendering assistance—though if the vessel had been wrecked in reality, in what direction that assistance would have 'been is doubtful. After meeting''with various small accidents in the way of wet feet and numerous falls, the party' Diet two gentlemen who were bent upon the same mission as themselves, and all six proceeded to the cxiremo point of tlie beads, but seeing nothing determined to strike along the brow of the cliffs to the next point, lluro again most of the part} werecontiimally coming to grief, and at one'part of the march were abruptly brought to a halt, by a wire fence, which, in the dark, was not distinguished till.all wore upon it. When, at last, the point was readied, noiliing whatever of anyone in distress—except the search parly —could be seen, and it was decided to make for tbo town again by the nearest way, which it was afterward .found Jed through a Continuity of small lakes. The homeward tramp consisted oEa series of flying leaps from one tussock to another, which would have delighted the heart of an acrobat, but strange to it did not seem to all meet with the tastes of the performers. But everything must have an end, and so it proved in this case. The lower end of Egmont street was struck, and the party arrived in town safely with the exception of wet and muddy clothes, and on the part of one or two anything but sweet tempers The life of the person who was so unfortunate as to discover the signals.of distress, will, We hear, be from henceforth as precarious as that of the Czar of Russia, and he will probably be hurried to an untimely end. The real cause of the excitement was a sky rocket discharged "somewhere in the vicinity of the. English..Church. , A pretty quarrel is in progress at the borough of West Harbour, a suburb of Dunedin. The Mayor having got possession of a municipal'.document without the consent of the Town Clerk, the latter revenged himself by burning nearly all the municipal books. The Hospital meeting on Friday 'evening was very poorly attended, owing no doubt to the boisterous weather. After the report of the Committee had been read and adopted the meeting adjourned till Friday evening. Subsequently however a further adjournment for a week was arranged in Older that it may be seen what amount the County Council will vote, as that body meets on September sth.- We hope they will hoc .their way' to vote a fair sum, and in iJiat case the keeping open of the Hospital will be assured.

Nominations for the office of Councillor to fill tlie vacancies caused by the retirement of Messrs Aitchison, Mahony, and Williams, are invited to be made up till noon of Monday, Sept. 3 Largo' quantities of earth have fallen from the cliff at various parts of the Coast, the recent rains evidently having.had the effect of loosening the soil. A number of gentlemen met at the Central Hotel on Saturday evening, with the object of establishing a Bowling Club in Patea. After some discussion it was resolved that such a Club should be formed, and a committee of five were appointed to make enquiries as to expense of procuring a green, &c., and to report to a meeting to be held next Saturday evening. A terrible traged}' occurred at Rickdserf, near Berlin. The wife of a small shopkeeper, overcome by: suffering from poverty, cut. the throats of lior two children, fired (he house, and then cut her own throat The s.s. Catalonia which left Lyttelton oh Saturday took 1800 tons of coal for use oh the run home. It is estimated that the Shipping Company will require about 20,000 tons' annually for their steamers, and as the coal is obtained from the Greymouth and Westport mines the company may be said to be an extensive patron of local industry. By the Oreti, which arrived from Auckland on Saturday morning, Dr Richards was a passenger to Wanganui. The Herald says us he was suffering from delirium tremens, he was arrested by the police, and will' be put in custody till Monday next. .Dr Richards it will .;be remembered, formerly belonged to Patea. He was ■ severely knocked about, having two black eyes, as he was most unmanageable, and had to be tied down on the boat.

A London correspondent writes : Messrs Wodehouse and Armstrong, the patentees of a new system of electric lighting, which has been successful at the Fisheries Exhibition, the Reform Club, and several theatres, are about sending an agent out to New Zealand via Frisco, to explain the process and push their-wares. According to a return presented to the House, the sum of £15,789 11s has been expended since July, 1870, in repairing, furnishing, and adding to Parliament Buildings. The amount is made up as follows :—Additions, £9444 7s lOd ; repairs, £2322 3s 3d ; furniture, £2682 16s ; and miscellaneous, £1340 3s 4d. The first practice of the Wavorley Harmonic Society was held in the schoolhouse on Friday evening last. In spite of the rough weather there was a very fair attendance, and everything went off smoothly. It is intended to give an entertainment in about a month’s time in aid of the funds of the Society. Practice will in futurp be held on Friday evenings, in the school-house, at 8 p.m‘. Ah extraordinary meeting of the shareholders in the Colonial Land Settlement and Endowment Association was held at Wellington on Tuesday last, when resolutions were passed, confirming the proposed Articles of Association. During a heavy gale last week the Hincmoa broke from her moorings in Wellington harbour and commenced to drift toward the rocks. The night watchman promptly lot go an anchor, but could not givo out chain. Capt Gray, or the Stella, noticed '.be perilous position of (lie flinemoa, mid went off with a boat’s crew and rescued her.

A no'ice from the Sheep Inspector appears elsewhere. During (bo passage of the New Zealand Shipping Company's ship Wahnate win -h arrived at Port Chalmers the other day a seaman named Charles Brown fell from the taffrail into the sea. The vessel was only making about three knots at the time but nothing more was seen of the poor fellow, although a boat was lowered and search made. The cost of lighting Parliament Buildings by electricity up to the 31st of July was £2363 16s lid. This amount, ol eoiirs", includes the cos. of pureli ising machinery, &c. It is estimated that nearly £2OO more will have to bo spent in maintaining the light up to the end of the present month. ,