The Patea Mail. Established 1875. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1883. NEWS OF THE DAY.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1087, 17 September 1883, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Established 1875. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1883. NEWS OF THE DAY.

• ♦ Tlio monthly Masonic meeting is to be held this evening at the usual place. The business in addition to ordinary routine consists of passing and raising. We believe several Masons of note on this coast intend paying the Lodge a visit.

Two natives named Moki and Ngarawe will be brought up at the Court to-morrow to answer a charge of being drunk and creating a disturbance s a railway carriage at Manutahi a few days ago. We hear that Mr Parry, who was for some time connected with the press in this town, has left for Sydney to join the staff of the Telegraph newspaper there. At the R M Court on Friday, the native chief Tauroa, for bibulous indulgence was fined 20s and costs.

The Kailway Celebration Committee held a meeting at the Harmonic Hall on Friday evening, when about a dozen were present. On the statement of receipts and expenditure being read it was seen that there was a deficiency of £2l 8s 3d, which, as'the celebration was in reality a borough matter, it was resolved to request the Borough Council to defray! Mr Carkeek has returned to New Plymouth, having successfully traversed his portion of the proposed line of railway via Mokau. We (Herald) understand that ho has inet with no obstacles in the line of route,and thecountry is more favourable than was anticipated. He did not enter the territory of the Wanganui tribe, as that was not wilhin his district. It is probable that overtures will be made by the Government with the view of conciliating the natives who obstruct s the progress of the surveyors, and if a satisfactory understanding can.be arrived .at the, surveyors will again start work without :delay, ;vr- : v

Judgment was given in the case Okeroa v. Williams, heard at the K M Court on Friday, for the plaintiff. In this case s Vaggy, which it will ,be remembered Mr Williams captured fr&ra the natives some time ago, was ’the' subject of the action. It appeared that a mistake was made as the ownership of the vehicle in question, and the defendant agreed to either give up possession of the buggy or to pay the sum of £22, its estimated value.

The football. match between Nelson and Wanganui was not concluded owing to a dispute between the teams and the subsequent withdrawal of the Wanganui men from the. field. Mr T Coakley, one of tlie Wanganui players had the misfortune to break his leg. ri A charge of stealing a pair of running shoes brought against a youth named Kijips Baldwin, at the R M Court on Saturday, was dismissed with a caution.

The writer of “ London Town Talk” in the Argus, tells the following ;—An English traveller in Ireland, greedy for information, and always fingering the notebook in his breast pocket, got into the same railway carriage with a certain Roman Catholic archbishop. Ignorant of his rank, and only perceiving that he was a divine, he questioned him pretty closely about the state of the country, whiskydrinking, &c. At last he said : “ You are a parish priest yourself, of course.” His Grace drew himself up. “ I was one, sir,” he answered with icy gravity. “ Dear, dear,” was the sympathising rejoinder, “ that accursed drink, I suppose.”

John Hennessy, an old array pensioner, having had a quarrel with a printer named Fellows in San Francisco, entered the dwelling of the latter on July 6, two days afterwards, and deliberately cut Mrs Fellows’ throat with a razor. He then walked oat in the street as If nothing had happened, and had proceeded several blocks before the seven-year-old daughter of the murdered woman, who had followed him, succeeded in arresting the attention of a policeman by the startling words, “ Thatj, man has just cut my mother’s throat.” Hennessy was immediately taken into custody.

At the meeting of the New Plymouth Harbour Board held on Wednesday, the approximate monthly balance theet showed 1.66,000 still in hand, including the LIB,OOO voted to the railway; there are also about L9OOO worth of blocks made ready to lay, and it was agreed to give the Woiks Committee, power to increase the staff when the weather appeared suitable to continue the work of laying the blocks. The Post understands that the Hon W, Johnston, Minister for Public Works, will proceed on his visit to Great Britain in March next.

. Sir John Hall and family are still in London. They go for a trip to Germany this month.

Messrs J. W. Bright and P, C.Gowland have been nominated for the vacant seat in the Borough Council. The polling takes place on Thursday. The Great Eastern steamship is about to be purchased by a Company and em-. ployed in the coal trade between Queen’s Ferry and the Thames, She is intended to carry 20,000 tons of coal each voyage in sacks. The Company intend to deliver coal to the consumer at not more than 16s a ton.

The Star. ; says ■ that serious been caused to a number of farmers on the Plains by the sale of a ,quantity of wheat for seed, which had been heated in the stack, and has failed to germinate after sowing. The settlers were.probably quite unaware that the wheat was unfit for seed.

The Melbourne Society for Protection of Animals arc determined, if possible, to put a stop to the practice of lacerating the ears of sheep, pigs, and other animals for the purpose of identification, and have issued a notice intimating that in the future all persons offending in this way will be prosecuted. The two Auckland representatives easily beat Dunedin at Lawn Tennis on Saturday. The programme of the entertainment to be given at Waver!ey on Thursday by the Patea Musical and Dramatic Society appears elsewhere. It is a very good one;

The Directors of the West Coast Meat and Produce Company met on Saturday and transacted a quantity of routine business. There was a full attendance.

The annual meeting of the Patea Cricket Club is called for Thursday evening at the Albion Hotel at 7 o’clock. The affairs of the club are not in a particularly flourishing state, and it is to be hoped that a good .set of officers will be elected, or we may have to record the winding up of the club altogether. The Salvation Army are having a gay time in Canterbury. At Timaru some unsympathetic individual brought his hose to play upon the procession, and damped their ardour considerably. At Christchurch on Saturday afternoon 2000 larrikins assembled to give “Major” Barker a warm reception, but kindly efforts in this direction were frustrated by the police, who were present in great numbers.

The new bridge across the Firth of Forth, now building, will* when completed, be among the most remarkable bridges in the world. The main girder will be within ' a few' feet of a mile |in length, and will rest upon round cylindrical piers, each of which will weigh 16,000 tons. It will, of course, be high enough for all vessels to pass underneath, and about 42,000 tons of steel will ibe required in its construction. The L estimated, cost will be £1,600,000.

A Prospecting Association, with a capital of £2OOO, has been formed 1 at Christchurch to thoroughly prospect the Malvern District, where some excellent samples of gold have been found. For some months past the business at the "Br.M. Court had been decreasing.: in such a manner as. .to lead one to suppose that the Court would soon be in a like position with the Hospital, and 1 public meetings held to consider the advisability of its being kept open. But this immunity was broken on Friday last, when a number of civil cases> 1 drunk, and two cases savouring 'strongly of the “might - is right”,, system were disposed of. The worthy K.M.’s business did not even end with Fridayj for on the following- day in charge of larceny was brought forward and heard. | Two incidents which are reported in the Wakatipu (Otago) newspapers, show the precipitous character of the mountains in that .district. In one case a packer was driving his team dpwn.the Arrow Valley track when the leader was pushed off the track by another of the horses rushing past him. The poor brute went dashing and tumbling down the precipitous face of the hill till he landed a shapeless mass in the river below. When Hood (the packer) saw the horse falling, he “ coo-eed ” to a number of men who were just below, making the new dray-roadj to clear out of the, way. They bad barely time to do so when the unfortunate horse came thundering down, and so great was the momentum ho had gained in his descent that he bounded over the drayroad as if be were an indiarubber ball. In tl e other case a butcher at Queenstown lost seven bullocks out of his paddock. They made for the hills. The owner followed them, and before his eyes they jumped, one after another, over a precipice fully 3Coft, and were smashed to pieces.

The body of George Morley, formerly a draper was found floating in the Auckland harbor on Saturday. It had the appearance of having been several days in the water.