The Patea Mail. Established 1875. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1883. NEWS OF THE DAY.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1114, 19 November 1883, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Established 1875. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1883. NEWS OF THE DAY.

Much sj’mpathy is felt for Mr Finlay, of Manutahi, whose young wife died yesterday during confinement. Mr R. A. Adams has been re-elected Mayor without opposition.

A runanga is to be held at Ilukatere shortly, and natives from all parts of the Plains will attend. Hone Pihama and Titokowaru are likely lo bo present as all (hei r luipns are expected. The Patea natives are making great preparations for the reception of their visitors, amongst other things ordered being 2 tons of flour, 1 ton of sugar, 44 blankets, 34 hats, 30 petticoats, and 400 yards of prints and calicos. Amongst the passengers by the Northumberland, which leaves London for Tauranga shortty, is Mrs Dobie, mother of the unfortunate young lady murdered by the Maoris at Opunake throe }'ears ago.

The regular monthly meeting of the Patea Kilwinning Lodge will be hold this

evening,

A number of lovers of the good old English game of cricket, regarding that it is fast losing its votaries in Patea ami deprecating the existence of such a state of ail drs, have formed themselves into a club to infuse new life into the local knights of the willow. That some of these revivers of the game are enthusiastic admirers of the great English statesman, may be inferred from the fact that they have dubbed their club the “ Gladstone,” this title being fixed upon after much weighty and solemn deliberation, A great deal of the time of the members of this new club being occupied by the “cares and, troubles of this wicked world ” they have, with praiseworthy determination resolved that they will indulge in their pastime curly in the morning, but unless we are very much mistaken, this intention will not be adhered to long, as most people have a decided objection to turning out at five a.m.—the hour we arc informed the Gladstone C.C. will coni: mcnco their practice—even.if it be to cake part in so fascinating a gam '; as ciiekct.

A man named .Chas Pemberton alias W B Kenny, remanded from last M-aiday will be brought up at the K M. Court to-morrow, as being of unsound mind. . Pemberton, who is a cook by trade, from his own account spread scandals about various i coplc some years ago, and is now in fear of the consequences. He has worked in many of the towns along the Coast and every new place he visits he is afraid of the people there being informed that he is a scoundrel by his “ enemies ” in the place he has just left, consequently when he sees a knot of persons talking together he, immediately comes to the conclusion that they are guilty of privy conspiracy against him. For the two or three days preceding his arrest he was working at Mrs Price’s hotel, Wavcrley, but his conduct was so eccentric that he was taken in charge. It is said that Pemberton, apart from his particular mania of imagining every man’s hand against him is a shrewd person ' in every respect.

The annual meeting of the Caledonian Society was held at the Albion Hotel on Saturday evening. The programme for the sports on New Year’s day is published in this issue. It will be seen that although the number of events has been somewhat reduced the value of the prizes is still maintained and will no doubt attract good fields as before. :

The bathing house has lately been fitted up with a spring board and steps, so that individuals of an amphibious turn of mind will be in their glory when more propitious weather arrives. Besides these persons, moreover, any local naturalist will have full scope for his studies at the bathing house, for never have wc seen such a congregation of “ all manner of creeping things ” crowded into such a small space before. The usual frequenters of the shed, as a rule, however, have np appreciation of the beauties of Nature, ns exhibited in woodlice and such like, for the Advent of any of those insects is more often greeted with highly seasoned adjectives than with enthusiasm.

The thistle nuisance seems to'be increasing in magnitude year by year. Almost every vacant section in and around the town has now a magnificent crop of this plague, which, though perhaps denoting the extraordinary fertility of the soil, at the same time anything but adds to the good appearance of the place. It will be seen in another column that a correspondent asks if something cannot bo done to abate this post. The Otago Daily Times asks whether having regard to Major Atkinson’s long official experience it might not be worth while for the colony to retain his services ■ when his Government is ousted as permanent tutor to new Ministers.

The late rains had the effect of causing a fresh in the river yesterday morning.

A rather dangerous mantrap exists on ths footpath in Bedford street, near the Masonic Hotel, caused by tho rush of storm water from the road into tho paddock below. Tho Borough Council should remember that it might prove expensive if anyone succeeded in breaking a limb at the spot in question. Two or three small slips, .which blocked up the gutter, occurred on the road leading up the Patea Hill on Saturday. The water, however, worked its way round these obstructions without damaging the road. The surfaceman is now employed removing the fallen earth.

yEgles in the Australasian tells (lie following harrowing story On a station between the never-flowing Bogar and Cobar were found the remains of a man (his swag had been discovered on a fence by a boundary rider some ten months previously.) He had apparently lighted his fire at the base of a box-tree, which burned down in the night, and fell across him. But he was not crushed. Where the tree crossed his body it was slightly bent, and he was held to the earth without being mercifully killed outright. He had worked a trench in the soil with his hands in his ineffectual struggles to free himself. Meanwhile the log had continued on fire, and actually burnt to within a foot of his body. Just picture the horrors of the surroundings—flics, ants, crows, iguanas, thirst, starvation, solitude, with the prospect of being slowly roasted, and part of lhetimc } probably, under a summer sun at lOOdeg. ! One more added to the mournful list of the Ncver-heard-ofs 1 Edgar Poe and the sensa-tion-playwright have traded on loss thrilling incidents,”

Tlio Wiutara paper hears that sections in Normanby have very recently changed ownership at the low price of £4 per section.

An interesting discovery was made in the bush at Livoricks Bay, Banks’ Peninsula, a few day’s ago. It wasa skeleton which, when found, was lying with head and feet projecting out of a cave, indicating that the body had been turned back double and pushed in, A short distance from the spot there was discovered a small Maori coffin, which had been hewn out of a s did piece of wood. This had a partition down the middle, and was ornamented with red ochre at the end. A small piece of matting was found, which no doubt had been used to wrap the bodies of two children in as the bones of two childcn were found near the place. Unfortunately’, (ho mat had been pulled out roughly, and the bones were scattered about. The remains were no doubt those of a Maori, who must have been Gft lOin in height. On searching about the spot a small pawa shell was found, with red ochre in it, also a greenstone adze, a whalebone needle 3iin long, and several small pieces of greenstone, one of which had been an ear drop. From the appearance ■of the relies it is probable they had been there from forty to fifty’ years. The crops in Canterbury’ are more backward than they’ hive ever been at this season of 1 he year. An order has been received in Nelson for 100 tons of pie melons. The order came from another part of the colony’, which the Nelson papers do not mention. Most likely a jam factory wants these melons.

The London Catholic Total Abstinence League of the Cross has 145,000 members in the metropolis and 32 branches throughout the kingdom.

Strange to say, writes Tndh, the frightful catastrophe which has just taken place at Java was predicted two years ago by a scientist of the name of Delaunay, in a memoir presented by him to Hie French Academic des Sciences in 1881. M. Delaunay indicated August 2, 1883, as tho probable date of the cataclysm, and thus made a mistake of two days, In the same memoir he states that another and much more terrific convulsion of nature will take place in tho same spot in 188 S. The South Australian wheat yield is estimated at from 8 to 10 bushels per acre of good plump grain. Information has been received at Auckland from Waotu that Whataihios people fired into Symomis people who returned the fire. No casualties are reported. The Princess of Wales is becoming deaf, and the best aurists are unable to suggest a remedy. A car of New Zealand frozen mutton formed an item in (be time-honoured Lord Mayor’s Show in London recently. This should have a good effect in bringing home the existence of tho industry as well as (he fact that there is such a country as New Zealand,

The Gulcher electric light, which is used at the Kaiapoi Woollen Factory, Canterbury, has proved most successful and economical. Compared with the cost of lighting by kerosene, the saving effected in one year will pay the whole cost of the machinery.

“ Robin Hood’s ” Ist horse went to a policeman in Dunedin, 2nd to a farmer at Waimate, 3rd to. a miner at Charleston. In the New Zealand Cup the Ist horse went to a well-known coffee merchant in Christchurch, 2nd to a bank official on the West Coast, 3rd to a publican in Clnistchurch.

Mr Blackett, C.E., has forwarded the plans, &c, for the proposed railway to Moturoa, but from what we (JVaiiara Press ) learn we are afraid they will have to be hung up for some time as (so rumour has it) the legal opinion is against the diversion of the £IB,OOO from its legitimate object namely, breakwater construction.

A correspondent of the Asian, .writing from the Kbeori, Oudh, sends the following account of a fatal embrace of a gigantic python : —“ A boy, aged 15, was out herding cattle on the Barnpore Grant near Gola, in this district (Kheeri). Walking about with another boy, they suddenly came on a very large python. Not knowing exactly what it was, the elder boy walked forward to look at it, when the snake suddenly rushed forward and seized him. The other boy ran off to a village and gave the alarm. * When the villagers first arrived at the spot (it was in Sakhoo jungle) they’- were under the impression that a leopard had seized the boy, but, gradually going closer and closer, they found the boy entwined in the embraces of a huge python some 16ft long. Several blows were given to the animal with kodare before they could induce it to partially unfold the embrace, when, getting bold of the boy’s arm they managed to extricate him, and rushing on the animal, despatched it with their Jcodars. The poor boy was quite dead. His stomach bad been burst open by the violence of the snake’s embrace, and the ribs and bones ah more or less broken.”

An estimable citizen of Raleigh, New Carolina (says the New York Tribune) is the father of so many children that there would have been difficulty in providing them all with names if ho had not devised an original plan for avoiding (bat embarrassment immediately after his marriage. With uncommon sagacity lie foresaw tlio necessities of the future, and resolved to name bis children after the States, giving to each the names of two sovereign commonwealths. One of his sons is lowa Wisconsin Royster, another is Vermont Connecticut Royster, another is Oregon Minnesota Royster, and still another is Arkansas Delaware. Virginia Carolina is the name of one daughter, and Georgia Alabama of another.

Captain E. Ashdown, commander of the P. and 0. steamship Siam, states (hat that vessel on her voyage from King George’s Sound to Colombo, on August 1, when in latitude 6 S., longitude 89 E , passed, for upwards of four boms, through large quantities of lava, which extended as far ns could bo seen (the ship was going 11 knots at the time). The lava was floating in a succession of laves of from 5 to 10 yards wide, and trending in a direction north-west to south-east. The nearest land was the coast of Sumatra (distant 700 miles) but as there was a current of 15 fo 30 miles a day setting to the eastward, the lava could not have come from there, and ho could only imagine it must have been an upheaval from somewhere near the spot. The soundings on the chart showed over 2000 fathoms. Captain Ashdown adds that there was a submarine volcano near tiie spot in 1789. A ship canal is projected from the Bristol Channel across the peninsula of Somerset and Devon to the English Channel. The length of the canal will be 62 miles ; the waterway will be 125 ft wide at the surface, 36ft at the bottom, and 21ft deep—the dimensions being similar to the grand ship canal of Holland from Amsterdam to the Holder. Buch a canal will accommodate ships of 1500 tons> drawing 18ft. The cost of the now canal is estimated at about £3,00 C,OOO, and 12 percent annual dividends on this cost are expected.

“The deep lying disease of Turgeneff,’’ says London Truth , in speaking of a terrible disease, “ was a cancer on tlie spinal marrow, and the affretion of tlir heart was only a nflox malady. This state, for months before ho died, puzzled the faculty. Pain did not seem to be localised. When asked if he could point out the seat of tho evil ho replied that it was impossible. He felt as if his body were 1 a swollen foot in a tight boot on a hot da}', and obliged to keep walking.’ This feeling was everywhere. In no position was tho sufferer at rdsf, and the night was full of terrors. There was no symptom of cancer ’that the doctors could discern beyond shooting pains like’those of toothache, which extended over sots of nerves, and often paratysed the limbs and rendered breathing difficult. The complexion became the colour of yellow wax, which is a cancerous symptom.”

A curious accident is reported in the London papers. A boy was passing a building in course of erection, when hearing a shout, lie looked up. At (hat moment a workman accidentally let fall a slate. It struck the lad, and severed his nose completely from his face. The lad ran to a surgeon’s with his nose in his hand. It was immediately sewn on again and at last accounts as mortification was not feared, it was thought tho boy would escape with but slight permanent disfigurement.