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Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 95, 13 November 1878, Page 2

Our readers will have seen in the Government Gazette that the 40,000 acres of land temporarily reserv d as an endowment for Milford Harbour has now been confirmed. The former Gazette notice that the land was only temporarily reserved has been revoked, and the land is now permanently reserved. This, with the borrowing powers embodied in the Milford Harbour Board Bill, will give the Board a command of over LIOO.OOO to operate upon when Sir J. Coo.le's decision is received. Monday, the 11th, doing duty fur the 9th, a holiday in honor of the Prince of Will s' Birthday, passed over Temuka very quietly. So quiet and deserted were the streets that the day seemed more like a holy- than a holiday. A great many people drove out in various directions, seeking in " pastures new " a little welcome change from the cooped-upedness of a business life. On Friday evening next a concert in aid of the funds of the E'iglish Church at Woodbury will be given in the Schoolroom, Waihi Bush. We have not soon anything in the shape of a programme, nor heard who are likely to give their services, but from the success that has attended previous musical entertainments at the same place, we have no doubt that the one now projected will be of a firstclass character. We hope to hear of a good attendance. On the following Tuesday, Nov. 19th, the Church is to be formally opened by services tobe conducted by the Ven Archdeacon Harper, of Timaru. In the afternoon, between the services, a gift auction will be held in aid of the building- fund Mr "Flatman and other members of the building committee will be happy to receive contributions for this genuine sale in the meantime. Mr E. Wakefield has presented to the Temuka Mechanics' Institute the first part of Mr Buchanan's work on New Zealand grasses. The plates of nature-prints of specimens are very inteiesting, but the text, except in a few instances, is not of a pract'cally useful character. Verv few of our farmers can glean much useful knowledge from a description couched chiefly in the technical terms used by professional botanists. Any sections of this work which detail the results of experiments made on the behaviour of different native grasses under cultivation, or which point out plain affinities with well known cultivated grasses, will be of real use to those who alone can use the knowledge required, namely—the farmers. There appears to be but little of tnis kind of information in this first section of the work. This is doubtlass not the fault of the gentleman to whom we are indebtad for its production, but is simply due to the fact that the attention of experimentors has not yet beon sufficiently turned in the required direction. The gift of Mr Wakefield is, however, none the less grateful, for the edition of which this instalment forms a part is but small and, we understand, will not be reprinted. It is, however, to be offered to the public in a smaller form, the plates being reduced by photo-lithography. Telegrams were received at Kaiapoi from, the Bealey on Saturday staling that

the Waimakariri was flooded, and nearly as high ns in the last floods. The flood reached the Kaiapoi on Sunday, and was high ei.ough to overflow the line. Not much damage was done to the railway, but traffic was interrupted on Monday. During Sunday- night the river broke through the embankment at Ellei 's wool works.

The National Insurance Company declare a dividend t.f ten per cent., with a a bonus of sixpence per share, besides carrying L 15,000 to the insurance fund, ami L 5469 to the next half-year.

'"- Thej:uffian Kellys, the latest recruits to bnshranging, ,vere sti'l at large on the 6th. The Outlawry Bi'l concerning them came into force yesterday. IE they have not already surrendered they are liable to.be shot down by anyone.

From the ' Otago Witness ' of Inst week we learn that the steam ploughing machinery impoited by Mr Kirkland of the Taieri is likely to give complete satisfaction. The maciiinery consists of two G-horsc power traction engines that can he taken almost anywhere, and turned about with the greatest ease. A double-furrow plough, a 7-time cultivator, and two steel wire ropes 200 yai'ds long - . These, with duplicates of wearing parts cost about LISOO delivered and put in working order. To work the plough three men arc required, one to each engine, and one to manage the plough. Such a set turns over about three-quar-t ts of an acre per hour. The dead body of a newly born male chill was found on Monday morning floating in Auckland harbour, tied up in a bag. There is no clue to the parentage. At the settling up on Monday the following stakes were paid over : —R. Ray, L 1429 15s ; J. W. Malock, L 627 10s ; W. F. Neilson, L 548 3s; J. Gilligan, L 370 10s; A. Devery, L 166 5s ; H. Goodman, L 97 19s ; H. Redwood, L2O ; H. Prince, Ll 5 ; total, L 3104 13s. One of Siemen's electric lights, imported by Mr D. Proudfoot, was lately tried in Dunedin. The machinery, which requi.es a four-horse power engine to drive it, is guaranteed to give a light equal to 6000 candles, sufficient to enable work to be carried on at a great distance from it. The trial was very satisfactory—much much mo'-e so than that of the Gramme light on the occasion of the railway opening.

The volunteer deinonstraton at Dunedin on Saturday passed off very well indeed. The total number on parade was about 1450. The various movements executed during the sham fight, and in the official review were very creditably performed. Colonel Whitinore, in addressing the officers after the review, s id he was surprised at, and pleased with what he had seen. Their performances did both officers and men great credit. Of the marching of the Naval Brigade ho said that it could not have been surpassed by a crack Queen's r< giment. After the evolutions 0:1 the field Garrison Races, two for LlO stakes, and one for a L 5 stake were helo. After these wore run off the men were called together, and marched into town in excellent older. Owing to the cai-eless handling of loaded rifles, and their being left lying around loaded, several accidents took place, but only one of a serious character. In this a little girl picked up a gun and shot a school fellow in the cheek. The wound was not dangerous, though it bled profusely. In the evening a dinmr was given by the officers of the Otago corps in honour of Colonel Whitmore and Mr Sheehan. The former, in replying to the toast, "The Army, -Navy, and Volunteers," said that when he took office he made a resolution that he should try to have the volunteers not only strong in numbers, bur well uniformed and well disciplined ; then the force would be a thing which those who saw its workingwould admit was efficient and good of its kind. He thought that the minimum of any company would be fixed at fifty effective men at the very least. Many of the companies present that clay were unable to present the creditable appearance which their efficiency and physique would otherwise have enabled them to do, owing to the smallness of their numbers. He spoke in terms of especial praise in favour of the cadets. The enthusiasm with which the rising generation entered into the volunteer service was a very gratifying and hopeful fact. The Hon Mr Sheehan said he had been a volunteer six years, and at a time when volunteers were called upon to go to the front and fight. He felt sure that most of those he had seen that day would be ready to do likewise when occasion required. He did not believe in sham volunteering. In one place he had seen seven men and four officers all bundled together in skirmishing order, together with fifteen members of a band. That was sham volunteering, and was calculated to lower the tone of the force. He held that no system of education would be complete until every child was as well informed in military drill as in reading and writing. Until the lion should lay down with the lamb—a time he could not see in the near future at any rate—the military spirit must be fostered in our children, a national spirit, and a love of the national home must be encouraged. Were this done there would be little need for paying the volunteers, because evervone would be a volunteer.

Major Wales suggested that volunteers should be assisted to meet in larger numbers than is now possible, by the grants of free passes on the railways for the purpo -e. An efficient inspector could' nd be got f r less than LIOOO a-year, he thought, but a really efficient officer would be well worth the money. Colonel Whitmore stated that Major Gordon had been appointed Inspector of the South Island volunteers. The Dunedin and Christehurch Artillery Con - panies competed in gun management on Monday. .The Christchurch men won. From the order of march the gun was brought into action, three rounds fired, and the gun limbered up for march again in three minutes. In a grand rifle competition the Riverton Rifles bore away the palm. The Northern companies returned home by the express train yesterday. The Temuka men express themselves as highly delighted with their trip.

For persistency the Maori race is not to be excelled ; and during the session, and the past few days following its prorogation, the life of the Native Minister must have been anything but a pleasant one. We have it. on good anthority that even before he ha? finished his toilet of a morning his sleeping apartment is b■sieged with natives of all degrees, having grievances either against the Government or individual pakchas. At breakfast he finds it necessary to maintain a running dialogue in the native tongue with those who seek redress of wrongs either real or imaginary. When he comes down to the Government Buildings it is with difficulty he forces his way into his apartment on the Ministerial flat; and, when there, he is scarcely allowed to draw breath before he is besieged by his colored acquaintances. Yesterday he tried hard to get away, and bolted hastih/ from his own room into another furt'ier along the corridor. There was the usual rush alter him, and just when the door was on the point of being closed, a woman with a piecannini on her back a la Maori insisted on being admitted into this haven of rest, and neither the messenger nor the fact that her infant's head had come into voilent collision with the doorpost, prevented her from thrusting a dirtylooking and crumpled document into the Minister's hands. This may be all in perfect keeping with Mr Sheeh.kn's notions of personal Government ; but to be bored perpetually in this manner must be, to say the least of it, exceedingly irksome.— 'N.Z. Times.'

Commenting on the speech, of the Bishop of Melbourne on tlie education question, the 'Sydney Morning Heral V says: "No one supposes that State schools, as at present conducted, are the best machinery for promoting religion. Those schools were established for an educational and not a religious purpose. The State has taken up the cause of education not so much e-ause it \va* a part of its legitimate business as for the reason that it was a business that had been grievously neglected by parents and churches. The State carries on primary schools because with the means at its command it can do this better than anybody el j e. But, in the colonies especially, the Statu confines itself, for the most part, to secu'ar teaching, not because this is the most important kind of teaching, or because systems formed on this principle are the mo t perl'-'ct systems of public instruction, but be ause exp-rience has taught that Governments do best to confine themselves to secular suhjc-ts, leaving re'igious subjects to tlie religious denominations. This, however, is the plan which is strenuously objected to by a portion of the public. Those who make this objec tion threaten to give Governments no rest until, so far at least as they are concerned, education is established on a denominational footing. Under these circumstances, there are three courses open. The first is for the State to give up primary education altogether, the second is to give separate grants to separate religious organisations, the third is to adhere to the public school system. Unless we greatly mistake, any other course than this last will be found to be both useless and mischievous."

The Maori census, just taken, shows a native population of 42,819. In 1874 the Maoris numbered 46,016. In the la*t four years then the natives have decreased by over 3000. The native officers ;ittribute this decay to neglect of personal cleanliness, herding together in wretched huts not haif so good as the old Maori whares, bad food, insufficient clothing, and intemperance. Measles, whooping cough, and typhoid fever, have swept off numbers, especia'ly of children, the mode of life tending in favor of these destructive diseases In the Canterbury district the number sriven is 534. On the Chatham Islands there are 53 Maoris, and 49 Moiioris (the true aborigines), and 18 half-castes. Forty years ago there were 500 Moiioris there. Four generations ago there were three times as many Maoris in New Zealand as there are at present. The London corresponded of the Auckland ' Star,' says the present fashion of bangles, in imitation of their East Indian sisters, is greatly extending amongst our Englishwomen, and I know no reason why they should not carry out the old notion embodied in the nursery rhyme of "the old woman at Banbury Cross," who made " music wherever she goes," but I really think they ought to stop at the church door. I was particularly struck last Sunday at a fashionable church with the " tintinabulation that euphoniously swelled," whenever the congregation had to change its position. When the congregation rose, tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, sounded the metallic music. When the bow was made in the creed, tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, went the ladies. When they sat down again they tinkle, tinkle, tinkled again. " Let us pray," said the parson. " Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,," said the ladies. That grand chapter in the history of E ijah formed the lesson, and the noble story of the prophet's despair and recovery was accompanied all through by a tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, which showed how little the lesson of the service had come home to Englishwomen. J. S. Mill says of the study of Logic, " I am persuade'l that nothing tends so much, when properly used, to form exact thinkers, who attach precise meanings to words and propositions, and are not imposed on by vague, loose, or ambiguous terms. The boasted influence of mathe-

matical processes is nothing to it, for in mathematical processes none of the real difficulties of correct ratiocinations occur."

The total number of passengers conveyed on the Middle Isl.md railways during the year (says a Northern paper) wms 1,159,147, of whom 4208 took out season tickets ; 5044 horses, 2445 head of cattle. 95,282 sheep. 13,071 pigs, 137,888 tons of coal, 75,382 tons of other minerals, 62102,000 ft. timber, 167,983 tons of grain, 26,550 tons of wool, and 211,378 tons of genera! merchandise were also transported by rail. The total number of miles travelled by trains wms 1,421,767, whilst no fewer than 457,977 miles were covered in shunting trains and by ballast trains.

Mr W. E. Colston writing from Barnawnrtha to the ' Australasian,' says : " In answer to correspondent about the heaviest bullock, living or dead, in the colony, In your issue of the 21st ult., I will give j'ou the size of the largest I have living. It was purchased by Mr Murdoch McLean for Ll2O, in Wellington, New Zealand. It turned the scale at 39481 b, or 35cwt lqr; height, 6ft lin; length, lift 9in ; girth, 9ft" lOin ; at belly, 10ft llin ; hocks, 2ft lfin ; arm, 3ft; yoke, 7ft Bin ; age, eight years. A building in which timber is to be dried in the American fashion is being erected for Messrs Guthrie and Larnach'e Company in Bond street. The building is a continuation of (heir present premises, and will be 66ft by 76ft, and have a height of 20ft. The timber will be dried by currents of hot air, and the heat will be generated by utilising for the purpose the exhaust steam of the engine. 70,000 cubic feet of timber will be able to undergo the process at one time ; and working the stock by rotation, 10,000 ft per day will be turned out. The timber will be stacked on cars, and while at the first stage the air will be comparatively cool, the seventh temperature will be about 130 degrees. No handling of the timber is required, each car simply being moved forward every day.—' MorningHerald.'

Gold in enormous and paying quantities, and diamonds of superlative size, ore said to have been discovered in the Transvaal midway between Potehefstrom and Bretoria, but the reports are as yet too vague to warrant a new rush. The City of New York, -with the London maihs of October 10th, sailed from San Francisco for Auckland on the 24th ult, her due date. The Zealandia from Auckland on 12th ult. arrived from San Francisco on the sth instant, two days in advance of the due date.

The barque Carlotta, from Newcastle, with a cargo of over four hundred tons of coals, went ashore on Lighthouse Point, while beating into Wellington Heads, latelj', with a flood tide and heavy N.W. gale blowing. Seas are washing over the vessel, and it is expected she will become a total wreck. By permission of the Government, the Stella will leave for t'e wreck at 2 o'clock. No lives were lost.

A letter from Long Branch says : —The ladies this summer have taken to wearing long finger-nails, cruelly trimmed to a point, under the delusion that it lengthens the fingers. To see an entire family —mother and five daughters—sitting around with cold, white, hatchet nails like that, is to feel like experiencing Iroquois hospitality. Great attention has been p:iid, during the past winter recess, (o deve'oping the little toe of the female foot. A rumour had grown abroad that no female can wink her little toe, and to wink it was a surer sign of aristocratic lineage than to have a rainbow instep. At this news the entire sex went into committee on the little toe. How to give him (or her) a separate action, a pronounced character, and in short, to make him rise up like a piano finger and drop on the keys—this was the absorbing question. The small toe in women seldom leaves a mark in the sand. This year various have been the devices to bring the timid creature out. Miss Van Pizen wears a seal ling on the little fellow, with the seal down, and leaves us her monogram as sue goes down the beach. Miss De Villin lias practised on hers with a patent spring c'ot'ie-i-pin, so that it i«t off by itself, a wandering toe, a banished knuckle. Fina'ly, the two Misses Jones inherited the gout from their papa, and have beautiful isolated little toes, but of an inflamed colour. Walking is an obsolete thing with American Avomen. Even the servant-girls from the hote's have to be sent to church, a scant mile, in omnibuses. This is said to he due to the retiring character of the junior toe, and there is a loud cry for flat-footed, instead of strong-minded girls. Mr Higginson, C.E., reporting to the Eiver Bank Protection C unmittee, B.ilclutha, recommends the construction of several groins, and the laying down of fascines on an extensive scale. He is afraid, he says, that the works he suggests would be too expensive for the town to undertake without Government assistance. He considers the interests of Government more seriously threatened than those of the townspeople, as the railway works are in serious danger. Unless something be done, and on a considerable scale, the river may be expected to quit its present channel, thus rendering the present railway bridge useless. As a temporary measure, Mr Higgenson suggests the mooring of whole trees, one behind another, along the bank, sinking them, if possible, to the bottom. The ' Natal Mercury,' in speaking of the termination of the Gaika says of the son of the late Gaika chief : "This young man's career affords _ a melancholy instance of the difficulties that besst the civilisation of the native. Educated under governmental auspices at Cape Town, he had been appointed special magistrate in a frontier district, an office he held without discontent or discredit until the war broke out. Then he applied for two clays' leave of absence, a request which was at once granted. The days, however, became weeks. The love of race was stronger in him than the impulses begotten by the education he had received, and he cast in his lot with his people. It is hard to say what motive or aspirations may have impelled him thus to stake the hazard of a new life upon such a die. Although a scholar and an official, he was still a Caffre and a prince ; and Englishmen, of all people, should be slow in interpreting too harshly the race sympathies that moved him. He cast oft his clothes and his officialism, and took to the blankets and warlike habits of his people, and he now suffers the penalty of his relapse. 111, and ignobly beaten, he is a captive of the Government that did its best to reclaim and save him, and with l him expire the hope* of the Gaika tribe. '

Another son of the old chief was a student at Lovedale until the war broke out, when he "walked straight from school" t share thefortunes of his tribe.

The following estimate is given by Mr Blair of the damage done by the floods in various Otago districts : —Bruce, L 8750 ; Clutha, L 26,150 ; Tunpeka, L 19,000 ; Vincent. L 19,990 ; Lake, L 26,940 : total, L 100,830. Some of the above damage was likely to hav- occurred any year, so there is no necessily for making a special j provision for making it good. Leaving out these contingencies, the amount of extraordinary damage, which could, not reasonably have been foreseen or calcu lated, is :'Bruce, LBOOO ; Clutha, L23SPO; Tnapeka, L 18,500; Vincent, LI875oO; Lake, L 23,500: total, L 93,000. The unprecedented height of the flood shows (bat the bridge crossing wires must be built higher and stronger than has been considered necessary. The estimate of damage done cannot, therefore, be taken as the cost of restoration. Allowing for this and leaving out the Teviot bridge, he estimates the cost of making good the damage as follows: —Bruce County, LII,OOO ; Tuapeka, L 15,000; Lake, L 24,000 ; Clutha, L 29,000 ; Vincent, ■--■ L 24.000: total, L 103,000.