LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 293, 21 September 1880, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Government have decided to offer for sale, at Carlyle and Hawera (North Island), on the 25th October nexi, a portion of the Waimate Plains. The part to be sold on deterred payments are to be sold at £5 per acre, and if more than one applicant to be put up to auction between the applicants at Hawera on the 28th October. Other lands will be sold by auction on the 29th October ; open to all bidders. The upset price to be £4 ; one forth to be paid on the fall of the hammer, balance in one month after; payment to be made to receiver of land revenue at Car lyle. These lands are famed all over the Colony, while, the North Island, it is wellk:mwn, is hlgjjsed with the finest climate of any part of New Zealand. As it is possible that some intending purchasers may be in this part of the Colony, we would refer them to the Post Office authorities at Temuka, where further particulars may be obtained. Wa would again draw the attention of our readers to Mr K. j? Gray’s sale of stock, &c., at the Temuka pound yards, this day, as a good chance for obtaining bargains. It is, moreover, a wise policy to support these monthly sales in our midst. We do not see any reason why they should not become very useful and profitable for those who have, from time to time, surplus stock to dispose n f. In the midst of a large agricultural district

the more of these sales the better, and it is to be hoped the apathy that has characterised our local farmers to what is for their own interest will speedily pass away, and a desire to support local institutions take its place.

The necessity of vomen, in the absence of their husbands, taking every precaution against stragglers and half-drunken men was truly exemplified on Saturday afternoon last. A person, apparently under the influence of drink, attempted to enter a house in Ternuka on that day by getting in at the window. The husband being absent at the time, the wife became much alarmed and rushed, white and trembling, to a neighbour’s house for protec'iou. The neighbour, on arriving at the house, found the fellow half way through the window. After a little trouble, he was forcibly ejected from the place. Our informant states that a man, who lives close by the place, did not otter any assistance, and on requesting two youths to go for a policeman tiiey declined to go, thus enabling the man to get away. Such conduct (we allude particularly to the man who stood looking on), \ e have no hesitation in saying, deserves the severest censure.

A correspondent in the Lyttelton Times advocates, as a local industy, the making of rough barrels for packing potatoes from Y.D.L. palings, if no native wood can be used, instead of bags, as being better and cheaper of the two.

~The Temuka Rifle Volunteers were floated to a little out-door drill on Friday evening last. The different movements—viz., skirmishing, forming squares, and counter-marching—were very creditably done, though a little more attention to “dressing,” and less talking and laughing, whilst skirmishing, would be a decided

improvement. The Geraldine races takes place on Thursday and Friday, For the principal events the sporting writer in N. Z. Public Opinion gives the following tips :—Hurdle Race, Clarence or Little John ; Publicans’ Handicap, Luna ; Cup, Luna or Piufire. The Parish priest in Christchurch .acknowledges with thanks, through the Press, the magnificent donation from Mr John Ryan of one hundred guineas towards the erection of a peal of bells. The train returning from Lyttelton to Christchurch with persons that had been nsiting H.M S. Danae on Sunday last, consisted of thirty carriages, two vans, and tvo engines.

We learn from a contemporary tint the Government have received a telegram fiom the Native Minister reporting the result of the Parihaka meeting, which commenced on Friday, and which is understood to have practically concluded on Saturday. Te Whiti and Tohu delivered long spjeohes, both stating that there was to be no more fencing, but *• those who were left should remain for ever.” They also said that the "Son of Man” would come almost immediately, indeed might be expected at any hour, and his advent should make the Maoris triumphant. It is believed that this alludes to the coming of the new Governor.

The Post's Hawera correspondent telegraphed on Saturday last as follows

“Rumors are current here to the effect that the constabulary intend to march on Parihaka to take Hiroki. The Maoris up the coast say that the object is tostake Te Whiti and Tohu. Jdo not know from whence the report originates, which is disbelieved here.”

We notice from an exchange that, since the imposition of 3rd per gallon duty on beer, some publicans in Dunedin and Balclutha have reduced the price just onehalf.

The 0. D. Times says, in answer to an assertion made by aTimaru contemporary, that it has the b st auihority for saying that the olt-repeated statement regarding the Main line, that it was taken round Purakanm Cliffs through political influence is absolutely without a shadow of foundation.

According to an extract from a letter from Grcymouth, published ia the Ndson Mail, very good gold is being get far up the ranges between the bend of the B »ck Ball and the Ten-Mile Creeks, running from the ranges seaward. The discovery is sole’y the result of findings at the Seventeen-Mile Beach.

It is rumoured that the Victorian Government contemplate releasi g Pow r, b e bushranger. As Power is now crippled with rheumatisms, there may be some truth in the rumour.

A milkman a* Bolton was recently tried for having sold milk after 9 o’clock on a Sunday morning.

The taking of the new census in Eng land next year is expected to involve the employment of 32,000 collectors or “ enumerators,” and 21)00 registrars.

Up to Jun 30 of the current year considerably over 2000 ejectments have been executed in Ireland.

The German array on April 1, 1881, when the organisation of the several corps lately ordered to be formed will have been completed, will amount to 1,532,063 offi cers and men of all ranks and arms. This number includes the reserve and garrison troops, and Landvvehr forces.

The Hawke’s Bay Herald states, on the authority of a s Tgeant of police that a boy named Walter was sold to the Maoris by a Scandinavian for a kit of potatoes about five years ago. Too boy is to be sent to an Industrial School.

Colorado beetles have of late been making themselves unpleasantly conspicuous by their proceedings m Winchester County, New York, where they have appeared in alarming numbers.

Dunedin is becoming very highly civilised indeed (says the Sydney Bulletin). We have before us a bill rendered by a Scotch landlady to a young man lately resident in that fair city. It runs thus : “Mr Dr to Mrs Mac . To four weeks’ board and lodging at 32s 6d, £6 10s; two pills, 2d; total, £6 10s 2d.’ There is something essentially Northern about this.

yol.unteer parades on Saturday afternoons, which were lately instituted in Christchurch, do not appear to be a success. Of a recent one the Lyttelton Times says that the companies represented were the Christchurch Artillery, Engineers, and City Guards, hut only a few men of each corps attended. They were marched to the Park under the command of Major Lean, who put them through some very useful skirmishing drill. The officers seem to do all in their power to make the Saturday afternoon parade a success, as the majority of them are always present. It is a pity the noncommissioned officers and privates do not follow th ii example, as there is no doubt that much more can be learned by daylight in the Park than can ever be learnt by gaslight in the drillshed. This is a time (says the Boston Post) when, as Americans, we feel like doing a little boasting. One hundred and four years ago, when we declared ourselves to be a free and independent people, our population was less than three millions. To-day, according to General Walker’s rough estimate, it is 84,000,000. Boston was then an insignificant village, so far as population was concerned, and New England had but a few scattered schools and two colleges. The entire country had but 37 newspapers, and the best of them were not equal to the worst weeklies printed to-day in the mushroom towns of the Rocky Mountain regions. In we had but 75 post-offices, and the mails were carried on horseback over 1900 miles of road, at an expense of 32,000 dollars per year. To-day we have 38,000 post-offices—and new ones are bei g established daily—and the mails are carried over 265,000 miles of post-roads, at an annual expense of 29,000,000 dels. We have nearly a quarter of a million miles of telegraph wire. We have 141,629 schoolhouses, 63,082 churches, 782 daily newspapers, and over 9000 periodicals of all kinds. Our firms are valued at not less than 9,262,803,861 dol, our farming implements at 336,872 423 dol, and our live stock at 1,525,276,457 dol. Our farm products in a single year have brought us 2,447,538,658 dol, and in the same time we have paid, in farm wages, 310,286,286 dol. Our crops are bountiful, yea, enormous, ai d our exports have reached nearly 476,000,000 dol in a twelvemonth. Our manufactories are prosperous. In cotton goods we challenge the world. In one year our 960 mills turned out cloth

enough to encircle the earth 20 times, if made into one piece, with still enough left to make every human being a suit of clothes, and furnish each with pieces for patching.