The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23 1880. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 320, 23 November 1880, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23 1880. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tiie Te Arofaa has been proclaimed a goldfield, and the proclamation will be brought into operation next Thursday,

- The Wellington Regatta Committee are arranging for a procession of boata «n the arrival, of the new Governor,

Mr K. F< Gray will sell to-morrow, at his new sale yards, immediately after tl'e wool sale, I horse, I filly, I spring cart, and 1 qow.

One of the Maori prisoners, who vras recently very troublesome on Ripa Island, was removed in irons to Lyttelton gao* this morning.

Coal is reported tq have been found on the Harbor Board's property in Lyttelton. The specimens are very good, and should the seam be anything like the samples shown tlie find should prove a very valuable one.

Messrs Frankish Brothers, of Loeston, have just received advices of the dale of a shipment of their Talavera wheat in London at 543 per quarter. The sample is described as being very flue.

The Cricket Association, Christchurch, have decided to offer the Australian Eleven half the receipts of a match from all sources, the expense of advertising io be divided equally, and the Eleven to p:iy their own expenses while han*.

In anticipation of the completion of the Cathedral tower, a Society has been formed under the title of the " Christchurch Cathedral Bellringers Society." Members will practise for the present probably upou the bella of the Papauui (suburban) church.

Joseph Worms, a prisoner in the Mount Eden gaol, Auckland, undergoing a term of three years' penal servitude, is reported as in a dying state, with no hopes of his recovery. Worms has been in a desponding state of mind since his degradation, which has been undermining his constitution.

A rifle match between the Torpedo Coips and the Guards took place on Satur day afternoon, at Wellington. After an exciting contest the former proved victors by eight points. Mr E. G. Griffith, of Christchurch, has been appointed by the Racing Club as handicapper for the Summer Meeting

The Rev. Father Roigner while driving into Napier on Saturday morning to the convent was thrown out of his buggy, striking iiis head against the stone wall of the conveut, and was injured to such an extent that he is not expooted to recover. The greatest anxiety prevaih in Napier as the old gentleman, wiio is seventy years of age, was universally beloved.

Edward Fearon, who lately passed his examination as solicitor, and was admitted in Wellington, but whose brain became affected, died on Saturday morning. On being released from the asylum in Wellington he went to Nelson, but was committed to the asylcm there at once. He inflicted injuries upon himself oq Friday night wh'ch proved fatal next morn ing.

A Gazette notice state?, that from and after Saturday, the 4th December prox., the Money Order and Savings Bank offices at Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Wellington will be closed on Saturdays at 2 p,m., instead of 5 p.m., as at present, and they will be re-opened from 6"30 to B*3o p.m. every Saturday evening for the receipt of Saving Banks deposits and the opening of new Savings Bank accounts only. Notice is also given that on aDd after the Ist December next the; commission on money orders issued in New Zealand on the United Kingdom will be charged according to the following scale :—For sums exceeding £2, Is ; for sums exceeding £2 and not exceeding £4, 2s ; for sums exceeding £4 and not exceeding £6, 3s ; for sums exceeding £6 and not exoeeding £B, 4s ; for sums exceeding £8 and not exceeding £lO, ss.

In some of the great boot and shoe factories of Massachusetts, the Pall Mall Gazette states, hydraulic shoe-presses are employed, by the aid of which one operator can sole 700 pair of shoes per day ; power-machines for trimming and planing the edges of soles of shoes, each doing the work of three men, and doing it better ; sewing-welt machines, making shoes as pliable and comfortable as when handsewed, and turning out 120 pairs a day per machine ; wax and dry thread sewingmachines. Iu leather-dressing machinery there are glossing, stoning, pebbling, and polishing 'Jacks, turning and strappingmills; hide-unhairing machines, equal to the work of forty eight men, taking out the lime and doing away with the cumbersome processes of bating and drenching; leather-meas'iring machines of rapid and aocurate action ; and leather softening machines, hy which every fibre is loosened and softened without injury, and the leather rendered s,troug, soft, and flexible.

A lady dentist has started in business at Napier. *

One of the recent purchasers of land on the Waimate Plains began to plough up a» old Maori cultivation tliero recently. Some natives, who were passing, requested him not to meddle with some potatoes whioh were stored in pits thore. Oats wore being sown and potatoes planted yesterday by the samo settler. The old - settlers soeni quite pleased to think that one of the white men has undertaken to do unto the Maoris as the Maoris did to them about fifteen months

Moffatt, the Pakeha-Maori who was shot at Tohua (says the New Zealand Times), had for some time been living at Palmerston North with his Native wife, a finelookiug young woman. He bus only one child. The wife's maiden name was Mere te Aweawe ; a sister of Peetite Aweawe. The reason assigned by Moffat to the Natives for his visit to Tuhua was not prospecting for gold, but prospecting for bank notes, a bundle of which he is stated to have concealed there some years ago, after an attempt on the part of the Natives to rob him of £IOOO, which he was known to have in his house. This money ho re ceived for a share in a flour-mill at Maungatatan, of which he was manager. There will be much grief among his Maori friends at Palmerston, where he was liked of late years, notwithstanding his unenviable notoriety. About 18 months ago the deceased Moffat and his wife were staying for some three weeks in Wellington, first residing at the Duke of Edinburg, and afterwards at Wakeford's Hotel, Manners street.

As the only effective means of putting a stop to what promises to be a pest to the landowners on the Waimnte Plains, unless speedily eradicated, the HaweraStar mentions that a movement is on foot for purchasing all the Maori pigs at present running on a large portion of the block of land recently sold on the Plains. It is stated by those who ought to know that there will probably be but little difficulty : in arranging with the Maori owners at a reasonable price. No doubt buyers could easily be found for a large number of the pigs now running at large ; men and dog« would be forthcoming to catch and convey all the marketable ones to fresher fields and pastures new, the old tuskera being treated iu a summary manner, with a short shiift and a long knife. The Auckland Herald says that when the interpreter informed Joe, the Fijian murderer, of his reprieve, he simply nodded his head, and manifested no signs to indicate that the intelligence was welcome to him or otherwise. The question was put to him several times whether he understood the purport of the communication. Joe each time nodded his head, but made no manifestation. He was told that the sentence was commuted ; that although he was not to be hanged, he would be kept in prison for the term of bis natural life. Another nod without accompanying word wis all the indication that could be obtained as to the effect of intelligence which would make most other men iD such a situation give some visible sign of satisfaction or gratitude. Joe, after the announcement was made to him, was conducted to the gaol yard, where the heavy irons were struck off his legs. He showed himself well enough pleased with bis release from these incumbrances. All through the man seemed to maintain his passive demeanour. We have heard that Joe has shown disappointment in one particular. Whether or not he be greatly pleased at escaping the gallows, his sorrow was palpable enough when told that one of the creature comforts allowed to condemned criminals would be. taken from him. He had a small allowance of tobacco which will henceforth be denied him. He showed more concern at losing his tobacco than joy at reprieve from death.

A correspondent of the Bay of Plenty Times sends the following from Maketu : —"A messenger has just arrived from Rotoehu Lake to fetch the Ngatipikiao, a member of that hapu having started with his companion pig-hunting on the shores of the Rotorua Lake, and having chased the pig into a small cave, which appears to have been a ' ngawhu,' or hot spring. Seeing the pig struggling in a small pool of water, the young man (Reihana by name) sprang in, and endeavoured to drive the pig out, but next moment he was seen to drop down apparently lifeless. His comrade went to his assistance but soon felt himself being asphyxiated from the strong fumes rising from the water, which \> as quite warm. He regained the mouth of the cave with diffi culty, and ran to the nearest settlement for assistance. Four men returned with him to the spot, and upon one of the number attempting to rescue the body he was nearly suffocated, and had to be carried to the lake and dipped in th 3 water before consciousness returned. ±sy means of a long stick and a noose they succeeded in raising the body, which was then quite black from the fatal cave, and the messenger ar» ived here as above to invite the Ngatipikiao to attend the { tangihangi.' This account is obtained from the Natives and may be highly colored. The writer has seen the messenger above referred to, and heard the statement from his own lips, It is well known that some extraordinary mineral springs exist in the vicinity of Rotoehu and Rotorua Lakes,"