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Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3446, 10 January 1880, Page 2

Messes E. B. McGregor and Co., had yesterday a most .successful sale of cattle, horses and pigs at the yards, Parawai. The prices realised were most satisfactory.

We can vouch for the accuracy of the following story :—Some months ago the community of a JNorth New Zealand town was thrown into a state of painful excitement at the suicide of a highly respected youug man who had lived for some years in their midst. Some time after the sad affair a friend of his—our informant — was shown by the deceased's widow three letters addressed to the unfortunate young man. They were from friends in different parts of the world, and, strange to say, all three had been written on the same day, and at the same hour, 015 the exact time when poor took away his own life. The senders of the letters had not been regular correspond dents o f . , a nd the fact of their all sitting down to write to him at the hour of his death is an exceedingly strange and unprecedented coincidence.

The Wellington correspondent of the Herald speaking of the removal of the native prisoners says :—I am informed on direct authority that it has had the effect amongt the Maoris in aud about Wellington of enraging them, and that when the news reaches Parihaka it will be calculated to have a similar effect there. I know absolutely that Te Whiti is in direct communication, through pakeha Maori spies, with Wellington, and I can quite believe that my native informant was correct when to-day he told me that before midnight today Te Whiti would know of it. The impression on the native mind is, that these prisoners are being treated with gross injustice that the Government would not dare to exhibit to pakebas. My own impression, gathered from communication today with persons intimately associated with natives, is that the effect of thus removing these prisoners will have a most irritating effect upon the native mind, aud will tend to complicate the Waimate Plains difficulty.

A coebespondent of the Press thus reviews the present leaders' of the Opposition :—" No one of the leaders has proved a success. Mr Macandrew, besides being slow of speech, is so utterly oblivious of the necessity of means to accompish an end that no one believes in him. Mr Ballance can speak on parade, but always fails in a fight. Mr Montgomery has quite lost any power of speech he ever had, bo that no one can listen to him. Mr Stewart's great over-estimate of. himself seemed to deceive iis friends for a time, but now he is universally admitted to be a perfect failure. Mr DeLautour, on the other hand, though slow, spiritless, heartless, and with a weak, disagreeable Yankee twang, is a very reliable man, and can always tattle respectably upon any subject, and if he takes a long time about it, he chooses the right road at last. Then he is not so aggressive as Mr Hislop, and nerer descends so low, and he is equally reliable at any time of the night or morning, so that he is decidedly a rising man with his party, and in the absence of any one else at all promising, must take a lead."

It is no uncommon thing for the labouring classes to strike a light for their pipe on their trousers, but this practice is fraught with great danger. A man named Henry Wilson, of Shields, was returning by the ferry to his home at the close of his day's work, and he struck a match in the way mentioned, when all of a moment he was enveloped in flames. In little more than a minute all the clothing he had upon him was reduced to ashes and he was dreadfully burnt. With the assis ance of the; other passengers he was dressed and taken to his lodgings, where he lies in a precarious state. His clothes seem to hare become saturated with chemicals while following his employment.

A meeting of those appointed from the local bodies to confer re the pushing on of the Thames end of the railway was held this morning, but nothing definite of importance was arrived at. ' A map of the lots of lands available for the sale in Te Aroha block is on view at the Borough Council Chambers, Albert street. From Auckland we learn that a consignment of Puriri mineral water has been sent to Sir Julius Vogel, Agent-General, to introduce it to the public notice of the London market. At the tE.M* Court this morning; jthe case of Alexander Wilson, for neglecting to pay on an affiliation order, was again called. Defendant's wife said he had left the district to look for work. The case was again postpoued. We have heard that it is the intention of Mr Wilson to demand a further scrutiny of the votes polled yesterday in the South Ward election. Many persons were under the impression that the person mentioned in our telegrams as G. W. Beer was G. A. Beere, surveyor, a former resident of the Thames. This is nofc the case. The person referred to is a cabinetmaker, of' Wellington. The similarity of .the names was sufficient to cause people to confound the persons, but in justice to Mr Beere's numerous friends on the Thames it is only fair to give the above explanation. The Government have been communicated with respecting the advisability of bolding an inquest on the bodies of the natives Heteraka and his wife,;and if the extra expense of a trip for the coroner and a jury to the scene of the murder will be paid by the Government. If instructione are given, the indefatigable junior coroner will at once issue his precept. '„, ■ A "woman named Stokes was committed for trial yesterday in Christchurch on a charge of larceny of a gold watch and a pair of gold mounted eye-glasseg. Her son had found them in the street, and a neighbor who saw Mrs Stokes wearing them, and having seen an advertisement regarding the missing articles gave information to the police. It is said the following is the programme laid oufc for Pastor Chiniquy :— He proceeds to the W&ihu on Monday, then to the Thames on the ,18th, and to Waikato on the 21st. It is understood I that Hokitika will be the first place visited by him in the Middle Island. These are over two thousand officials in New Zealand, the majority of them receiving salaries, of over £200 per annum. Thebb appears to be no cud to the long list of valuable properties with ■which salicjlic acid feto be credited. The latest testimonials in i*«" favor relate to ita power in preserving fruit. I*l6 process, as- described by M. A. dal Ifi&z, °* Klostermenburg, near Vienna, is extremely simple, and consists in laying the fruit in jars of syrup uontainiug a small percentage of the acid. The proportions recommeded are two or three grammes of salicylic acid and iOO to 500 grammes of sugar to a litre of water. JSTo Doilittg or

cooking of any kind is required. Berries and stone-fruit ot all sorts thus treatfd will keep good for months t6gether, or even years, without the slightest approach to fermentation, even when the vessels containing them are but insecurely covered, and will preserve their natural aroma unaltered. Boiled fruit-juices will keep equally well with \the addition of one gramme of the acid to every two pounds of the juice, and with j such addition the "colour of the latter is 1; not altered in the -cooking. The only precaution needed is to secure pure crystallized acid of the finest kind, for the interior varieties impart an unpleasant flavour to the fruit.

A SEBiofs accident occurred at the Waikato races during the race for the Publican's Handicap. Harold knocked do,wn Mrs Murphy and her baby at the finish. The woman is badly hurt, and the baby is lying unconscious.

Dn Wallis, in his address to the electors last night at St. James' Hall,

stated Sir George Grey was deserted in the hour of victory by-the Auckland four. The Hall Ministry were imposing addi-

tional taxation on the poor, and deferring all other taxation, to All Pool's Day. After a lengthy speech, a vote of confidence was awarded.

The Wellington Post's Hawera correspondent wires, that should the report prove correct, that nothing will be done re the Plains until after the Commission has reported, it is intended to hold meetings.throughout the district and ask Major Atkiuson to resign, as it was upon the distinct promise of immediate settlement of the Plains, that he gained his seat. The Premier, who has been Bouth, returns at once, and it is stated that hit return is in connection with the deferred occupation. * What will be the nest rare in Dunedin? (asks the Star.) Free-thought lecturing is evidently played out; Spiritualism is getting fiat; and even theatrical evangelism does not, as may be gathered from.recent appeals to the converted, pay expenses p If some new sensation is not started, what will the people-with long and itching ears do? This is the time and opportunity of initiating a new sect on some startling principle—say the apotheosis of Miles' donkey or the revival of some of the more pleasant parts of Paganism. So many people now, thanks to Mr Bright, Mrs Britten, and Mr Stout, do not believe in anything, not even tho Devil, that a thoroughly outrageous end monstrous creed would secure at once a big adherency. Such has ever been the way of the world, A WBEB4X gentleman in England, who ""Meets to the disclosure of his came, has £; • cheque of £1000 to the Jtev. rZLr,-r.,ji o « ,'* be invested for church S UII I^likely, r«■«? ™. that it will be invested for the the Wesleyan Home Mission Funi TS"ew Zealand.

The Herald, speaking of the approaching meeting at Te Waotu, Upper Waikato, says the meeting will be composed uiainly of members of the great and scattered Ngaliraukawa tribe, who have settlements and land claims through the whole of the centre of the island from Maungatautari to Cook's Straits. Of late yeara these people have to a great extent separated themselves in policy from the King party. They have sold land to the Government, and have also abstained from all hostile action. The interest attaching to the forthcoming meeting will be to see how they carry themselves towards the King party. Tawhiao would no doubt be delighted to have even a qualified adhesion, an it would strengthen his position, and aid him in preventing the establishment of European settlements in the interior. With the aid and assistance of the Ngatirukawa tribe, the Europeans may turn the flank of the King party, by piercing the interior in the centre, and this is indeed the plan which we have long advocated, and still consider the best. The JSfgatiraukawa are to be gathered from all their settlements; and Tawhiao will no donbt also have emissaries at the meeting. Me Parnell, the leader of the Home Eule party, suggests the following scheme for relieving Ireland:—He proposes to make a change in the land system of Ireland of the most thorough and radical description—namely, that the British Government should raise a vast sum of money at 4|>er cent., buy all the country land of Ireland, and sell it on extended credit to the present tenant farmers. He calculates that the operation of transfer from the landlords to a race of peasant proprietors could be effected in a generation, at the close of which period the present owners would have been paid the fair Talue of their properties, and the new proprietors would hold the fee simple free of debt. He sketches out his plan in the following terms:—" Taking the present purchase value ofy 22 years' rental, the tenants would pay the purchase money, principal and interest, in 35 annual instalments. This would pay the principal, the interest, and the working expenses of the officials necessary to carry out the Act. At the end of 35 years the tenant or his lineal representative would become the owner in fee, for ever, and all paying of rent would cease. The landlord' would lose nothing ; he would obtain the full value of his interest in the land, and would be for ever freed from dependence for his income upon the prosperity or non-prosperity of his tenant. It would take just a generation to convert the occupiers of the Irish* soil into owners, without recourse to revolution, without •robbing' the landlord!, or interfering with the rights of property, or doing any of those dreadful things which the English papers and English public men charge us with intending to do. With the plan I suggest, the" land would revert to the occupier in the process of time, and would so revert without any hardship to the landlord."

Bargains negotiated daily from 2 to 5 p.m. in' iron bedsteads, door mats &c, to effect a speedy clearance. A large stock of pianos and harmoniums now on sale, for cash or monthly payments. J. Gbiggk Pollen street.—[Advt/ 1