TAURANGA JOTTINGS.

Observer, Volume 4, Issue 89, 27 May 1882, Page 170

TAURANGA JOTTINGS.

— Tommy Jordan was on the search parties. He says "those surveyor chaps can walk as fast through the bush as they can on land !" —This from the "Buster " :— "The Rev. Thos. Buddie, the father of the Wesleyan body in New Zealand, is on a visit to his son, Mr J. P. Buddie." Comment is " s'perflus." —It loots bad to see the chairman of the school committee inviting tenders for " Shingling and erecting a verandah on the hotise," &c, when he wants the verandah erected and the house shingled. — Several unforseen circumstances have arisen to prevent our football club from making a strong and early start this year. It's never too late to mend, and I believe I am safe in prophesying a brilliant winter for the kickists. — r There will come rather a rude awakening for a young man in one of our financial institutions if he docs not abjure the flowing bowl, or at least be more circumspect in his indulgenco of it. A hint in time may save unpleasantness. — Some of the coach and hotel proprietors evidently thought they should make hay while the sun shone, or, rather, while Yates remained in the bush. Instead of reducing their charges to search parties, they increased them. A few unfortunates had to pay 2s a night for sleeping on the floor in their own blankets. — By the time Mr Yates came out of the bush, he was the most popular man in Tauranga. Truly, absence makes the heart grow fonder. In this connection a word to "Bushman." His statements mayor may not have been correct, but publishing his letter when he did showed execrable taste. He evidently does not consider virtue its own reward. — A citizen who is noted for his snobbishness appeared the other evening in a soiled shirt and no collar. A rival, reading something re dog collars in his morning paper, caught sight of our collarless friend, and exclaimed, "There goes a dog without a collar." "You're mistaken," retorted a bystander, "that's a puppy. Puppies are exempt." — The " Wesleyan body " was gaily decked in long coats and the intensely religious bslltopper for the foundation business on Thursday last. The ceremony went off well, and it would be superfluous for mo to say anything about preachers already so well-known ; but is it usual to place the foundation-block on the south-west corner of a church ? — The enterprising jonversazione projector has struck oil matrimonially. The acquaintance has been short and decisive, but the affection is strong. "With admirable forethought be wished the ceremony to take place on the Queen's Birthday (it would be so convenient to celebrate both anniversaries at once, you know), but his ma'ma-in-law elect thinks the young couple can wait a couple of months before plunging into that bottomless abyss yclept matrimony. — Poor Yates makes the fifth person who has boen lost in the Oropi bush. Of this number, two were never heard from. One, a member of the Native Contingent named Eota, the natives believe to have been murdered. Although they know the boundaries within which he uisappeared, thej have never succeeded in finding any trace of him. A Maori youth went into the bush at the Tautau, lost himself, and re-appeared at the head of Eotorua Lake three weeks after— a maniac. Some Maoris caught sight of him, but on their advancing to secure him he bolted for the bush, and was not seen again for ten days, when he was captured at Te Puke. His reason never returned. While at Te Puke .his sister died, and he was set to watch the body during the night. In the morning he was missing— so auas ilia hodij ! About a week after he returned, but without the corpse. It has never been found, and he never divulged what he did with it. During his sojourn in the bush he had subsisted on the excrement of pigs. — The Ake Ake natives once secured a man in the bush, near their settlement, who had lost his way somewhere near Short- ' land, and had never been out of the bush since. They kept him as a kind of slave. Although his mind was gone, his physical strength returned to such an abnormal extent that he fenced in their plantations, and did the work of two ordinary men. From Shortland to Ake Ake is about fifty miles as the crow flies, but in order to reach the latter place through the bush he must have wandered for several months over densely-wooded mountain ranges, through rivers, gullies, canons, &c, in the most broken country in the North Island. This man disappeared as he came.