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Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XIII, Issue 1014, 15 April 1869, Page 2

Prize Firing. — The Wanganui District Prizes will be fired for from the 19th to 23rd of April inclusive. Ball to the Prince. — The Wellington ball was to have been held on Tuesday evening, but no tickets were issued after Monday. Scab. — We are sorry to learn that scab has broken out in one or two flocks of sheep in this district. It is not yet largely developed, and by active measures, which we know are being adopted, may perhaps be checked before it spreads to any large extent. Errata. — Several typographical errors in the spelling of Maori names and places occurred in our report of the expedition up the Waitotara. It is always difficult for printers to arrive at correctness in dealing with copy of this peculiar kind. Readers, however, would readily be able to make the necessary corrections for themselves.

Armed Constabulary. — The detachment being raised in Wellington, although it is stated great pains are being taken to secure a superior class of men, does not appear to embody such men as are desirable for constables. Two of them have been convicted of criminal offences, and each sentenced to six month’s imprisonment with hard labour.

English Mail. — It will cause considerable annoyance and disappointment in Wanganui if — as the latest Wellington papers state — the English Mail was despatched by the Alhambra on Tuesday. The mail steamer leaves Melbourne on the 25th, so that the Omeo, for which the Wanganui mail was made up, may not catch it, having, after leaving Wellington on the 18th, to call at Nelson, Greymouth, and Hokitika.

Tauranga Ika. — The Government have had a lithographed plan of this famous pa taken and exhibited in the Colonial Museum, where it will likely remain to delude visitors. Not only are the sections wrong but the plan is of the most deceptive character, and could scarcely have been sketched by any observant spectator who had spent half an hour in going over the ground. The plan seems to have been made with mathematical precision, wholly at variance with the Maori engineering. In the trenches the flanking buttresses are disposed on the plan exactly the opposite to that in the reality. The whole thing has no claim to correctness, and for an accurate sketch is worthless.

The Wanganui Ferries. — Our friend, P. M’W., who writes us regarding the ferry is wrong in supposing that local government has anything to do with the grievance of which he complains. The magistrates are the very antipodes of what we should consider local or popular governors, and the idea of hinting that they are anything else may be accepted as a grim joke on the part of our correspondent. He, however, does not stand alone in his complaints against the charges and the rules of the ferry ; these are numerous, and with too much reason ; and the fact is that the present system cannot he endured. There must, of course, be a reasonable tariff of rates, in the collection of which the ferrymen should be protected ; on the other hand, the public have a right to expect civility, along with promptitude and care in being ferried across, and that without adhering too rigidly to a given minute either at night or morning. People coming into town to public lectures and meetings at night are frequently put to much inconvenience, and sometimes charged more than enough at the ferry. But getting the thing put on a proper footing is the present point, and it is simple enough, although the remedy is one we should not recommend had any other been open to the public. Any change in the old established rates, is illegal, and we have no hesitation in saying that those crossing the ferry need pay no attention to it unless they choose. Firmness on the part of a few public-spirited individuals will soon bring the matter to a right conclusion. Oatmeal. — Our English friends rather look askance at porridge and other Scotch dishes made of oatmeal, chiefly, we suppose, because they are accounted vulgar. For their benefit, therefore, we cull the following paragraph from the Dumfries Standard :— “For a considerable time past quantities of oatmeal have been supplied by our worthy townsman, Mr Hamilton of Castlebank Mill, to the household of Queen Victoria ; and a few days ago he received an order for several stones of the same nutritious article of food for the Queen’s own use. The annual sojourns made by her Majesty and the royal family in ‘The Land of Cakes’ have familiarised them in some degree with the advantages of an oaten diet ; and we have reason to believe that not unfrequently meal baked or boiled sits side by side with the other dainty dishes placed upon the royal board.” Our Scottish contemporary contrasts this royal favour with Johnson’s famous depreciatory definition of oats being a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people. That is not the only foolish saying of this great man. Let it pass, as oatmeal is now a dainty dish to set besore the Queen ! Swift, by the way, was the first to point the national sarcasm about oats, for in quizzing the Scotch — “that noble nation” — the Dean refers to the grain “which at little trouble and less expense, finds diet and lodging for themselves and their cattle.” George the Eourth used to gratify the taste and palate of Lord Eldon by commanding “liver and lights” to he served up at his dinner-table whenever the old Chancellor was a guest, but a “bicker” of oatmeal porridge on the royal board at Windsor seems fully as revolutionary an innovation. “We live in a wonderful area !” (era) as the Edinburgh bailie sagely remarked. Her Majesty, however, has the courage and wisdom to follow simple natural tastes and feelings, without either loosing royal dignity or being very anxious to preserve it.