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Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XIII, Issue 1015, 17 April 1869, Page 2

Horticultural Society. — The amount of money collected, on the occasion of the late show, by admission fees and the proceeds of an auction afterwards of flowers and fruit, was £27. Suez Mail. — The s.s. Rangitoto carrying the February English mails for New Zealand was to have left Melbourne to-day — the 17th of April — and is due at Hokitika on the 23rd.

Found Drowned. — The body of the other trooper — Henry Weston — was found on Thursday morning near the left bank of the river and opposite the spot where eleven days before he had been drowned while trying to save his comrade’s life. An inquest held on the remains returned a verdict of accidental death. The s.s. Wanganui. — The Government is anxious to charter the s.s. Wanganui for the purpose of military transport. This may be taken as indicative of the fact ; which is but too apparent, that there is no prospect of a speedy termination of the war but rather that its prolongation is indefinite. The negotiations with the Wanganui directors are still in progress. The Waitotara Raid. — Major Noake’s official report of this expedition has been handed by the Government to the Wellington papers. It contains nothing which has not been more amply reported in these columns. It is besides disfigured by what are evidently printer’s errors ; the punctuation being on a scale which renders the text rather involved.

Fire Police. — We are glad to notice a movement in the direction of establishing a Fire Police. The Wanganui Fire Brigade, at their meeting on the 14th inst, determined to have the matter tested, and for that purpose have called a public meeting for Wednesday next. It does not necessarily follow the organization of a Fire Police is dependent on the Fire Brigade, although the initiative comes appropriately from them.

Telegraph. — It will be seen that the Government is determined to lose no time in pushing on the telegraph between Wanganui and Wellington, and, for the earlier completion of communication, have decided upon working from either end. Tenders for the supply of 900 poles, are required before the 8th of May, and the several contracts have to be fulfilled by the middle of July. The line will pass through Tutaenui on its way to the ferry at the Rangitikei river.

Licensing. — Twenty-two applications for licenses, for the sale of spirituous liquors, have been filed at the Resident Magistrates Court. The Meeting of Justices is to be held on the 20th inst. Nineteen of these are for renewals in the district (two of them being transfers, viz, Commercial and Red Lion Hotels) — all the licensed houses been applied for, besides the following fresh applications : Edwin Loscombe, Edward Samuel Broughton, and Thomas Wayth Gudgeon. The War. — The whole of Colonel Whitmore’s Field Force will by this time have reached the East Coast. No enemy having been found in the neighbourhood of New Plymouth or the Waitara, the Government steamers, Sturt and St Kilda had taken the whole force — with the exception of the 7th division left near New Plymouth — to the Manukau, from whence they would march for Auckland and there embark in other steamers for Tauranga or Wairoa. Canada Redoubt. — Ensign Middlemas has been commissioned to secure the services of twenty men and hold this post. Does the Government mean to make the country believe, by this movement, that the Patea district is in process of being re-occupied ? If so, they are reckoning without their host. The device is a political sham. We have the most perfect confidence in Ensign Middlemas, but we are unable to see what object is to be gained by his occupation of Canada redoubt. The unfortunate settlers know that they cannot yet awhile return to the Patea district.

Taranaki. — H.M.S.S. Challenger which arrived in Wellington harbour on Monday afternoon, from Sydney, by way of Taranaki, brought the following official intelligence :— On the 9th inst the St Kilda went to the mouth of the Mokau river, having on board Colonel Whitmore and and the hon Mr Richmond ; very few natives were seen, and the vessel returned to Waitara. On the 11th the hon Mr Richmond left for the Manukau in the St Kilda, taking with him the Arawas on their way to Maketu to attend the Land Court. An expedition was to leave Titorangi on the 13th, under Major Brown, for Ngatimoroa, information having been received of the arrival in that district of the women and children of Titokowaru’s tribe.

The State of Native Affairs. — At a time like the present when a quietude on the part of the enemy seems to indicate a state of prostration, people, and outsettlers especially, are liable to lull themselves into a state of security. We cannot be too earnest in impressing on the authorities and the people themselves to be more than ever careful and vigilant. We know enough of the treacherous character of the foe we have to deal with, to convince us that, discomfited but not defeated, he is recruiting his strength, and may at any time of the day or night seize the advantage of relaxed discipline or fancied security. It is not enough to know that the whereabouts of the enemy is unknown ; it may too surely be visited upon us if we do not know that every precaution is exhausted in being on our guard.

Bibles. — Among the loot found by the expedition up the Waitotara river the other day, was a canoe load of bibles, which showed no indications of having been sudied by the natives, who rather, it would seem, had preserved them too carefully. They are supposed to have been distributed ten or fifteen years ago. The Wanganui Ferries. — The complaints regarding these ferries form our excuse for returning to the subject. The ferrymen state that certain charges have the sanction of the R. M. Court, which means nothing, for the R. M. Court has as much to do with the ferries as with the wharfs. The whole arrangements are eminently unsatisfactory, even the letting of the ferries, if what is reported to us be correct. We cannot, however speak authoratatively on the point, because the press was excluded from the meeting at which the tenders were considered, but we shall give the story as it is generally received. In answer to the advertisement calling for these tenders two were handed in, both these were for the lower ferry, and both were higher than the sum paid by the lessees, who gave in no tender. The magistrates, however, declined to entertain either of the tenders received, for what reason has not transpired, and entered into treaty with Messrs. Blair, asking if they would continue the ferry at the old rates ! This they consented to do after making their own terms — terms which they had perfect right to insist upon in the circumstances, but terms which, the magistrates had not a shadow of right to grant.