The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2325, 4 June 1887, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Kqi'.iil and exact justice to M men, Ol whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. SATURDAY, JUNE J h 1887. * The Rev- Dr. Grimes is to be the Now Roman Catholic Bishop of Christchurch. " A Political and Financial Reform Association' , has been formed in Auckland, with the object of influencing the coming general elections. Between £18,000 and £19,000 has been subscribed to the fund for the relief of the families of those killed in the Bulli mine. It is estimated that £1000 will have to be refunded by the Auckland Customs to merchants, as representing the amount paid in excess of the old rates of duties. We are requested to state that a bible class between the hours of 7 and 8, and singing practice between 8 and 9 will be held every Tuesday evening at Kihikihi in connection with the Presbyteriau Church. We are pleased to learn that Mr Henry Buttle is progressing favourably as might, be expected under the care of Dr. March. It is expected that he will be able to return home in a few days, but he will require a long period of rest. Patterson, the man charged with tin-owing vitriol at a woman named Cowderoy at Newton, Auckland, on the 28th inst.-j has been committed for trial. Prisoner denied that he intended to injuro the woman, but wanted to destroy the cloak she was wearing ! A good deal of trouble has been experienced at the Taupiri coal mine for some weeks, owing to a portion of the mine being on tire. The difficulty has been overcome by the manager, Mr Collins, who generally proves himself equal to any emergency that can happen in his department. Captain Reid, of the Hamilton Light Infantry Volunteers, has received a letter from the Defence Store, Auckland, dated J une 2nd, stating that twenty riHes and sets of accoutrements, together with three targets, stays, &c, would be forwarded on to Hamilton on Friday, and tho rest of the rifles as soon as they were cleaned. The Waikato Heads natives returned home yesterday by the morning train from Cambridge, Mr John Grice having furnished them with funds. The Native Minister had not even the courtesy to acknowledge tho telegram sent by them until yesterday afternoon. The school football match, Hamilton v. Cambridge, has been postponed, in consequence of the teams being unable to agree as to the time of day that it should take place. Cambridge wanted to play in the morning, so as to return by tho midday train, and the Hamilton boys would not agree to it, as many of the players could not be notified to attend. Mr Cross, telegraph lineman, residing at Hamilton, met with a serious accident on Thursday. He was mounting his horse near the Public Hall, when the animal reared and fell upon him. Mr Cross wa-i removed to his residence, and attended to by Dr. March. The injuries, though severe, were not of a fatal character, and the patient is likely soon torecover. The usual monthly meeting of the Kirikiriroa Road Board was hold at the Waikato County Council Chambers, Hamil'ton, yesterday. Present : Messrs A. Primrose (Chairman), Maelean and Lovell. Some business of a routine character was transacted, and a resolution confirming the

striking of a rate of 4/1 in the£. Accounts amounting to £108, odd were passed for payment. , We received last night what purported to be a summary of the Public Works Statement, delivered in the House of Representatives yesterday. We are, however, unable to make head or tail of it, though it appears ;that £110,000 is to be spent on the trunk railway, and £!)000 on the Hikutaia section of the Thames-Wai-kato railway. The following is a list of the :vmounts;Teceived;as income and subsidy by tlie various public libraries in this district during the year :—Alexandra* income, £18 10s 2;i; subsidy, £10' lOs Id ; Cambridge, £7lil4s()d, £24 Gs; Hamilton, £30 17s sd, £13 (is lid : Ki hi kiln, £8 7s 3d, £7 l'Js 5d ; Lichtield, £5 2s li.i. £7 3s 10d; Ngaruawaliia, £5 IDs (id, £7 8s ; Raglan, £3 7s (id, £(i 15s (id; To Aroha, £5S 8s 2d, £18 19s 5d ; Te Awamutu, £12 18s 3d, £9 12s 3d. The members of the Hamilton Light Infantry |Volunteers intend celebrating Her Majesty's Jubilee by a grand ball, on the evening of Tuesday, June 21st, in the Oddfellow's Hall. The committee have all the arrangements woll forward, and expect a large number of guests. The catering is in the hands of Mr E. L. Smith, of the. Royal Hotel, which is sufficient a guarantee that nothing will be wanting in that department. The music will bo provided by Bandmaster Munro and members of the band, assisted by competent amateurs. An advertisement containing further particulars will be found in another column. The Postmaster-General and Commissioner of Telegraphs has approved of the following holiday arrangements in the post and telegraph offices :—As far as practicable a close holiday will be observed on Monday, the 20th inst., the early morning nviils however are to be despatched by post office as. usual, and all other mails which; in ordinary course would close after 8 a.m. are to be made up during the early morninc despatch ; telegraph offices to open to the public from 9 to 10, and again in the evening from 7" to'B o'clock. On the Tuesday and Wednesday following a general half-holiday on each day is to be observed, all offices to open to the public at 8 a.m., and to close at noon ; telegraph offices to reopen from 7 to 8 p.m. According to a well-known Belgian journal, a strong syndicate has been formed of Belgian and English capitalists for the construction of 1,500 miles of railways in China. The proposal, which has been made to the Chinese Government through the, lJalgian Minister at Pekiu, and which will doubtless be accepted, is to place a sum of thirty-two millions sterling in the hands of the Government to be repaid in ten annual instalments. Two lines—tlie material for which shall only be Belgian or English manufacture—are to hn built, one from Nankin across the Tein-Tsinand along the great canal to Peking, 800 miles in length, and another from Canton to Hanoi, 700 miles in length.—Railway News. A special meeting of the Newcastle Road Board was held at the office on Wednesday, Ist June. Present: Messrs Corboy (chairman), Rothwdl, Corbett and Bycroft. The resolution to strike a rate of id in the £ for the current year, passed at Fast meeting was confirmed. Tenders were then considered for road formation on the Hamilton-Whatawhata old road, when Thomas Jones' tender for 3s 3d per chain was accepted. For the works near Bycroft's, Mr W. Harris's tender, for fascining 10s per chain, draining 2s (id per chain, two culverts £19 7s and a small culvert clearing &c, including £2 ss, earth cutting 4 : 'jd per cubic yard, ot a lump sum of £4'o7slod was accepted. Mr Charlton waited on the board relative to a road to his farm. The board requested him to reply to the board's letter sent him, or put his remarks on the matter in writing, so as to enable the board to consider the case. The progress which the United States have mule in the 1 >st generation, that is since the close of their great Civil War, has been in some respects unparelled in the histi:ry of the world Some recently published statistics show that since the year 18G5, her population has increased G9 per cent., her hay crop 100 per cent., her cotton crop 194 per cent., her grain crop 25G per cent., and her production of pig-iron 380 per cent. In view of these astonishing figures, the forthcoming American Exhibition of the Arts, Manufactures Products, and Resources of the United State*, to be opened on May 2 of this year, at Earl's Court, Kensington, will have a deep interest for all thinking persons. It is to be hoped, and it is promised, that this exhibition will give us a clear insight into the means by which our Yankee cousins have achieved such gigantic results in the last score of years. Anybody who takes the trouble to turn over the pages of the new edition of Bernard Burkes "Peerage" (says the World) may see for himself how little fitted to affect the " popular imagination " our existing aristocracy has already become. Of the whole number of .610 peers and peeresses in their own right whose names are therein enumerated, no fewer than 419 bear titles which have been created sinco the accession of George 111. Of these five dukedoms, three marquisates, 20 earldoms. 14 viscounties, and 118 baronies are the creations of the Queen, while a host of other peerages created by her in the half-century she has reigned have become extinct. Not to mention promotions in the peeiage and peerages of the United Kingdom conferred on Scotch and Irish peers, no fewer than 54 commoners have been raised to the peerage at the instance of Mr Gladstone alone, against 37 at the instance of Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury. At the meeting of the Auckland Crown Lands Board on Thursday, the Under-Secretary of Lands directed attention to the Gazette of 12th May, setting apart for selection under the Perpetual Leasing Regulations, block XLL, Maungataritari, and block IX., Patetere. A schedule was submitted, and it was stated by the chairman that the sections would be open for selection by tender on the 24th June. The same Gazette contained a notification of the setting apart of lands in Waitoa and Te Aroha districts under the same regulations, and these will also be open for selection by tonder on the 24th June, and a block in the Waimate district was similarly dealt with. F. H. Edgecumbe applied for lots 201 and 202, Newcastle South, and the secretary of the Auckland Institute recommended that the seetions be offered for sale at £3 per acre. Robert Kirkwood applied for lease of lots 25 and 20, town of Cambridge East, and the secretary of the Institute recommended the lease of the sections at a rental of £5 or £0 for both. It was agreed to give effect to the wishes of the Institute. Major Atkinson's amendment was carried in the House of Representatives on Thursday morning by 31 to 23. The Governor replied to the address as follows : —"The Governor acknowledges the receipt of an address from the House of Representatives, dated Ist June, stating that in the opinion of the House, (1) The election of members for the next Parliament'should take place under the Representation Bill now before Parliament; (2) The new Parliament should be convened for the despatch of business not later than Ist September next. The Governor is advised that the two recommendations in the address are inconsistent, and that it is impossible to hold the elections under the new Bill and to asseinble Parliament not later than Ist September. He is also advised that the Bill could be amended so that the time necessary for summoning Parliament shall be shorter than under the Bill in its present shape. He is assured that his advisers will use every effort to enable Parliament to be called together under a new Act at the earliest practicable moment." A concert in aid of the school funds was held at the Tamahere school last night. There was a good attendance, and an excellent entertainment was provided. The following was the programme : —Overture, pianoforte, Miss Main; song, "Fond Hearts." Miss Selby; glee, choir: song, "The Miller and the Maid," and encore song, "No, Sir," Miss Chappell; trio, " A Little Farm," Messrs Chappell, Meachem and Robertson; comic song, "Sugar Beet," and encore song, "Old Vaile and his Twopenny Railway," Mr W. Salmon. Both songs were provocative of much laughter, and were loudly applauded. Duet, " Pilot Brave," Messrs Meachem and Chappell; song, "When the Swallows," Miss Selby; song, "The White Squall," and encore, "The Scout," Mr Meachein ; song, "The Skipper and His Boy," Miss Salmon ; "Tickling Trio" (encored); chorus, " Come, list us haste away," school children; chorus, "Harvest Song," Hamilton choir ; "God Save this Queen." Subsequently the form* were removed, and dancing was busily indulged in for a few hours. ■ Nothing illustrates more forcibly the changed conditions of the trade of the world than the large number of mercantile representatives who vinit India, on behalf of

European firms. A few years ago visits of this kind were almost entirely unknown; but now, owing to keener exists in trade centres in .Europe, many important firms of all nationalities h/ivo. direct representatives in Tndia. The Germans especially'are pushing their trade, and thanks to the absence of all importautduties, are able to secure a market for many of their manufactures. That this policy is productive of profitable results in- most cases there i< not tho least doubt, as India is precisely the country where personal experience in commercial matters is of great service. The natives"do not know their own requirements, but they arc liot .slow to' utilise novelties when they-are" brought to their notice. —Industries.

Under the heading '' the Devonshire of New Zealand " A correspondent of the Christchurch Press writes a pleasant descriptive article in Taraimki fi-oin-' which we take the .following ■: —Nobody who has ever visited Taranaki will deny it the title which I have placed at tluvhcad of |tiis paper. It is a land of streams nnd waterbrooks, of green pastures, of hills and dales, of fresh foliage, in short, of picturoscpie scenery of almost'every variety. It rnjnices in a balmy climate—humid like that of its English prototype—and ■when the eye tires of grebn hills and fertile valleys, it can turn to the blue expanse fringed with white of the open ocean. It is a land of milk and honey, of luscious clotted cream, and of rich ripe cheese. To complete the resemblance there is not wanting the quaint dialect, which those people who have heard it in their childhood get to associate with everything that is kindly and hospitable, and which all may learn to love in the pages of "Lorna Doone." In point of fact, Taranaki is a Devonshire settlement, as the name of its capital sufficiently testifies. Not that New Plymouth is like the famous west country port, which has played so largo ; a part in the maritime history of England.. There is one place to which it-bcars a much : stronger resemblance, and that is Tiinaru. Indeed, to one who knows the latter plaoe, itho likeness is at first almost startling. From the platform of' the railway stafcion you may gaze in both places on the broad Pacific, and there is the same salt .taste in the air. The main streets are arranged in : very similar fash ion, and thoro is a : likeness even in the buildings. To coinpluto the resemblance has not New Plymouth gone in tor a concrete breakwater, almost a replica of that which is the pride and glory of the southern town '!