CHATHAM ISLANDS.

Press, Volume XIV, Issue 1822, 13 February 1869, Page 3

CHATHAM ISLANDS.

The Chatham Islands' correspondent of the " Hawke's Bay Herald, ,, reviewing the incidents of the past year, says :— The year 1868, now closed upon us, has been a most eventful and unpropitious one, and will long be remembered not only by the inhabitants but also by residents in New Zealand, who have been sufferers to a much greater extent, through the atrocious miscresnts who most unfortunately made their escape from this island on the 4th July last, and are now perpetrating horrors elsewhere. We have also experienced one of those fearful convulsions of nature —an earthquake wave, which has removed landmarks, fiwepfc away villages, and destroyed property to a considerable amount. 1868 has also demanded a tribute to the ocean, which has been paid by the loss of two vessels. Another event of great local importance is the departure ofsbme 300 Maoris to their original settlement in New Zealand ; a survey of the island aleo has been officially made, and each settler's boundary properly denned. Our flocks are thriving, and have produced a fair average of wool; but from the unprecedented depression in the market the prospects of our sheep farmers are anything but promising; there is an old adage however-—" When things are at their worst they must mend." Nevertheless, our Christmas holidays were kept up with the usual spirit, and at one hospitable abode a large marquee was erected, surmounted by flags, beneath which a table literally groaned with its weight of good things. To this bounteous spreads both whites and Maoris did ample justice. On the 28th our annual races came off at Kaingaroa, presided over by the elite of the island, and enlivened by the presence of youth and beauty. On Thursday, December 31, a fire occurred at Kaisautabi (a Maori pa twelve miles from Waitangi) which totally destroyed it, as well as a considerable store of wheat and valuable property; in fact, the inmates could save nothing. It ia supposed that the fire originated from a coal of fire inadvertently dropped from a pipe.