THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT AT PATEA. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Patea, 20th June.

Evening Post, Volume XVII, Issue 545, 25 June 1879, Page 3

THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT AT PATEA. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Patea, 20th June.

The Patea Volunteers are composed as follows :— No. 1 Company, Captain Wray, Lieutenants William C'owern and D. Frasar, 69 strong; No. 2 Company, Captain Trigear, Lieutenants William Dale and Thomas Haywood, 71 strong; Patea Light Hone, 47 strong, Captain Gower, Lieutenants Davis and T. Turner. There are flve other corps in this district, composed as iollows : — Normanby, 51 strong; Hawtra, 120; Manutabi, 45; Kakaramea, 50 ; and Waverley, 56— a1l of which are giving satisfaction in diill, and are to a man enthusiastic. No 1 Company, Patea, was under the inspection of Major Noake last night at 780 p.m.; No. 2 Company will undergo inspection to-night. Everything is at a complete standstill, pending some definite settlement, and it is felt that the settlement should be such as will prevent any further annoyance from the natives. It is seriously asserted that the Government intend shortly to resume the survey of the Waimate Plains; but it is asked how long their "shortly" means— whether one or six months ; and the settlers are unanimous that thi* business should be decided at once, and that no temporising with the natives should precede justifiable force on the part of the Government, which should take place at the latest within the month. There is no news from Parihaka, and everything is quiet. The Napier Telegraph is sorry to learn, from a borne lotter, that Dr. F. R. Lees, the noted temperance lecturer, for whose reception in New Zealand the various temperance bodies have for some time been making preparation, was taken so seriously ill when almost on tbe point of departure from England that the idea of the proposed trip has beon given up. The journey was to have been undertaken in a great measure on account of his health ; but it is stated that his constitution has been so weakened by his illness, that it is very doubtful whether he will visit this colony during the present year. The Adelaide correspondent of the Melbourn Argus writes :— " Pastor Chiniquy has come here to enlighten us as to the naughtiness of the creed of a large section of our fellow-colonists, but he is not meeting with the attention or the success he anticipated. The members of our ordinary evangelical churches are not to be routed into a fierce theological strife with another body ol coreligionists from whom they may differ, but who carry on their work quietly, and without molestation to others."