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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 989, 20 October 1868, Page 3

LIEtTT.-CoLONEL WHITMORE. It IS stated that there is a hitch about Major Whitmore's appointment to the command at the Front, and that there are doubts as to its being confirmed. — Evening Post, Oct. 14

Importation op Rams. — Messrs. Bethune and Hunter have imported 45 fine rams by the s.s. Omeo, which are, wo understand, to be sent on to Napier per s.s. Ahuriri. The Omeo also brings 134 rams to the order of Messrs. Clifford and Weld, of Flaxbournestation, Marlborough. They will be forwarded to their destination by the schooner Shepherdess. It is evident that the enterprise of New Zealand wool growers is unabated. — Evening Post, October 14.

Me. Bunny and His Constituents. — The Mercwy says : — " The G-overnment have allowed almost a month to elapse, without adopting any effective measures for securing the peace of the district, and the representative of Wairarapa has been found supporting them in a course which already has caused a feeling of insecurity to spread among the inhabitants, and must in the event of an outbreak here tend to bring ruin and disaster on the settlements in the Wah'arapa."

Akmed Constabulary Act. — The Government are determined (says the Wanganui Herald) to enrol no more Companies of Volunteers for the Front upon different systems. ' All the men now recruited are, under the Armed Constabulary Act, subject to the severest military rule. We shall hear no more of mutiny, for the law permits of flogging, and the officer commanding at Patea has hinted that he will inflict that punishment in cases of insubordination. Sly grog-selling is on the increase at Patea, and one person was heavily fined a few days ago v The Armed Constabulary behave well, but Major Frazer finds it difficult to manage the Patea Rifles. .

THE LATfi LIEI'T. HASTINGS. j The following bca-itiful description of how the sad intelligence of Lieutenant Hastings' death was conveyed to his widow, is taken from the correspondent's letter of the N. Z. Herald: — "I was profoundly affected a few evenings ago by an incident which I would not mention but that it falls appropriately into the narrative of events. : I had the good fortune to be acquainted with one of the officers who fell in the Patea. I had many times during the progress of recent operations there seen his wife, for she used to come with her pretty child to make inquiries of her husband. ' Any news from the front, Mr. ,' she would ask, with a look in which the feminine disposition to be gracious struggled with deep anxiety lest the answer would have a wound in it — or perhaps death. Sometimes the answer would be 'All well,' and her face brightened ; at others it would be 'No news,' and the tone of the subdued ' Thank you,' told how heavy was the heart from which it proceeded. But when that dreadful telegraph came — that dreadful story of slaughter and cannibalism — how was the intelligence to be communicated to that'poor lady. It must be done. The lady's husband was one of the bravest officers killed, his corpse left on the field, possibly mutilated — the rest who would dare to contemplate, much less speak of, except perhaps the hon. member for Coleridge. What man could stand unmoved before the unspeakable sorrow such tidings must evoke. Besides the political excitement, joined with the other eventful and disastrous intelligence, had fastened upon me a deeper shade of melancholy than is natural to me. I consented, however, to go with a friend. It was blowing fresh across the harbour, and the breeze and the walk together revived the spirits. It was near dusk. The gloaming made the snow on the ranges a brilliant purple colour. The steamers were going in and out, and the busy noise of transhipment on the wharf had ceased. We reached the door of the cottage in which the yet unconscious widow resided. The house was not hers, for she was only an humble lodger. The door was opened for her by her landlady. She was seated on a chair beside a child's cot. Her little ohild, a son, was on his knees before her, lisping after her the words of the Lord's Prnyer. My eyes involuntarily filled, until I could scarcely discern a single object in the room. But the thunders of all the pulpits in the world could not have inspired me with so profound a conviction that ' Our Father' would protect that innocent child. To me that ' small voice ' had a pathos in it which must touch the inmost heart of God Himself. I could not have told that poor woman the news with which my mind was so heavily laden for the reward of a monarch's crown. I was obliged to turn back and leave my friend to disclose the sad tidings in the best manner he could. My companion being yet unmarried, may not have been so greatly moved as I was. But I could more fully realise the meaning of that sight, and the depth of the abyss of misfortune into which that young mother and widow was about to be plunged. I could cast my thought into the future, and felt all the anxiety and the hope that the most consoling of all human words can give, that the Father of the fatherless would be a friend even to my children. I can assure you that even when I remember this incident "I can write no more, for what must; have happened' at that mournful interview can be much more easily imagined than described.