WAIROA.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5833, 19 November 1880, Page 3

WAIROA.

[prom otjb, own correspondent.]

November 17.

They tell me the a.s. Clyde is sold and is to be placed on the Fiji trade. lam sorry to hear it, because both the steamer and her captain were eminently suited to this place — for passengers her departure means a great loss. Last. Tuesday was quite a busy day in the Courthouse ; Messrs Carter and Duff, J.P.s, presided. A native was summoned for having an unregistered dog in his possession and was fined in all 17s or 48 hours' imprisonment. Stacy v. Peddie, brought up an old case under a different form. The claim was for £15, for the occupation of a section at Mam Maru. Plaintiff had been previously non-suited for rent, and was how again non-suited. She is evidently the victim of injudicious friends and amateur lawyers. Some small debt cases, and the County Rate-colllector v. several defaulting ratepayers, concluded the day's amusement.

I hear the district is to lose the services of the Rev. Mr Nichol at the end of this year. I am sure I but faintly express a very general feeling of regret when I state that the reverend gentleman's departure will leave a void not easily to be filled. Mr Nichol is a deservedly general favorite with ail sections of the community no less than among his own congregation, and I take this opportunity of bearing testimony, although I have not the honor of belonging to the flock myself. (I am somewhat afraid,- Mr Editor, that " your own " has been a reprobate in his time. We had a hot time of it here in days of yore, and with the classical gentleman one sometimes reads about, I am afraid I can truthfully say when alluding to the Wairoa orgies now : for ever past, quorum pars tnagna fuit —but to my muttons. ) Two years of such heavy, uphill work, as ministering in this extremely scattered parish is, fully entitles any minister to a spell at an easier district. I suppose the move is what in lay circles would bo considered promotion ; if so, I beg to congratulate Mr Nichol on his advancement as well as the Havelock people on their choice.

I met a member of our local library committee the other day, and he said it was enough to make a man swear, and I asked what was ? So he told me that he had put his name down for a book called the "Life of St. Paul," and that the committee had decided not to procure the work on account of its supposed dangerous tendencies. He said he would not have minded that so much, but the work they had substituted in its stead had completely capsized him ; what do you think it was ? " The life and adventures of Mike Howe, the bushranger of Van Diemen's Land." "They'll go in for Ned Kelly's life next," said my friend, as he mournfully shook me by the hand and inspected the lining of his glass. And it is sad ; exit St. Paul, enter Miko Howe ! What next ? and next?