NEWS AND NOTES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 28, 17 July 1880, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

The successful applicants for the land at Ngaire are losing no time in getting their sections cleared. In nearly eveiy issue ot the Star tenders are invited for bush felling, and we have heard of several selectors who have already gone on to th ir holdings to do the work themselves. In the case of Carroll v. Te Ari, heard on Thursday at the R.M. Court, the solicitor's fee was included in the bill of costs by Mr. Wilkinson, the Clerk of the Court. The Resident Magistrate objected, and requested the clerk in tuture not to do so. Mr. Barleyman stated that he understood such was the practice in other courts ; to which the Bench replied : " Well, I do not "intend to allow it to be done here." And so the matter ended. Major Mail', the Auckland Native Agent, in his annual report to the Government, i says> that it is .very evident that King Tawhiao wishes to live at peace with all men. From a knowledge of his feeling in this respect, Major Mair has all along inclined to the belief that there would not be any serious outbreak on the West Coast, for, unless assured of aid from the W-aikato, it is not probable that Te Whitiand Tbhu .would resort to arms to oppose' the force arrayed against them.

Mr. Heara, who for some time past filled the editorial chair of the Wellington Evening Chronicle, has transferred his services to the Hangitilcei Advocate. Mi*. Adam Glasgow, of Turakina, has .died from typhoid fever. Mr. Glasgow was one of the oldest residents in the disfaiei. Mr. J. Cunningham, secretary of the Football Club, has received a reply to the challenge sent to the Waverley Club. The match will come off on Saturday next at Patea. The South Auckland Cattle District, with the exception of Mr. Richard Burkes farm, at Te Awamutu, and the land belonging to the Waikato Land Association, has been proclaimed free from disease. The original Georgia Minstrels and Slave Troupe are announced to appear at the Town Hall this evening, and also on Monday. Report speaks favorably of their performances. A handsome cup is at present exhibited in Mr. Pitcher's window. It has been purchased by the officers of the Hawera Light Horse, and will be submitted for a rifle competition amongst the members of that corps. Berry and Newman appear determined to push their contract ahead. We have been informed that sub-contracts, extending along the whole distance, have been let, and that sawyers have been^already engaged to cut timber for the bridges. Parties, whose live fences are encroaching upon the roads and streets in this district, are warned by the Town and Road Board secretaries to clear the same, failing which the work will be done by those bodies, and the owners charged with the cost. Mr. Farrow, -who has been in charge of the Bank of New South Wales in Hawera for the past eight or nine months, has gone to New Plymouth, to take temporary charge of the branch in that town. His successor in Hawera is Mr. Tait. Mr. Farrow proceeded, via the Mountain track, on Thursday. "Mariner" writes as follows to the Wanganui Chronicle : — " I notice in your contemporary's issue of last night that he stated that a practical proof of the improvement of the river was given by the steamer Wallace crossing the bar at low water, drawing Bft. 6in. For the information of your readers, I crossed the bar in the brigantine William, from Sydney, in 1848, drawing the same water, and at the same time of tide, viz., low water." The affair of the Maori ploughmen (says the Wanganui Chronicle) is about to be advanced anoth r stage. The Government do not intend to try them at all, but to ask the Legislature for power to dismiss them to their homes at convenient times, and in separate batches, beginning with the quieter and more trustworthy ones, and finally, when all danger seems to have passed -away," restoring to liberty the most turbulent and mischievous. Writing on the Payment of Members Bill, which passed its second reading last week, the New Zealand Times says: — " If our representatives are sincere in their professed resolution to make retrenchment in the cost of the public service, they cannot either in honesty, decency, or good faith omit themselves. Much may, it is true, be argued as to the. cost and loss incurred by absence from home and business while engaged in Parliamentary duties, but all this is. as nought compared with the necessities of the present situation." Mr. Courtney held a sale of land at New Plymouth on Saturday, at which the following prices were realised: — Corner section No. 242, Devon-street, R. Cock, i! 11 0; section 1342, Molesworth -street, opposite St. Germain's square, C. Good, £46. Gill-street— Corner section 1388, ±'50, and section 1389, adjoining the old cemetery in Devon-street, opposite the Red House Hotel, O. Samuel. Lemon-street — Comer section 1573, near the school, £47, W. T. Small. Gilbertstreet — Section 1681, adjoining Fort Niger, £9 10s., W. T. Small ; section IGB2, £6 10s., L. H. Cholwill. Hine-street — Section 33, close to the harbor works, £8 10s., Mr. Kyngdon. Bell -blockhouse, with sections 19a, and 19, containing 11 acres 3 roods and 7 perches, Mr. W. K. Hulke. The Middlemas families were conveyed safely to Stratford by Mr. John Stevenson on Tuesday. There were many misgivings as to whether they could safely get through the Mountain track, and an absurd story was circulated, as to the waggon conveying them having got stuck in the mud about a mile this side of the Mangawhero. Mr. Stevenson, however, informs us that nothing of the kind happened, and that both families were in Stratford on the evening of the day that they left Hawera. Mr. Andrew Middlemas followed up on the following day, but many old friends met him at Hawera, on his way back from Wanganui, to wish him God-speed. Both families will leave Auckland next week by the mail steamer for San Francisco. We wish them a pleasant voyage, and a prosperous career in their new homes. The road between Haw ra and Nor- J manby is in a wretched .condition, . and if something is not soon done with it, it will be a fitting entrance to that slough ' of despond, called (by courtesy, we presume) the Mountain road. At the last meeting of the County Council, Mr. Hunter brought the matter forward ; but the chairman replied that the council had no money to expend upon the road, as the Government had taken the maintenance of it over, but had recently stopped the vote ; consequently, the council could do nothing with it. Thus the matter ended. But if the County Council has no funds to expend upon the road, strong representations ought to be made to the Minister of Public Works. There is a very large amount of traffic on the few miles between Hawera and Normanby, and the ratepayers in this part of the county have a right to expect that a portion of their rates shall be expended upon the road, jf the Government will not maintain it in something like order. An expenditure, of £10 1 now would be as effectual as ; .±'loo in a few months hence. The present disgraceful state of the road ought'-not' to be tolerated, and the people will, look to their three representatives from this riding to get something done to it. So bad are the ruts between Hunger's blacksmith's shop and McGregor's Hdtel, that the coach has to make a detour into the hind on the opposite side, before turning off the main •road.

The "Rambling Idiot" Bends .upt the following as his contribution to tlie"liteitj,ture of the Kelly gang. (No > woxldSr .fie prefers the Mount View Lunatic 1 A^fiiim. to any other place' of abode) V-^'TU 1)9 hanged if I do," as Ned Kelly said whe.n ; asked to surrender.— lt was not thought " that the police would have the Hart to Byrne tue'Eellys'. " • "• • ' ' • % ~"" : ' :t \ One of the oldest and most respected- ' officers of the A.C. Force has, we under- : stand, decided-upon resigning. Infuturey;; he will look more to the " taking of lives" amongst the Europeans on this coast, rather than those of the Maoris who infest Parihaka. In plain language, "Cap-'/' tain Marshall is about .to take the position '. of travelling agent for the Government/ Life Insurance Department. . '-„/ .. Mr. Barleyman has received' a. telegram - • from Mr. -Whitcombe, Commissioner of-.-. Crown Lands, New Plymouth,: .>«tatißgv. i. that all the lands, recommended iy the^" Board to be thrown open for selection ondeferred payment have been so proclaimed ■ by the; Governor, from the 21st Augustnext. This will give a number at appli,?;:: cants who were disappointed at. the test ; . sale an opportunity of selecting again. In our fourth page will be found a long report of the last sitting of the '* Land Board, which was an important onel 'It will be observed that all the members of ' the Board,, with the exception" of Sym'e, strongly supported the motioa' proposed by Mr. Crompton, and seconded by Mr; Barleyman, as to the necessity of having a District Land Office; at • Hawera, and that the Commissioner of " : " Crown Lands (Mr. Whitcombe) took con r - : siderable trouble to explain the anomaly x of the present system. ' ' This is what the "Special " has to say in reference to Mr. Hamhn's search for. ,' the "dismal swamp": — *'It is. under* • stood that Mr. Hainlin has telegraphedfrom. Stratford that he. was' taken over 1 the line- of road,! and that it oa a 'very . good road indeed.' I am given to under^ stand that when Mr. Hainlin left "Wei- « lington he was instructed on no account •. to travel from the south, northward over the Waimate Plains, but to go first to New Plymouth, and travel across the Plains southward. ,The- obvious reason . was that he should see the abandoned ,- two-chain road .before reaching, the constabulary camp. He, I learn, reversed the order of his journey, visiting the,'cbn-\ stabulary head-quarters first, and Being* " quietly piloted along the track, jn the course of which no one ever alleged any " swamp to exist, Mr. Hamlin walked straight into the hands of those most de ply interested in making "his'journey smooth, and apparently they have succeeded in doing so." [Mr. Hamlin is a strong party man, but he could not manage to -"swallow" the "Special's" swamp. That was too much for: him';—' Ed. Star.]