GENERAL NEWS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume II, Issue 143, 27 August 1881, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

Referring to the result of the debate on the New Plymouth Harbor Board, the Tnranaki Herald says : — " It is very evident that the majority of members in the House are amongst the Opposition, and they can make the Government do what they like, even to repudiating the acts of their own making. The whole question has become a party one ; the Government being in a minority, are powerless to help Taranaki." "We learn from the Wanganui Chronicle that the Bey. Father Kirk cautioned his flock, on Sunday last, to be careful how they permitted the children to peruse the current literature of the day. Many of the newspapers were in the habit of treat- j ing and speaking of the Scriptures in a most disrespectful manner, and though educated adult Catholics could value these writings at their real worth, to juvenile minds they might prove dangerous. The Premier introduced the Eailways Construction Loan Bill on Monday night. It is proposed to empower the Government to give grants of land along the lines to be constructed to private companies. This, the Premier informed the House, had worked well in the United States and Canada. Sir George Grey vehemently opposed the Bill, which, if passed, would change the whole future of the colony. In America, it was admitted that the system of land grants was one of the greatest curses which afflicted that country. Mr. Bichardson expressed a modified approval of the Bill, but thought the restrictions proposed too great. Mr. Macandrew did not believe that a single mile of railway would ever be made under the Bill. It was a hallucination to think that more railways could be made without borrowing. Messrs. Levin, Gisfoorne, azu2 others supported ' the BID, which was, after a long debate, read a Second time. General Joubert, the Boer Leader, turns out after till to be an American. He is a native of Uniontown, Fayette County, P., where he was born in the spring of 1841. His parents came from Holland previous to the war. He was educated in the Uniontown public schools. When about 14 years of age be was tried on a charge of assault and battery and acquitted. Soon after, he left America, going to Holland and thence to South Africa. At the outbreak of the Confederate rebellion he returned to the United States, served in the navy under Admirable Dupont, and after- ' wards as a captain of a colored company, tinder General Watzel. He returned to 'Holland after the' war, and went therefrom to Africa again. His full name is

Daniel Sturgeon JoiO-ert, having ljeen •named after Senator Daniel Sturgeon, of Pennsylvania, who befriended his father. In fl. letter to the Ean.^itikei Advocate, Sir "Wm. Fox makes tlie following remarks on tbe position assumed by Mr. Ormond in the late No Confidence <3e- } )a t e ;—"; — " Mr. Ormond was accused l>y some of the supporters of the G overmen t wiih unfair, not to say dishonorahle, conduct in the matter ; with, in fact, having intrigued with the Opposition, and kept his old friends in vhe dark as to his intentions. I know Mr. Orraond a great deal too well to believe for one moment that he would deliberately be guilty of any conduct unworthy of a man of honor and a gentleman, "and am fully persuaded that this charge, as far as it affects his personal honor, is entirely unfounded." He holds that Mr. Ormond was deluded | b.y the wiles of die "great Liberal party, and was used by it upon this occasion. The position hnd been actually foreshadowed in the Wanganui Herald in April last, so Sir 'William was not surprised. As a specimen of the evidence given by Maories in respect to claims for land, we extract the following: — Wharerota, examined by the Commissioner. — The reason Major Brown was allowed to live there was because he traded their pigs, &c, at Kew Plymouth. The place was Tuhata. After some time he wished to have a house built, and bought five or six large kahikatea trees to cut up for timber. He paid tobacco for them. Before they were cut, Major Brown's wahine misconducted herself with somebody. Major Brown then went away. The house was never erected. The piece of land on which he was living was not given to him, but set apart for him to live on, so that he might be near to take pigs and bring back ihe trade. Never heard that he was to have a large piece of land given him. If any land had been given, it would have been by my parents. Would not like to give him any land now. Was living there all the time. Sometimes lived with my own parents, sometimes with Major Brown." A sad case has been brought to light at New Plymouth. A young girl named Amelia Cox, fourteen years of age, who was the mother of an illegitirnale child left Stratford with the child for the purpose of bringing it into New Plymouili for medical attendance. She arrived by train- late at night, and went to lodge at a boarding-house. ■ The child was alive when she went to bed, and the following morning on awaking she thought it was still living. She immediately dressed and went to Dr. O'Carroll, who found that the child was dead, and states from appearances it had been smothered. The unfortunate girl states that. she was in service at Stratford at the house of Mrs. Harms, where the child was born on tbe sth July. Her mother and stepfather live at Inglewood, and the mother came to see the child the day after it was born. She asserts that the father of the child lives in the Tataraemaka district. An inquest was held on the body of the child, and the jury returned a verdict that the child died, of suffocation, brought on by over care.