NEWS AND NOTES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume III, Issue 302, 18 September 1882, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

+ Colonel Trimble, M.H.R., and Mr. T. Kelly, '"M.H.R., passed through Hawera on Saturday, en route for home from Wellington. The Institute Committee met on Saturday evening and accepted Mr. H. Way's tender for painting the Institute building and 6anding the front, for £9. Five other tenders were sent in, ranging from £10 4s. Cd. to £12 14s. Three players in the proposed football match to be played against the Sydney team, at Wellington, to-day, are expected to go from Hawera and Waimate, viz., Messrs. G. Bayly, Harry Bayly, and Willy. A meeting of the Drill Hall Committee was convened for Friday evening, but owing to the small attendance nothing was done. The Committee is to meet at five o'clock this afternoon, the object being to make arranges ents with regard to the debt that will remain after the contractor is paid. rt Nearly two-thirds of the settlers who have taken up bush land at the hack of the Plains in the front blocks are letting contracts for bush felling. It isj estimated that several thousand acres of bush land will, be felled this season. In the last issue of the Star tenders for felling between 500 aud 1000 ares were invited. Since our last issue we have received information which enables us to state definitely that the necessary arrangements for the leasing of the native blocks oh the Continuous Reserve will be at once proceeded withj and that Mr. Thomas I Mackay, the Reserves Trustee, will shortly , ,take up. hia abode in Hawera, it being tho best centre for his operations. The Manaia School Committee met on Wednesday to consider tenders for fencing |n jthe ep^iqol ground. It was agreed to postpone the acceptance of. any tender until the cost of fencing in the ground with posts and wire had been ascertained. Owing to the roads having been made the fall width, the ditches for a ditch and J________^__a____t__^___bg.d"n-

The appropriations by Parliament for the current financial year are — Consolidated Fund, £4,560,590; Public Works, £1,810,184. Total, £6,379,774. Recent sales show a decided advance in the prices of cattle : it remains to be seen whether it can be sustained during the season. There was quite a rush on Archibald Forbes at Adelaide. Over £500 worth of tickets for his lectures were sold there in two hours. A gentleman who has lately returned from Auckland reports that very little encouragement was offered to the Auckland cricketers to make a tour through the colonies — in fact, up to the time of his leaving, the only offer to guarantee a definite sum to the visitors had been sent by Hawera ; which speaks well for this district, but says little for the rest of the cricket clubs throughout the colony. At the last meeting of the Taranaki Education Board, the report by the architect was read, stating that the teacher's residence at Opunake will be completed shortly. — A memo, was received from the Inspector-General inquiring the amount to which the Inspector's salary should be raised. The Secretary was instructed to reply that it should be raised to £200, being £100 increase. — An application for an increase of the salary of Miss McLauchlan, teacher of the Opunake School, was refused. The Lancet of the 12th July says that Dr. G. W. Graham, Resident Physician and Superintendent of the Asylum for Idiots, Earlswood, has been appointed Inspector of Luuatic Asylums in New Zealand. According to the Medical Directory, Dr. Graham studied medicine at St. Thomas' Hospital, and graduated M.R.C.S.E., 1557, L.S.A. and L.M.. 1858, M.8., 1865, and M.D., 18G7. He he held several local Government appointments before being entrusted with the charge of Earlswood Asylum, and he is the author of a well-known work on Lunacy. The secretary and several members of the Acclimatisation Society met on Friday at Mr. G. McLean's, and arranged a set of hatching boxes for trout ova which have lately been constructed -with a view to hatching out 10,000 trout ova which have been ordered from Canterbury. The place chosen is very suitable, and every one is agreed that the duties of superintendence could not be placed in better hands than those of Mr. G. McLean. It is sincerely to be hoped that the experiment will prove a success. If young starlings were now bespoken, some agent in Canterbury could easily procure 20 or 30 young birds in the course of the next month or two. On Saturday a man named William Hislop was arrested at Normanby on a charge of forgery. The statement for the prosecution is that two or three weeks ago prisoner went into Owen's Egmont Hotel, Hawera, and in payment for drinks tendered a cheque for £7 10s. upon the Bank of New South Wales, Patea, drawn by " C. F. Barker" in favor of " William Holmes." He received the balance in cash, but when the cheque was presented for payment it proved to be a forgery. The police have been looking everywhere for Hislop since then, but were not able to drop across him until Saturday night, when he was arrested. This morning he was brought up before Captain Wilson, J.P., and on the application of Sergeant Cahill remanded for a week. The introduction of the Mongoose into Jamaica as a cure for the once formidable rat pest on sugar plantations is said to have proved a notable success. The sugar rat is a huge white-bellied fellow, measuring ten inches in length of body, his long tail adding ten inches more to his length. Formerly the damage done to the sugar plantations of the island by these rats amounted to something like half a million a dollars a year, rising to a quarter of the crop in seasons of special ravages. About five years ago tho mungoose, whose zeal as a rat and snake killer is well known, was imported from India. As a result the plaguo of rats has been greatly diminished, with a saving in sugar of not less than twenty-five tons of sugar on each estate. There is also savod the expense of rattage, formerly amounting to hundreds of dollars in the year. The committee appointed by the County Council to deal with the estimates of receipts and expenditure during the coming year, met on Saturday afternoon. All the members, viz., Messrs. Moore Hunter, A. C. Milne, and J. Yorke being present. An examination of the accounts showed that the County had available assets amounting to £526, to set against which there were liabilities to be provided for amounting to £1225. The assets as made out, showed for Hawera Riding, a debt of, for votes given of £562 ; for Waimate Riding, a debt of £127 ; and for Ngaire Riding, a credit of £15. For the ensuing year, it was estimated that in Hawera Riding on a shilling vote, there would be receipts from rates and all other sources amounting to £1581 ; of which, after providing for existing liabilities, management, expenses, &c, there would be a balance of £1063 available for road works. In Waimate Riding, it was estimated that there would be receipts amounting to £845 ; of which, after making provision for all votes unpaid and expenses, there would be £515 available for roads and bridges. In Ngaire, tho total receipts would be about £120. The rates from the Crown and Native Lands were estimated to bo equal to|a subsidy on rates of 10s. in the £, but a great diversity of opinion as to amount likely to accrue was expressed.