WELLINGTON ITEMS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 8147, 19 April 1887, Page 5

WELLINGTON ITEMS.

[By Tblkqbaph.] [from our own correspondent.} WELLINGTON, April 18. There appears to be very little interest taken here in regard to the local celebratiod of the Queen’s Jubilee. For some days the Evening Post made suggestions as to the best way of commemorating the event, but the public seem to be very apathetic in the matter of the votes. “ We have received,” says the paper in question, “ something over a hundred in all. A good majority is in favour of an endowment to a Home for the aged and needy, the proposal for a free Literary and Art Gallery comes next, the idea of a statue finds but one supporter, and another wants a drinking fountain with it. Several votes are for a gymnasium in connection with the library and art gallery, one wants a new cemetery, another a park and cricket ground, and several vote for a sailors' home. An orphan asylum has supporters.” The same paper suggests the liberation of all convicts in commemoration of the Jubilee. I am given to understand that the chief who is likely to be selected by the Ngapauhi tribe to take the place of the late Mr Hakuene is Wiremu Katene, of the Bay of Islands, who was formerly a member of the House, and was for a time in the Cabinet. Wiremu Katene is one of the most powerful men in the Ngapauhi tribe, and one of the most intelligent of the Maori race As an instance of this may be mentioned the following incident, which occurred at Mr Ballance’s meeting of the chiefs of Ngapauhi at Waitangi. the notorious Sydney Taiwhangi appeared at the meeting vith a wheelbarrow full of documents, and was commencing to unravel the story. Armed with his superfluous array of papers, he had just finished a short exordium when Katene quietly got up. His rising obtaining instant silence, he remarked that that was not the time and place for Sydney to go into such questions. Without a word of protest, and with the evident approval of the meeting, the garrulous Sydney resumed his seat, not even daring to say another word during the whole of the meeting. At the conclusion of the proceedings Sydney, however, managed to get together about balf-a-dozen of his sympathisers at a caucus, when he moved and carried a string of resolutions, which he induced the Press Association to send over the Colony as part of the proceedings of the meeting. If Katene be returned, and he has informed

the Native Minister he has been named by the Ngapauhi as their representative, the Native representation in the House will be strengthened intellectually and morally. The Cabinet has been sitting all day discussing matters to be brought before Parliament during the session, which commences to-morrow week.