NEWS OF THE DAY.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 962, 22 November 1882, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Mr William Bayley has been re-elected Mayor of New Plymouth. A meeting of the Domain Board will be held to-morrow afternoon at 4 o’clock.

Efforts are being made to float a Town Hall Company at Stratford. All the survey work in connection with the Railway from Manutahi to Hawera is now complete. An Insurance Agent named James Rcnwick is supposed to have committed suicide by drowning at Dunedin on Monday. Scarcity of water is being felt at Wellington.

Messrs R, H. Nolan and Co., will hold a sale of Stock at their yards, Hawera, tomorrow the 23rd, instant.

A notification to the effect that sheep kept upon Mr Milham’s run at Whakamara have been declared infected appeared in our issue of Monday.

Notice is given by the Patea S. S. Co. that unless 1 ton of flour consigned to order is claimed and all expenses paid before the 30th day of this month it will be sold. Tenders for painting the bank of New rr; u.agent, until Saturday the 25th instant. The Longbcach sale was concluded on Friday, and realised £23,500, The pigs were nearly all bought by Mr Grigg himself, and the implements were passed in.

A man named Green has been sentenced to twelve months imprisonment at Timaru for brutally assaulting a policeman with a bottle and biting one of bis fingers off. The policeman’s head was terribly cut and bruised,

The attention of Engineers and Surveyors is directed to an advertisement in another column calling tenders for taking levels and preparing estimates of certain streets in the Town district of Normanby. At Invercargill on Sunday, Bishop Moran expressed the conviction that the anticipations formed as to the Pope’s restoration to his rights as a temporal sovereign will be realised at no distant day. The following tenders were received for the Manutahi platelaying contract, FoxtonNew Plymouth Railway ;—Accepted, Anthony Nathan, Hawera, £4,247 ; declined, Jay and Haynes, Palmerston, £SOBI ; Mace and Basset, Patea, £5441 : Daniel iScalley, Wanganui, £6198.

The meeting night of the Advance Lodge, 1.0. G.T., has been altered to Wednesday, commencing this evening. Mr Carson has. been re-elected Mayor of Wanganui without opposition. The Hon Ivo.Bligli’s team of Cricketers defeated the Victoiians by If) wickets.

The cultivation of bops is being tried at Wobdville.

Water pipes have been fixed and water laid'on to the cattle yards in connection with the wharf.

Captain Edwin telegraphed at 3 36 p.m. yesterday :■ —Bad weather approaching between north-east and north and west ; glass further fall.

An odd specimen of dame Nature’s freaks was sent to the Star hy Mr Crocker, of Waihi,' a duckling with four legs. It was well formed in every other respect, and lived for 24 hours, after coming out of the shell.

The following names are mentioned ns candidates for the Peninsula, the seal rendered vacant by the death of Mr Seaton:—Messrs Larnach, Gotten, E. B. Cargill, A. J, Burns, Donelly, C. Mcßride Mayor of South Dunedin.

Messrs E. L. Barton and F. G. Mace were to-day nominated for the vacant seat in the Borough Council. Mr Barton was proposed by Mr E. C. Horner, seconded by Mr A. A. Gower, and Mr Mace by Messrs Taplin and Odgers. An election will be held at the Borough Council’s offices on Wednesday, the 6th of Dec.

Oh the three days daring which the Christ church races were held £20,501 passed througu tne totaiisators. The amount was made up as follows : first day, £5,297 ; second day, £7416 ; third day, £7788.

We learn by telegram from Dunedin that Messrs Dalgetty and Co have received a cable message from London, dated the 17th instant, to the effect that the market for frozen mutton has advanced, and the meat is now 7d per lb for host quality. This is good news to shareholders in meat freezing Companies, A grand pianoforte recital will be given by Mr Angelo Forest on Monday and Tuesday next at the Harmonic Hall. A number of lady and gentlemen amateurs will assist .on the occasion and we may safely predict a treat for those present. The programme will be found in our advertising columns

Tomorrow evening at the Harmonic Hall an entertainment will be given by the Hyperion combination in aid of the Institute funds, when a number of views will be shown by means of the oxy—hydrogen lime light. The performance is announced to conclude with a sketch entitled. “ Slay and December ’’ in which 3lx Power and il/dle De Glorian will assume the principal characters. The Chronicle says : Some anxiety is felt as to the whereabouts of a young man of 27, named Alfred Franklin, who left his home on Saturday last, and has not since been heard of. Franklin is a single man, a painter by trade, and was in the employment of Mr Tingcy. He lived in company with Mr Harry Woods at a house in Wilson-street, and was regarded as a sober, steady, and industrious young fellow.

The last number of the Gazette contains the new Railway passenger and goods rates, to come into force on December 11th. Ordinary fares will be 3d per mile single, 4|d return; second class 2d, Single tickets issued on Saturday or. Sunday will as heretofore be available for the return journey up till Monday evening. Volunteers in uniform will be allowed to travel free on production of a written order from the officer commanding the district.

The want of telegraphic news in our issue on Monday is partly explained by the following Press Association message : —Owing to electrical disturbances since Saturday night the work of the telegraph office in Dunedin has been greatly delayed. There was a constant current of electricity flowing on the lines equivalent to ten times the strength of the batteries generally used. Some of the batteries had to be discontinued altogether, and messages were sent without the use of the battery at all, a feat never done in the annuals of the New Zealand telegraph. On Monday the business was almost at a standstill.

Last evening at the Wesleyan Church a meeting convened by Mr E. F. Miller was held for the purpose of inaugurating a Band of Hope for the district. After the Eev, Mr. Luxford had-offered up a prayer for the success of the movement, Mr Milley stated his experience of similar Institutions elsewhere, and said a small charge would be made for admission but that the money would be expended in furthering the objects of the newly-formed Band. A further meeting will take place next Tuesday evening and after that the Band of Hope will assemble once every fortnight.

At a meeting of the Board of Volunteer officers at Wanganui, on Saturday, it was decided to divide the Government allowance for prize firing between the corps of Wanganui, Rangitikei, and Patea, armed with Snider Rifles. The amount set apart for this district (Patea and Hawera Rifles) was divided into seven prizes, viz. :—lst prize, £4 ; 2nd, £3 ; 3rd, £2 10s ; 4th, £2 ; sth, £1 10s; 6tb, £1 ; 7th, 8s 7d ; total, £l4 8s 7d. The conditions are 7 shots at 200,. 400, and 500 yards ; targets, at 200 yards 6x4; bull’s eye 2 x 1, centre 4 x 2 ; at 400 and 500 yards, target 6x6; bull’s eye 2x2, centre 4x4. Complaints are made by the Hawera men that as they have no 500 yards range, it is unfair to —

A despatch from the Secretary of State for the Colonies states that a petition to the Queen from the Senate of the New Zealand University, asking for power to confer degrees in science, had been presented to Her Majesty, together with the Ministerial recommendation in favour of it, and the Queen bad been pleased graciously to grant the petition. Lord Kimberley, however, points out that the letters patent cannot be prepared until the local Legislature has modified or repealed the New Zealand University Act of 1875. It may be mentioned that unless this Act is is modified or repealed the letters patent are useless.