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Waipawa Mail, Volume I, Issue 12, 23 October 1878, Page 2

To a Correspondent. —We have received a couple of letters from a correspondent, signing himself 4i Fair Play.” Both letters contain very serious charges against public oifieials, —forgery in one case, and connivance to defeat the ends of justice in another. We are not ambitious of appearing before a Judge of the Supreme Court and twelve of our countrymen on a charge of criminal libel, and therefore decline to insert the communicatioiis.

Prorogation. According to a Press Agency telegram from Wellington, it is understood that the prorogation of Parliament will take place on Monday next. Valuable Cargo.—The ship Waimate, which was to sail at the beginning of this week from Lyttelton for London, takes with her a cargo valued at £ 136,000, including £ 100,000 worth of gold. Racing. —By a Press telegram we learn that The Agent, a horse bred in this district, has been entered for three events at the next Dunedin races, which are to come off on St. Andrew’s Day.

Police Changes.—Sergeant Maguire, who was foi two years stationed in this district, left on Monday morning last for Waiapu, on the East Coast, to take charge of a station to be established in that district. We are sure Sergeant Maguire carries with him the good wishes of every* law-abiding settler in this district. He is an intelligent officer, and faithfully and zealously discharged the duties of his office. His position in such an extensive district as Waipawa was no sinecure, but he never spared himself when for the good order of]the community his services were needed. Constable Tronson has also been removed from Waipawa, having been ordered to Woodville. He is also an excellent officer, whose services it would be desirable to retain in the district. Frequent changes impair the efficiency of the force, for to properly discharge the duties of a constable a knowledge of the district and the people js required,

Stray Cattle. —“A Parent” at Kaikora complains of the great danger incurred b}' children and others from wandering cattle in that township. He says pedestrians walk the township in fear and trembling lest they might find themselves over their neighbor’s fence. He says he counted no less than thirty-two head of cattle grazing in one street last week, twenty-five of which belonged to one person. “ A Parent” says a great boon would be conferred upon the Kaikoraites if the Road Inspector would order his men to impound all cattle found straying in the township.

Melbourne Cup Sweep.—We understand that the drawing for Ashton’s £IOOO sweep on the Melbourne Cup will take place in about ten days from now at the Theatre Royal, Napier. Those desirous of securing tickets can obtain them at Baker’s Empire Hotel and Kelly’s Imperial Hotel, Waipawa ; and also at Hickey’s Kaikora Hotel. Napier Working Men’s Club.—We desire to remind our readers that the anniversary fete of the Napier Working Men’s Club will be held at Farndon on Friday next. A novel feature of the day will be the Bruce auction, to which contributions are invited from all parts of the district. Those in possession of any spare article, by forwarding it to the secretary of the club, would be encouraging a praiseworthy undertaking. As there is likely to be a considerable uumber of visitors from this district at the fete, we trust that better travelling accommodation will be provided than on the day of the agricultural show at Hastings. The Minstrels.—Clieevers, Kennedy, and Bent’s Minstrels gave their first entertainment at the Oddfellows’ Hall last night to a good house. The performance was undoubtedly one of the best ever witnessed in this district, which indeed might have been expected from the reputat on of the members of the company. The first song on the programme was “ Maggie Dale,” given by Mr J. Drayton, who possesses a fine bass voice, and was the prelude to an entertainment the like of which has been seldom witnessed in New Zealand. Every member of the company acquitted himself in a manner which would gain credit upon the stage of the metropolitan towns. Messrs Cheevers and Bent were simply inimitable as corner men, and created roars of laughter amongst the audience. The only drawback to the entertainment was the presence of a number of Maoris, who were too demonstrative in their applause, and persisted in making remarks during the progress of the performance. It is to be hoped that this will not take place to-night. There will be an entire change of programme tonight. The manager, Mr Martin Simonson, announces that he will perform a solo on Scotch airs on the violin. Mr Simonson is recognised as one of the best violinists who has ever appeared before an Australasian audience.

Narrow Escape.—Mr Henry Almond, a settler at Kaihihu (says an Otago paper) escaped death last week almost by a miracle. lie was returning from lialclutha, where he had had a case in Court, and was within a mile of home when his horse fell down an embankment nearly 18 foot. He did not remember anything until about 3 a.in. the following day, when he recovered consciousness and found himself lying on his back in a ditch, unable to move either hand or foot. The water was trickling into his ear and over part of his head. His horse was in the ditch a few feet above him, kicking violently at times ; it died about noon. Almond* remained in the ditch all that day, the snow fulling heavily at times. He shouted until lie gave up all hopes of being found alive. At about 6 p.m. on Thursday he was discovered l>y Mr Glover in what, had he remained another night, would have been his deathbed. The Public Estate.—All the Australian colonies have leaned heavily for support upon their territorial estate. The latest complete returns to hand, says the Melbourne Argus, are not very recent, coming down only to the beginning of 1876, but they show the amount realised from the sale of land to be as follows :—Victoria, £17,410,200; Ne.w South Wales, £10,235,766; South Australia, £6,043,444; Queensland, £2,102,620. Victoria has by far the smallest estate, and she has made the largest encroachment, upon her domain, and upon her, therefore, in the first instance, will devolve the novel and important and by no means easy, undertaking of governing an Australian colony without the aid of a land fund. And it is quite time that our rulers steadily prepared to grapple with the task. Sale of Merino Sheep.—At a recent auction sale in Melbourne, the following prices were obtained for stud merino sheep : —On account of Mr William Cumming, Mount Myans—Lustre, three years old, Mr J. Robertson, Enncrdale,* 165 guineas ; Profit, two years old, Mr Brown, Tuppal, 300 guineas ; two-year-old ram, by Champion, Mr W. Murray, 125 guineas; one do, Mr Robertson, Warwick, Casterton, 115 guineas; one do, Mr Todd, for the Hon. R. Campbell, New Zealand, 105 guineas; one do, the same buyer, 85 guineas ; one do, Dr. Telford, Cobran, New South Wales, 75 guineas.

The Odd Boot.—A Wanganui paper says a good story is told of a local hotelkeeper as follows :—A gentleman who from some cause or other had lost one of his legs, and walked with the assistance of a wooden substitute, came to stay at an hotel in town, and the night of his arrival put outside his door two odd boots, both belonging to his sound leg, to have them cleaned. In the morning the head of the house, on making a tour of inspection came upon this odd pair, and wanted to know where were the fellows. Being unable to find them he descended to the nether regions, and threatened the man who had the cleaning of the boots to do with immediate expulsion unless the fellows to the two odd boots were at once forthcoming. A general overhaul of all the boots in the establishment ensued, but without satisfactory results, and an execution of the threat was impending, when the one-legged guest made everybody happy by clamouring for 4 one of his boots.’ ”

Pleasant.—The Wellington Chronicle is responsible for the following : The other evening some unkindly-disposed person tied a piece of beef to the knocker of the door at the residence of the lion, member for Geraldine (Mr Wakefield). The consequence was that he was aroused several times from his happy slumbers, and lie only discovered the intruders by watching from behind the curtain. They were two dogs and a cat, striving to cojlar the prize.

Volunteers are going to be liberally dealt with by the New' South Wales Government. The payments to the J7olunteer Force under the new regulations will range from £IOO per annum to the lieu-tenant-colonel of artillery and infantry, to £l2 to privates of all divisions of the force.

The Learned Profession. —We have in New Zealand 450 parsons, the numbers being as follows —Church of England, 156 ; Presbyterian, 108 ; Roman Catholic, 67 ; and other denominations, 129—0 r about one to every -880 of the population. There are 262" lawyers, of whom Dunedin claims 51, Auckland 44, Wellington and Chr stchurch each 30, the balance being pretty evenly scattered ; the proportion is about one to every 1100. The doctors muster 242, and Dunedin has again the lion’s share—2l ; Christchurch following with 24, Auckland 21, and Wellington with 15—one to 1230 ; while of commission agents (those beings abhored by lawyers) there are something like 350. An Independent Community. The Mayor of Dunedin (says the N.Z. Times) has addressed a telegram to the Mayor of Wellington to the following effect : “ The Floods Committee have decided not to ask for any aid outside of Otago at present.” It is a good sign when a district shows a self-reliant spirit and declines to accept alms unless pressed by urgent calamity. If Dunedin at any future time should be so unfortunate as to be a heavy sufferer from plague, flood, fire, or famine, the spirit of self-dependence she lias now shown will be remembered in her favor.