WORD FROM THREE MAORI CHIEFS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume III, Issue 517, 28 January 1869, Page 2

WORD FROM THREE MAORI CHIEFS.

(To the Editor of the Lytteltan Times.)

Sir—On the 10th of -January our ship anchored in the port, but we did not go ashore because it was Sunday. On Monday, at 11 o'clock, we landed ; a salute was fired from the man-of-war, and the yards were manned; some of the officers of the ship accompanied the Governor. When we reached the wharf there were thousands, of Europeans standing- there, a salute was fired, and the Governor was conducted to a house Avhere an address of welcome was read by the Mayor of the town, and the Governor replied; an address from the Maoris was also read; the duty of replying1 to that was left to us. The Governor, accompanied by us, then got into the train, and in ten minutes we arrived at ■ Christchurch, at the house set apart for doing- honor to the Governor, amid the firing- of cannon and the sound of trumpets. When the Europeans had finished their address of welcome we got into a carriage, and were conveyed to a house set apart by the Europeans of this town for giving a dejeuner to the Governor. When the feast was concluded, the Mayor of the town rose and proposed :— ' '■ The health of the Queen. The Prince of ..Wales and the other children of the Queen. The health of the Army, Navy, and Volunteers. After that toast had been respon ded to, The health of the Governor was drnnk and replied to. The healths of .the Superintendent CMr Rolleston) and the . Mayor was then drunk, and the feast ended. We were then conducted to the house fixed upon as a place of residence j for us—Mr White's. In the even- | ing- Mr White took, us to see the Panorama, and we saw the battles of the white people. Let that panorama be taken to the North Island, to. the Maori settlements, that the Maoris there may see the fine things of the white people. We have now for the first time seen the light which burns without any oil (gas) ; it is very good. We are very much pleased with the works which are being done in this town of (Jhristchurch. We went with the Governor to the bouse where the iron is melted and made i into ploughshares, into wheels for | the railway carriages, and into all the numerous things of the white people; the iron ran out like water. One thing' was a large hammer kneading the iron like bread. After that we went to see the house where the timber is sawn; the owners of these places were very kind to us in explaining everything. We went to see a large and fine garden, but we aid not see the owner of it. God / has taught evervrhinir to the people |of this place. Well done the people : who are lining in peace; hut we have seen this word in the Scriptures.. This may he applied to New Zealand (the .North Island), who are J living in an evil way; they have I not seen the splendid works of the j Europeans. But this island was I first in the days of our ancestors; the greatest treasure of both North and South Island was greenstone, ana that was found here at Canterbury ; and now at the time that it is inhabited by the Europeans this island hns the money; there is no money in the other islnnd; the railway also was made here. We are very much struck with the number of people in this town ; perhaps presently the white people in this island will become as numerous as the sand. Friends—all the Maoris of this island and of the other island—

look at the work of the English; they were ignorant in the days of their ancestors, and now the later generations have been taught everything by God. 0, our European friends, leave the Maoris alone in their ignorance ; perhaps God will grant wisdom to our descendants in j the future, for you are establishing j schools. We have been to the Telegraph Office, and we conversed with our friends Mohi Ngapanga and HemiParai at Wellington. We are very much pleased with that telegraph. In less than a minute we received an answer to our words

sent to our friends in Wellington. We will keep the telegraph in mind as a subject of admiration at our own place.—Sufficient. We will describe what we have seen more fully when we return to Wellington. Tamihana, Te Rauparaha. Wi Tako, Ngatata. Mete Kingi, Te Rangitahi, M.H.R. Christchurch, 13r,h January.

Water Velocipkde. — Galignani says :—" An ingenious application of the principle of the velocipede to water locomotion .may now be seen on the Lake of Enghien, near Paris: The form of this new species of naval construction is that of the twin ship tried some years back on the Thames, the motive power being placed in the middle instead of on each side, as in ordinary paddlesteamers. A pair of hollow watertight pontoons, about twelve feet long, ten inches wide in the thickest part, and tapered to a point at each end, are fastened together about twenty inches apart, by ti*ansverse bars near the extremities. In the centre is placed the seat, risingabout two feet above the water, and supported by iron rods. In the front is the paddle-wheel, about three feet ia diameter, and eight inches broad, provided with sixteen floats, the axle turning on stout iron uprights, and the rotary motion being obtained from - the cranks worked by the ieet. This little vessel is steered by rudders at each of the stems, and moved by lines. The pontoons being made of thin mahogany planks, the whole construction is very light, and glides along- with astonishing- rapidity. This water velocipede, having been built as a fh'st experiment, is. no doubt, susceptible of improvement in some of its details, but the principle may be already pronounced a complete success. The inventor is M . Thierry, an architect of Paris. The late Marshall Bijg-eand, when only a captain, during the Spanish campaign under Napoleon 1,, once read in n manuscript which by chance fell into his hands that by observations made in Kngland and Florence daring a period of fifty years, the law respecting the weather has been proved to hold true: — "Eleven out of twelve the weather remains the same during the moon as it is on the fifth, ii it continues unchanged over the sixth day ; and nine times out of twelve like the fourth day, if the sixth resembles the fourth." From 1815 to 1830 Mr Bugeand devoted his attention to agriculture, and guided by the law just mentioned, avoided the losses in hay time and vintage which many of his neighbors experienced. His neighbours at Excideuil, and his lieutenant afc Alg-eria would often exclaim, " How lucky he is in the weather!" In counting the fourth and sixth days, he was particular in beginning from the exact time of new moon, and added three quarters of an hour for each for the ■greater length of the lunar as compared with the solar day.

The wife of a laboring1 man employed at a mill, named Thomas Worthing'ton, living with his wife and five children at Fenton, Staffordshire, murdered her infant child, thirteen months old, by cutting1 its throat, and then cut her own throat. Her husband, when he wen; to bed on Wednesday nig-ht, left her up to finish some work, exporting1 her to follow soon. He Tell nslcep, and awoke at, four o'clock in the morning- to find she had.not been to bed. lie went down stairs to look for her,

and found the dead bodies'of herself A and the infant bathed in a pool of blood on the floor of the kitchen, where he had left them the night before, and a razor covered with blood lay near. The child's head was nearly severed from the body. The wife had been upstairs, though she had not been in bed^ as she was in her night-dress. It keems that for the last twelve months she had been greatly depressed, and deeply grieved for the loss of a child, which probably unhinged her mind. She lived on good terms with her husband, and there can be no doubt the

double crime was committed under the influence af insanity.