WAIRARAPA EDUCATION MEETING.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVI, Issue 1682, 5 November 1861, Page 2

WAIRARAPA EDUCATION MEETING.

The Settlers at Morrison's Bush utlended a meeting held at Mr. Hodge's Hotel, on Monday, 28th October, for the purpose of memorial • isiiig the Superintendent to proclaim Morrisou's Bush Reserve a seperate School District, under the Education Act. H. T. Spratt, Esq., the Coroner of the district, was chosen Chairman, and the following resolutions wore unanimously adopted. 1. That it is desirable that the Mo rou district, commonly known as Morrison's Bush Reserve, should be sub-divided from the Greytown district, uuder tbe proiisions of the Education Act, and that his Honor the Superintendent be written to to that effect. 2. That a School Committee should be at once constituted for the purpose of superintending the erection of a School House, and tho organization of a School, and that this Committee do consist of the following, Settlers, Mr, John Hodge, Treasurer, Mr. H. T. Spratt, Secretary, Mr. W. Field, Chairman, and Messrs. Barratt, Terry, Smith, aud G. Wakeliu, Committee men. Another resolution was also passed with reference to the bite of the proposed School of no genera], though of great local interest. , It may be stated that his Honor had been previously written to asking him whether he would give a few acres us an Education Reserve, for the purpose of the School, to which he replied tbat he would. This reply was received by the meeting with the greatest satisfaction. Subscriptions have already been promised to an amount equal to the estimated cost of the building, and it is believed that the School in tbis district — numbering near -40 children under 14 years old, and having " not-* single inhabitant 5 years ago -will be forthwith commenced. "

drunken Irishmen. His wish is now to proceed to Edinburgh, where be says his wife's friends are; one of his brother's\he says, holds an office under the t>uke of "Hamilton ; and there are. •other relatives there of respectability. — Correspondent of the Preston Guardian. The Horrors of the Castle of St. Elmo, Naples. — In the Castle of St. Elmo you have plenty of dungeons of every shade of badness. The top of the hill has had a large square pit sunk in it, dividecjt horizontally into two chambers by a natural layer of the stone. Round the upper edge of this shaft the visible fortress has been built ; aiid in the pit below cells have been either scooped io the walls or built against them like closets. These cages are ten to twelve feet square, and usually ventilated by a grating a foot long in the panel of the door, but which the sentinal outside oould close by a sliding cover. The furniture of each consisted solely of a wooden trussel to serve for a bed. The prisoners were not allowed to come out for any necessities whatever ; and the accumulated dirt was only removed when life became endangered. Though by Garibaldi's orders these dungeons had not been used since the King departed, and had been aired and swept, the stench was still appalling in all of them, and they were full of vermin. Here I was shown tbe cell in which Poerio was confined seven months. All the rooms were so dark that On first entering, the walls, though close to you, could not be distinguished ; and it required several minutes to make out a single object but the grating. jOti the whitewash between the cl6ors'/in the central shaft, there were numerous bullet marts, showing how the wretched prisoners had been stuok up like targets, and fired at within a yard bf their cells. In the "fower division of the pit a terrible massacre of forty persons took place at once, during Bomba's reign ; they, were ranged in a body atone end, and a platoon of soldiers fired volleys till all. were dead. The marks of tbe shot are still there. But the worst place of all we had yet to see, and an officer conducted us thither. In an obscure corner you come to a kind of narrow well in the.floor of the corridor, some ten feet, deep, at the bottom of which there is a chamber cut literally in the rock, about as small as a man oould creep into, partitioned off by iron bars. " Here," said the w officer, " anyone was put who was to disappear, and when he was in, the flagstone above was replaced ; starvation and want of air soon killed him, and his cries troubled nobody." Unless I had seen this hole with mine own eyes, T should, have doubted the veracity of anyone describing it, and, consequently, I fear what ) have stated will hardly meet

with general" acceptance; nevertheless, this is no romance I am composing, but sober earnest, easy to be verified. I have seen iv my travels the dungeons of many a castle of every age, and have been shown tbe prisons of modern and ancient tyrants; but I cannot remember, eveu in tbe dens of the Inquisition, to have found anything so terrible as the sights of St. Elmo. Let the man who talks of the humaiiiiy of Bourbon sovereigns first see how they treat their enemies; let him visit the vaults where Poerio. prime minister to a Bourbon King, was entombed, and then let him read what his crime was. Well might the Government deny admission to the prisons of the metropolis j they feared the very walls wouldtell of the bloody atrocities committed there, and a voice cry for vengeance from the grouud. — Bicknell's " In the Track of Ganbaldians." First Encounter with a Gorilla. — The singular noise of the breaking of tree branches continued. We walked with the greatest care, making no noise at all. Tbe countenances of the men showed that they thought themselves engaged in a very serious undertaking ; but we pushed on, until finally we thought we "saw ' through the thick woods the moving of the branches and small trees which the great beast was tearing down, probably to get from them the berries and fruits he lives on. Suddenly, as we were 1 yet creeping along, in a silence which made a heavy breath seem loud and „distinct,, distinct, the woods were at once filled with the tremendous barking roar of the gorilla. Then the underbrush swayed rapidly just ahead, and presently before us stood an immense male gorilla. He had gone through the jungle on his all fours; ; but when he .saw our party he erected himself and looked us boldly in the face. He stood about a dozen yards from us, and was a sight I think I shall never forget. Nearly six feet high (he proved fourinchesshorter),wiih immense body; huge chest, and great muscular arms, with fiercely glaring large deep gray eyes, and a hellish expression of face, which seemed to me like some uight mare vision : thus stood before us this I king of the Afrioan forest. He was not ! alraid of us. He stood, there, and beat | his' Breast with his huge fiats till it resounded like an immense bass drum, w ; hfph i)S their mode of offering defiance; meantime giying vent to roar after roar. The'i'oar of the gorilla is the most singular and awful noise heard in theee African wbocls. It begins with a sharp bark, like an angry dog, and then glides into a deep bass roll, \vhich literally and closely resembles, the roll of distant thunder along' the* sky, for which I have sometimes been tempted to. take it where I did not see ithe animal. So deep is it that it,. $eem?.,to pioceed less from the mouth: 1 awl: throat than from the deep chest and vast paunoh.. . His eyes began to flash fiercer fire as we stood motionless on the defensive, and the crest of

short hair which stands on his forehead began to switch rapidly up and down, while his powerful fangs were shown as he again sent forth a thunderous roar. And now truly he reminded me of nothingbut of some hellish dream creature : a being of that hideous order, hall man, half beast, which we find pictured by old artists in some representations of the infernal regions. He advanced a few steps ; then stopped to issue that hideous roar again ; and finally stopped when at a distance of about six yards from us. And here, just as he began another of his roars, beating his breast in rage, we fired and killed bim. With a groan which had something terribly human in it, and yet was full of brutishness, he fell,forward on his fa.oe. The body shook convulsively for a few minutes; the limbs moved about in a struggling way, and then all was quiet : death had donß its work, and I had leisure to examine its huge body. It proved_ to be five feet eight indie's high, and tlie muscular development of the arms and breast showed strength it had possessed. My men; though rejoicing at our luck, immediately began to quarrel about the apportionment of the meat : for they really eat this creature. I saw that they would come to blows presently if I did not interfere, and therefore said I would myself give eaoh man his share, whioh satisfied all. As we were too tired to return to our camp of last night, we determined to camp here on the spot, and soon had some shelter erected and dinner going : on. Luckily, one of the fellows shot a deer just as we began to camp, and on 1 its meat I feasted while my men ate | gorilla. I noticed that they very carefully [ saved the brain; and was told that charms were made of this: charms of. of two kinds. Prepared in one way, the charm gave the wearer a strong hand for j the hunt; and in another it gave him success with, women. Atrocities of the Neapolitan Brigands. — The details respecting the out-j rages oommitted by the Neapolitan brigands increase rather than diminish in j horror as the following frightful outrages too clearly prove. They are taken from a a letter in the Nazione : — " I write to you full cf grief and rage on account of new atrocities committed by the brigands. At Viestra the brigands barbarously killed nine gentlemen of tho Liberal party, and similar atrocities were committed in other villages. But that which they did in the Commune of San Paolo, in the district of Malise, surpasses all imagination. On the morning of the 4th, the brigands, all dressed in the uniform of the old Bourbon gendarmes, surprised the town, and, after j having sacked the houses, without excep- 1 tion, took the curate, Giovanni Rogati I (who had the reputation of being an honest priest and a good Liberal), bis brother, and the syndic of the village, Signor Antonio Capra, and having brought them out naked on the public square, they exposed them to the derision and the insults of the vilest of the populace, who made common cause with the brigauds, and, after this spectacle had lasted several hours, murdered them with their bayonets. They then took the wife of the syndic, and after having stripped her naked and committed on her person every imaginable outrage, leaving her half dead. Having learned that a certain Guiseppe Cavvarano, a respectable man was trying, to escape in order to alarm the neighbouring villages, they arrested him, and having dressed him up as a woman in the middle of the public square, they set fire to his dress and burnt him alive. Hearing of tbe approach of a detachment of troops from Barano and of National Guards from the neighbouring villages, they betook themselves to a precipitate retreat. After hearing of such cannibal atrocities, how is it possible to show generosity to these wretches or to their employers 1 How can we expect the common people to allow the brigands to pass on with impunity when they see them conveyed by the police ? The carabineers have the greatest difficulty to defend the brigands from the fury of the people when they are taking them lo prison. They are in consequence obliged to bring them into Naples in the night. Some of the brigands were followed by their wives." Romantic Career of a Woman. — A correspondent of tbe Times gives the following particulars of the extraordinary j career of an aged woman, named Barnes, who is now in a state of, dastitution, and in whose case the Rev. Arthur R. Godson, 3 Devonshire-street, Portland-place, W,, has interested himself : — " Sheridan knew her as a child, aud persuaded her father to apprentice her, at the age of 14, to Mrs, Jordan, who trained her as Little Pickle, in the ' Spoilt Child ' and other minor characters. At 16 sbe married John Simonds, a seaman oi the Culloden, and accompanied him to the "West Indies, under* Sir Edward Pellew (Lord Exmouth). She was with her husband, in the Mars, at Trafalgar, and assisted in the last offices to Caplain Duff, who was killed early in the aotion. Her husband himself was killed later in the day, leaving her with four sons. In 1808 she married Henry Bevau, a soldier in the 42nd, and went with the regiment to the Peninsula, where she again became « mother. This child was killed in hei arms during the retreat on Coruuna, anc her husband fell in the celebrated charge of the 50th and 42nd, whioh drove tht French from the field. She attended or Sir John i.ioore during his last moments and was present at his funeral. Her< Captain Murray was so struck with he : youth and distress, that, he told her tha i if ever she was in difficulties to apply t<

I I him ; and he kept his promise to assist hei J until his deoease in 1859, since which I J time she has been fiiendless. After leav- [ ing the Peninsula she beoame lady's maid ;(,to Mrs. Spencer Smith, wife of the En'g- ■ I lish Ambassador at Constantinople ; on ' their way there the women were taken prisoners in Italy. The mistress escaped with a very mild form of bondage, but Murat sent the maid to the hulks at Toulon for six months. Of her four sons by the first marriage, two were killed in the Queen Charlotte at Algiers ; the third fell fb the 23rd Regiment, in one of Lord Gough's actions in India ; and the fourth, in the llth Hussars, in the cavalry charge at Balaklava.. By her third husband, who is also dead, she had three sons and a daughter. Of these the eldest was lost overboard from Lord Proby's frigate, off Malta; the second and third in a collier, on their way from Shields; and the daughter died in the service of an English jady in the south of France." Serious Balloon Accident.— On.' Monday Evening, the 19th, Mr. Coxwell; the celebrated ceronaut, made an ascent from Congleton, at about seven o'olock, and was accompanied by two young gentlemen, Alfred aud Thomas Pearson, o( Suglawton, near Congleton. The wind was blowing, violently at the time of the ascent, and in a few minutes oarried the balloon in the direction of Buxton. The aeronaut attempted to land on the flat, open, and bleak country in the neighbour hood of §uxton, but he found it impossible to accomplish his objeot on account of the wind, which was increasing in violence: He let go his grappling hooks, but they were useless. The car of the balloon was dashed against three stone walls, completely knocking down the portions against which it struck. By some means or other the balloon burst, and was thus brought to a stand. Mr. Coxwell has escaped with superficial bruises, but Mr. T. Pearson is,dangerously hurt. The third young gentleman has alsohisarm broken. The sufferers had to beconveyed to Buxton. Shocking Tragedy near Cambridge. -— On the 17th, a man named Thomas Harvey, murdered his mother, a widow,, residing at Fen Ditton, a village about three miles from Cambridge. The inquest was held onthe 19th, when Shadrach Jacobs, brother of the deceased, gave the following account of the fearful occurrence :— On Saturday night I was in the kitchen with deceased, Mrs. Richard Harvey, and Mrs. itfitt. The deceased put a ham on a dish, and was about to take it into the cellar. I went to get a match to light a candle, and whilst I was doing that Mrs. Witt followed deceased with a candle already lighted. Suddenly • Mrs. Riohard Harvey said, " There's Thomas Harvey." He had then got down the cellar. I then heard a squeak, and Thomas Harvey say, "Now Ive got y_u." Then I heard one scream, and I went down, and Thomas Harvey had then got deceased down, Deceased was lying flat on the floor, and Thomas Harvey was beating her about the head. He had hold of her with one hand and was beating her with the other. I caught hold of his arm, and he then struck me a heavy blow with some weapon on the head. The blow took all my senses away. The weapon seemed to be like a large club. I fell on the first blow, and when I tried to get up he struck me again. I crawled up stairs at last, and then saw Mrs, Witt in a chair nearly dead. Tbere had been quarrelling between Thomas Hurvey aud his mother about the will of Thomas Harvey's father. Thomas had had his share of the property by oonsent of the family, although the property was left to tbe mother for life, and at her death to be equally divided between Thomas Harvey and his brothers. Thomas Harvey claimed a small piece of land, and his mother would have let him have it, but his brothers refused. The quarrelling had continued ever since the death of the father, three years ago, and Thomas had frequently threatened to murder his mother and brothers. I heard him threaten that about a month or two ago. He said he wished he was in bell for having ber (his mother's \ife) life. One night, a few weeks ago, Thomas oarae to tho house about nine o'olock at night; his mother asked who was there, and *' would not open the door. She went up stairs, as he still did not auswer, and . looked through the window. Thomas then said that " he would have murdered all in the house if he could have got in." I —Corroborative evidence was then given, and one or two witnesses deposed to ' seeing Thomas Harvey, who lived at a - short distance from his mother's house, . skulking about the premises immediately , before he rushed into tho oellar. The , surgeon who was called in, thus describes . the wounds inflicted upon the deceased. I —There was a wound at the backof the head, about five inohes long. The skull was very muoh fractured, and a large '. portion of the bi ara had escaped. There t were several smaller wounds in the scalp, i caused apparently by some sharp instruj. ment. There were also two other wounds, I oue upon the "right wrist, about two . inches long, and a similar one on the j back of the right hand. A plasterer's } hammer would appear a likely weapon to 3 inflict suoh injuries, whioh were sufficient i to cause almost immediate death. — The r Jury returned a verdict of wilful murder 1 against Thos. Harvey, who has not been 3 seen or beard of. The evidence at the 9 inquest gives no particulars of the jpt 1 juries inflicted upon Mrs. Witt but Har , vey seems to have wounded her terribly q about the head and face, and. her death r was momentarily expeoted.' Mrs. Witt X lived with deceased in the double oa« o pacity of lodger and friend.