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Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 31, 11 July 1872, Page 2

Last night about 8 p.m., a fire broke out in Mr Walker's stables at Rangariri, they were burnt to the ground. Messrs. Quick's horses and harness were fortunately saved. Our Cambridge correspondent, referring to & case of theft by a Maori, reported below, aa ye :—" What a fine thing it'is to be a Maori. The natives are habitually idle, drunken, and improvident, and consequently they are at some seasons of the year not too well off for food. What does the Government do ? Why it steps in, gives-them flour and sugar and feeds them ; gives them wheat to sow their lands with, ploughs to till the soil, and horses to drag their ploughs. If a native (as many of them are) is determined not to work, but prefers to steal his neighbor's property or produce to working himself, he is not subject to the same laws as the Europeans ; not he, why should he be ? He is a being of a superior race. It is all very well to put white men in goal when they are found guilty of theft, but this must not be thought of with the native lords of the soil. A line in the shape of a threefold restitution of the property stolen is as much as they can be expected to submit to. A Maori consequently looks upon a theft as a mere commercial speculation ; if he is only clever and cunning enough it is a good and profitable business. If he manages to steal ail article of the same value four times without being caught, even if he should be detected in the fifth theft and conviction should follow, there is still a profit on the whole transaction. When will there be one law for the European and Maori ? As the law stands at present it offers an inducement to the Maori to commit crime, as even if detected in its commission the punishment is not at all commensurate with the offence. If a white man instead of. a Maori bad been found guilty of stealing Mr. Beere's spades, instead of getting off with paying £2 5a he would have been sent to Mount Eden for six or nine months with hard labor, there to think over the error of his ways.

The following cases were disposed of at the sitting of the R.M. Court at Cambridge, on the 3rd inst. : —Wylie v. Johnston ; claim £8, for unlawfully impounding cattle ; judgment for plaintiff.-—Cambridge North Township Highway Board v. Reid ; arrears of rates ; judgment was given for defendant, on the ground that the Country Board having already levied a rate on the land the Town Board had no power to charge rates on the same property.— William Smith, the lad who was remanded from Auckland, was brought up on a charge of horsestealing. After hearing the evidence in the case, the Magistrate committed him for trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court in Auckland.—On the 4th July a native named Tuhuma, residing at Tamahaere, was charged with stealing three spades from the premisee of Elijah Beere, of Cambridge, on the 30th ult. The charge being proven, he was fined three times the value of'the property stolen, amounting to.£2 ss, and costs.

Wβ are glad to be able to report that Seymour, the small-pox patient at the Hospital, is rapidly getting convalescent. The other man, Macgregor, is, we regret to say, in a very precarious state ; but as we said in yesterday's issue, the weak state of his constitution is against him.. Several rumours were afloat as to fresh, cases of small-pox yesterday, but on enquiry we were informed by Dr. Philson that no fresh cases had come |to hij knowledge.— "New Zealand Herald." We hare been requested to call attention to the alteration in the time-table of the Waikato Steam Navigation Company; A steamer will proceed to Waikato Heads on Thursday, returning on Friday as the tide suits. In consequence of this, the trip from Ngiruawahia to Hamilton and back on Saturdaywill be discontinued. Also, to notify that, until the new wharf is built, Mr. Bell's wharf at Ngaruawahia will be the regular calling-place. The importance of the development of our coalfields is every day becoming more and more apparent. It is really cause for humiliation, as well as for regret on economical grounds, that with all our large resources of superior coal, situated in. so. many convenient localities, we should still be without a supply approaching the actual .requirements or the city and suburbs of Auckland; The winter is now fairly set in, and the; consequence is. that, owing to the inadequacy of the supply, the price of fuel is considerably advanced beyond what it ought to be. This is especially hard upon the poor. It is sincerely to be hoped that before another year transpires a very different staie of things will exist. Looking at the excellent ,and. extensive coal deposits abounding in so many directions throughout this province, fuel ought to be procurable in Auckland at all times in abundance, and-at a very moderate cost. There is 'nothing to prevent it being so. It needs but the display of a little energy; and enterprise on the part of the owners of this kind of property to accomplish all that is required. It. is with pleasure, therefore, we learn that steps are about to be taken to form companies, and otherwise effect the necessary organisation,- preparatory i» carrying out operations in coal-mining in various localities. We need hardly say that we wish all venturers of the kind the earliest and fullest success. —D. S. Cross. • ./ .

A piece of wire rope has been procured for the repair of the punt-wire at Ngaruawahia, and we iearn that there is every probability of the punt being in working order by Saturday nfcrt/ the landlady of the Thames Dining Roonf/Uas died of: small-pox. . •'* f called by tßfr, General Goverment for the of wharves and punt for eerrice at Ngaruawahi*.