News of the Week.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 286, 25 October 1878, Page 14

News of the Week.

We have received a letter relative to a transaction which occurred at a school in a town on the West Coast. The matter referred to is so serious, that we refrain trom publishing the letter, as by doing so we should he making an ex yartc statement. We, nevertheless, recommend thafcthe affair be brought under the notice of the Minister for Education. It is a case that should on no account be allowed to pass without investigation by the authorities. If our informant will authorise us we shall be happy to forward his letter to the Minister for Education. By a telegram from our Eeefton correspondent, dated the 17th inst., we learn that the Welcome crushed 1133 ozs. from 514 tona of stone. A dividend of 2s. has been declared, and £1750 placed to the reserve fund. A child was recently run over by a coach at Kumara. It is remarkable that although the wheels passed over its body no bonea were broken. Laboubees are reported to be scarce in the Manawatu district. The murderer Hiroki bears the reputation amongst the Maoris of being able to get through the bush with -wonderful rapidity. They ■ describe Mm as going through it " like a pig." The Mayor of Napier has shocked the verbally correct by allud* ing, in the Council, to money under the slang name of " sugar." A company has been formed thoroughly to prospect the Hauraki Peninsula. . Mr. Thomas Russell has presented the Auckland Institute with a collection of casts of the works of art most famous in Europe. A man in Wellington lately rode his horse so unmercifully that one of the poor brute's hoofs fell off. There is excessive indignation amongst the miners at Living, stone because the place of polling for members of the County Council has been removed to Otekaike. A party of miners at Dillman's Town are about to establish a club house. Theee have been fresh massacres of Europeans in New Caledonia. They occurred at Poya, a district in the north-west of the island. The first crushing of the Langdon's Reefs, near Greymouth, Has given a result of 4 dwts. fine gold, that is at the rate of 2 ozs. to the ton. The inhabitants of Napier have been much excercised over the question of the Maori dual vote. The look upon the matter as an unprincipled attempt to give over the northern electorates permanently into the hands of the Ministry. A small-pox scare was lately caused in Napier by a report that a child affected with the disease in question had been allowed to run about the streets. The patient, however, on being examined , by competent medical authority was pronounced not to have had the illness so much dreaded. The Rev. Father Chastagnon is occupied in making preparations for holding a bazaar and art-union in aid of, the building fund of the Catholic Church at Gisborne. We xegret to learn of the death of Mr. S. O'Kane of Mosgiel which has occurred at Waikouaiti. The deceased gentleman who was staying on a visit with his brother, walked out a few mornings since after breakfast but did not return. On Wednesday last the mystery received a sad explanation b> the discovery in the river o* ms pody,-— 8,1,P. ' *

An heir of the O'Keefe millionaire has been drowned in a creek ' at Yass, N.S.W. * «*?' P# Kelly » late ol Naseby, has been appointed master of the Catholic School, Lawrence. The Nelson Colonist says, alluding to the Maori clause in the JUectoral Bill .-—The Native Minister has wormed himself so compietely into the confidence of the Maoris by pandering to their suspicious disposition, and persuading them that every European, who will not yield to him, is bent on robbing them of their lands, if indeed he has not already done so to some extent. The meaning of the clause then is, that for these districts no one save the nominees of Mr. John feneehan shall be returned, and when added to the present native members, who he, with the Premier's aid, manages to make the creatures of his pleasure, this one man will have the absolute disposal +h « a dd ° ZCn VOteS ia the House ' What Mr - Sheehan thinks about the fitness of his Maori friends to determine the course of legislation, and to sanction the imposition of burdens, from sharing which, as in the case of the Land Tax, they are to be exempted, his own statement on the business of his department plainly tells. He says, the race is dying out in consequence of the intemperance of men, women, and children, and from their disgusting and beastial sensuality ; yet it is such men that he seeks to invest with power, because it will be used for his aggrandisement. "A visitor " writes to the Auckland Star a strong condemnation of the Katikati settlement. He says that 90 per cent of the soil is '• execrable." " The original settlers took up their land on what at first sight may appear unexceptionally favourable terms. They got it for nothing ; but on the principle that poor land is dear at any price, it is not after all such a great thing. Those lately arrived have to pay to the leader and promoter of the settlement £2 per acre, and that for land which, as I have said, would be dear if got for nothing, and compulsion to cultivate. . . . The settlers consist largely of professional men— not lawyers ; they are not to be had so easily. Men without the smallest experience, not knowing what they have to do or how to do it, and though doubtless many of them have considerable capital, I am much afraid it will all be swallowed up before they can get any return. It is all very well to congratulate ourselves on the arrival of men such as the majority of these settlers are, and gloat over the capital they bring into the colony, and our gratulations would not have been out of place had they been located on good land, but looking at the matter as it really is, and from a broad standpoint — in fact, a colonial view — it means very considerable damage to the high character the colony at present bears in the old country as an unrivalled field for emigration ; and I cannot help expressing my surprise that.the Government should have lent themselves to a scheme such as this, as though it may seem a laudable thing to get these wastes settled, depend upon it, the damage to the colony is likely in the long run to be far greater than the present benefit ; for, as I have already said, many of these settlers are men of good and even high social standing, and they will make their voices heard in the old country to our detriment."