LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 264, 23 February 1889, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Major Ropata arrived from the Coast, by the Maitai last Thursday night. I

The Wellington Evening Press, referring to the Poverty Bay massacre, sas’s it was the Europeans who began the vendetta, and overcame the Maoris without the slightest regard, slaughtering many of the native prisonent in cold blood. Our contemporary has been misled.

There will ba no tent meeting this evening. Two subjects are advertised for Sunday at 3 and 7 p.m. In the afternoon Mr Hare will ■peak on the “Origin and Nature of Sin. Why does God allow it to exist? Will it always be in existence?” The evening lecture will take up the “ Harvests of Time and Eternity." Seats are free and all invited. At the meeting on Thursday evening an individual named Desmond came in for some rough handling, and may consider himself fortunate that he got off so easily, AC the Makaraka meeting he got up and, in the face of the relatives of those who had been butchered, was taking the part of the Haubaus, but the Chairman ruled that he was out of order, as they had met for » specific purpose. It was known that he bad subsequently j been visiting the Hauhau camp and also sent telegrams away saying that the settlers were only trying on bounce. At the Gisborne meeting fis persisted in speaking while a resolution was being put, and although he was warned he took :.o notice. Tbeaudiencehooted I jind groana.l and would not listen to him. He Ifclghed at them and syrt on the floor, and Mr Umwiord, who had A teat on the platform, went goroaa to him, and putting his hand on his shoulder, asked him to retire, With that Desmond tprned on him fiercely and clutched him hy tM ft,sard. A struggle ensued, and the two trow right on th'.*, edge of the platform, whan a rush liom (h« body of the hall took place, there being (pad Erics of “ Waukau spy !’’ Desmor.fi was roughly mauled about, and it would nave been » e.orry chance for him if three or four golidemep had pot appeared and hurtled him into (he side room, Vfjgre they kept guard on him Until the meeting tfpa over and the peoplahad all dispersed. Before the business of the meeting was can. ciuded: k« .applied for permission through the Chairman te j;e heard, or else that he might make a written statement, but Captain Winter rose and protested tu»t fhe min having once been hounded off, it would be risking his life to bring him on again. It was agreed, though there WM much dissent, to read the statement, which was fiMMUge from lhe Ksraka Hauhaus, urgiurt mis’ claims and] professing pSacelul futeihlOßb

The Maori football team has been beaten by Cambridge University by two goals and one try to a goal.

Mr Desmond repudiates the assertion made by Mr Hardy' at'the meeting on Thursday night, and states that he has been engaged at Mr McPhail’s place during the harvesting season at a shilling an hour. He says he does not justify murder, but hopes by intervention to prevent bloodshed.

At the magisterial enquiry into the circumstances in connection with the striking of the Australia on a rock at Oreti Point, the Court found that an error of judgment had been committed in venturing so near the shore without keeping the lead going; that the rock in question does not seem to be delineated on any chart, or to be known to persons resident on the coast; and that steps wers taken to get the vessel off in a seamanlike manner. The Court returned the officers’ certificates, and ordered Captain Kemp to pay the costs ofjthe enquiry.

The following civil cases were heard at the R.M. Court on Thursday :—L. Mclntosh v. H. J. U’Ren, claim £6 2s 7d, judgment by consent for £5, costs £2 Is ; A. F. Matthews v. Eni Moanahia, claim £2 10s, Judgment by consent, with costs 8s ; A. J. Wilson v. Wi Wharakeki, claim £6 13s Bd, judgment by default, with costs 17s ; A. Parnell v. A. McDonald, claim £2 13s Bd, judgment by default, with costs 6s ; A. Matthews v. Hapi Kinilia, claim £3 10s, judgment by default, with costs 6s ; A. Parnell v. T. Jones, claim 12s 6d, judgment by default, with costs 6s.

“ Old A.C.” writes a long letter with regard to the Te Kooti trouble, but wo regret we have not space to publish it. The writer was through all the last Te Kooti trouble and the forming of the Field Force at Westmere (near Wanganui) to the breaking up of the same in Tauranga. The letter concludes You have stirred up a dirty cesspool. The stench, £am afraid, will lay a lew low; myself, perhaps, amongst the number. This cloud has been hanging over this coast a long while, and I am sorry to see it burst iu this district. I admire every person for keeping Te Kooti away, but, sir, as one who has gone through the last troubles, seen the utter waste of ammunition, the bad management and rough usage of men, I tell you as one amongst you and sharing my humble lot in Poverty Bay, io keep 000 l and handle your rein# steadily, for directly the first pop of any weapon, it means war for Now Zealand, Seo your commissariat is all square—you can’t fight empty,” The Wellington papers aw of opinion that the settlers of this district should themselves maintain ar<}er—the writers seem to fail altogether to grasp the position. Shame on their fellqw colonists if they stand idly by and withhold their sympathy from men, women, and children, their flesh and blood, who are subjected to terrorism at the hands of a pardoned, but unchanged savage.—N. Z. Herald, The Ashburton Woollen Company wound up because they wanted £4OOO to keep ths bailiff out, as much more to buy wool, and more for wages to carry on, and they could not get the money.

At a recent oonfemnoe at Exeter Hall, London, the Rev. Mr Baxter prophesied a number of extraordinary events, amongst others that the greatest war ever known in Europe would happen in 1889 or 1890, changing 21} kingdoms into ten, .Sydney has a novelty in the shape of a jockey descended from Chinese parent'. He is known by the name Suey, and he steered the winner of the Hurdle Race of Bosehill on the 4th inst. s

The proposed increase of freight on flax i causing a good deal of indignation. AtFoxton where the industry is flourishing, a public meeting is to be held to consider the question of chartering vessels at the present rate of freight. A cablegram haa been received from London, stating that the sale of the trial shipment of butter manufactured in the Victorian Government dairy has been eminently satisfactory. The amount realised was from 90s. -to 120 s. per cwt.

Tho oat crop around Awahuri and Fielding is this year very much affected with rust. A Mr Sanson, who saw indications of rust in his early oats, out them a week or so before they were really ripe, and by taking some pains in getting them well dried before carting, he was enabled to save them in such a condition as to be enabled to cut the straw into first class chaff. His late oats are, however, like those throughout that district, so full of rust as to, nearly suffocate the drivers of the reaping machines. The Dean of Rochester has produced a sensation among the total abstainers in Kent and elsewhere by boldly avowing his conviction, in a .sermon at Rochester Cathedral, that, heinous as is the vice of drunkenness, a moderate drinker is noble and more manly than a person who, from want of moral strength to control himself, becomes a total abstainer. He deprecated abuse of licensed victuallers, and would seek a remedy for drunkenness in improving the dwellings and brightening the surroundings of the working classes. He protested against the attempt to transform the Church of England from a temperance into a total abstinence society, believing that to countenance such an enterprise was to seem to disparage ‘ one of God’s good creatures. ’ Mr Soobie Mackenzie recently appeared before the Otago Land Board to ask that certain runs be subdivided. The Board told him the matter was settled, and he had better appeal to the Minister of Lands. He replied—” I have already done so, and got an unfavorable reply. I have appealed to Philip drunk, and now I appeal to Philip sober,” A new method of treating steel has been patented, and is expected to effect a revolution in the iron and steel trades. It is affirmed that by this process steel of greatly increased ductility and tensile strength can be produced more cheaply than by the processes now in use ; that the new steel is hardly, if at all, subject to rust; and that bronze, boll metal, and other compounds can be made at a fabulously lower price than they cost now. It is said that a famous North of England firm has already offered a lump sum for permission to use the process at a reduced royalty, and that from the reduced royalty alone there would be a revenue sf £50,000 a year. The process, it is curious to know, is the invention of the French chemist who discovered margarine,

A man at Chantjly insured his life heavily. He is then said to have murdered his male servant, and after dressing tl;e fiody in his own clothes and making it to represent himself in every particular he placed it on the line to suggest that death bad been occasioned by a train. He had made a will for the supposed dead man, leaving the insurance to a person whom he professed to be. The St. James’ Gazette endorses the views of Sir Henry Parkes for the further dividing of Australia before the colonies are ready for federation. A correspondent thus concludes a reply to an opponent, in an Auckland paper: Should he venture out again into the scurrilous path he has wallowed in before then I will make him retract his slanders, by mine own hands, and risk the consequences, The Forestry Department of South Australia has bean asked if it can supply 530,000 railway sleepers for which the Euyptian Government has invited tenders. If the contract is obtained by South Australia it will provide work for 800 men for at least three years.

The Wesleyan Conference sitting in Melhoqrjie has passed a resolution urging on the minjsteia and stewards of tho Church the desirability oj tjsjng non-intoxicating wine at the sacrament. A SSRSjIt submitted to. the tame conference showed tfaft the sum of £40,000 had bean subseribsd to the Jubilee Thanksgiving Fund,