A GREAT SEASON

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2624, 20 November 1915, Page 12

A GREAT SEASON

HAWERA'S BEST SPRING. There_is not the faintest doubt that the spring of 1015 was one of the best the Hawera district has ever known. Some farmers declare that they cannot remember such a good season, and others say that they have to cast back twenty to twonty-five years call to mind another like it. ' .'Grass and icrops are abundant, and the stock is in great condition. Moreover, prices are extraordinary. • Buttor and cheese prices ; are .higher than ever beforo, and tho ; figure for wool-is excellent. -' Wool-growing is not the,'ohief.'industry oi=tho district, but there is, sufficient raised for the increased price of the clip to be felt.

Letters received from soldiers of the Seventh Reinforcements indicate that tho early part of the voyage was rather rough, and seasickness was common among first voyagers for a few days. The Hawera boys were highly delighted with the 500 letters and parcels sent from their old school, and already (states an exchange) many answers have been received by the scholars. Quarter-master-Sergeant K. Strack gives the following description of the last look the departing soldiers had of Taranaki :— "On Sunday evening we had such a surprise—:wortli a paragraph in the 'Star.' About six o'clock, just as the sun was going down in the west, with the sea a perfect gold, we looked over towards the east where New Zealand should be, and—delight for u.s—there, against a sombre background, stood out hoary old Egmont, just a white snow-tipped island peak. Nothing more was visible, but there was no mistaking our time-honolir-ed mountain—the silent sentinel of the .setting sun. You may he sure all Taralast look. We put_ the glasses on it, but it was easily visible to tho naked eye, though fifty miles ,distanir-|just a hoary head (you know the tradition), a white top standing out against the dark clouds, and as the clouds floated over itand it grew dimmer and dimmer we watched more eagerly, until finally it dipped away into tlie growing haze and then was gone. We turned away, feeling glad and sorry we had seen it—glad because it brought us nearer in thought to our loving homes, and sorry because it was the last sight of the land where we lived, and because it would be many a day before wo. would see it again. My word, how we will be looking for it when wo are coming back."