WAIROA.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3725, 23 June 1883, Page 3

WAIROA.

[from our own correspondent.] The natives have commoncod ploughing for wheat, and it is anticipated that a largo area of land will bo sown down in that cereal this year, to provide grist for the flour mill at the Hikawai creek.

The weather is very favorable for agricultural work, most of tho low-lying lands being remarkably dry. The sharpfrost we are having every night pulverises _ the newly-broken up soil, and prepares it for the crop hotter almost than tho disc harrow. There is a good deal of sickness even still amongst the natives, the prevailing malady being a very low form of typhod and phthisis. These two affections annually carry off a number of tho natives here, generally the younger members of the hainga. If the death rate among the Maoris in other parts of the island be as high as it is here, I shouldn't wonder if in a few years we find some difficulty in keeping alive one aboriginal to go Home and Bkotch the ruins of London. Jesting apart, defective sanitary arrangement.'-,, overcrowding, and ibad ![food aro playing and loose with tho natives, and ono might as well try to turn them from their present mode of living as to sweep back the ocean with a broom. A dancing class is announced to be held every Thursday evening in Mayo's Hall by Mr T. Lucas, a new arrival here. Ido not at all doubt the musical abilities of Mr Lucas, or question his right to do anything he can for a living, but I am tempted to remark that, while tho reading-room of the Mechanic's Institute is practically deserted by the young men and women of tho Wairoa, the dancing class is sure to bo woll attended. I do not mean to condemn dancing, but 1 fear the tendency of our youth does not lie in the direction of selfimprovement. To play the piano and to danco appears now to be tho sole ambition of tho rising generation. Alas ! for tho good old days, when boys wero taught to follow the plough, or learn a useful trade, and tho girls to knit stookings or keep house. If a change bo not soon brought about in less than fifty years potatoes will bo two pounds a bag, and other food products equally dear, and most people will bo compelled to live on instrumental music and dancing. At )St. Paul's Church on Sunday night the Rev. W. Goodyear, in tho course of a sermon on the rich man's duty to tho poor, preached a littlo Land Leagueisra in asserting that the Creator made the land for "the people," and that it was only just and fair that a portion of the produce of the land should bo returned to the poor, as provided in tho Mosaic law. The next essay to be delivered in the Mechanics' Institute will bo on the subject ef." Science of Language and the Study of Word's," by Rev. W.Lambert. For Thursday, July 7th, the essay will be "Books and Reading," by Mr R. Penty. • The sentenco of three months' hard labor imposed on Wliatu, the native who committed perjury in tho Resident Magistrate's .' Court here in tho case of Thompson v. Kcrei To Ota, has rather surprised not a few pcoplo. The perjury was most deliberate.