Ashurst Notes

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 120, 2 April 1891, Page 3

Ashurst Notes

(fbom our own correspondent.) _ . O/i dit that the Wanganni Education •Board baye had the. idea from the yery x-onanieijcement that Ashurst would never become a place, and. thought they made ■a' mistake in erecting a Schoolbouse capable of accommodating 50 or 60 children-. If so I think I can show you they were wrong. The School roll now goes up to : 204, and the rooms are crowded. Our population is settled, those who had been 1 -'employed on the public works contracts have gone, aud still the school is full. ■ ; Four /miles from Ashurst it has been found necessary to erect another, called the Hiwinui, which has 43 children to start with. Mr Goldsbury, late of Auckland, has been appointed teacher. Work 'commenced last Tuesday. On Good Friday the School Committee had prepared a tea and other rejoicings, and invited the parents of the scholars and neighbors to . meet together to celebrate the opening of the school. Look on this picture ; then on that :-for three years ago that district was all bush. The increase of population •on the Spur and Watershed roads (about •five miles from Ashurst) has also demanded the attention of the, Wanganni Education Board- Th.c- residents,' when applying for a school, showed the names of 35 children of school age. The building is' being erected on an acre of ground- - given by Mr Thompson ; the Committee and others their purchased ' another acre for ;a -playground. So that you 'can see, and the , Education Board can see, that our population is steadily on the increase. The Bey. Mr Taylor, Wesleyau Minister, preached a farewell sermon in ish- "' urst on. Sunday. He is going to Australia. 'As it was Easter-day there was both -morning and evening seryice in the Anglican Church. Mr Corpe's mill on the Awahou-Pohan-.giriais in full working order, and the shed was finished last week. Heart timber is .put on rail for Wanganui, and building : : tiinber delivered by road to Palmerston. , Mr Pask, who has the carting, has hired •a'paddock about one mile from Ashurst ' **on the Pohangina road,, and he brings a load- from the mill to the stable one ' 'day, and delivers it in Pakuersfcon the next. Trucked timber is delivered in one day from the mill. The totara bush is ■estimated to afford about four years cutting. The Pohangina River has to be , -forded, you know.' ' ' Mr Pleasants is delivering the census papers this week in the Pohangina. Constable Brown does it here. The agricultural returns will show a •large increase in land under cultivation and grass at this end of the Manchester Block this year, but unfortunately the ■burns are bad. I notice two fires to-day. They 'must be bad too. Surely people ought to wait a' few days to give it a ■chance of drying. Mr Akers, who has •burnt 1100 acres on the subdivision X, commences sowing grass' seed to-day. He has the whole of that fine block, consisting of 3300 acres, felled and grassed. ' A' well has' been sunk to a depth" of 80 feet" on'the'Todd's road, and no water. Neighbors have water at about 20 feet. - ''A 1 white pine' tree at Mr Warne's mill on-.-the Pohangina road cut up to very : nearly 7000 feet." of- timber. Lengths "totalling up to 80 feet were brought into the mill. It was 85 feet in height up to the first bough; The timber was sound - -throughout. It is being made into tallow "casks for the Longburn Freezing Works ■by Mr Cook, of Palmerston. ' A field of beans is being cut at Dela- - -ware. ' There are some that are about the tallest I've ever seen. No difficulty in finding stalks as tall- as 10 feet. The • nursery story of Jack and the Bean St ilk is riot so" mythical 'after this. It sounds like a tall story, but shure and thin it's '•riot at all a tall story at all, at all, as • friend Pat would say. You'll think this -- yarn is tall(ol)erably American, but I can - "-'assure you they are as tall as I say. I hope I am not- guilty of tall (all) tology at . -all in describing this, being only desirous x>f showing you that these beans are as "tall as I say, and that this is not at all a tall .story. Several stoats have been seen in the Pohangina district and at Ashurst. One "was killed on the Sports ground. As. rivers do not stop them importation ■ought to be stopped.