Birmingham Notes.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 204, 2 March 1896, Page 2

Birmingham Notes.

[FROM OUU OWN CORRESPONDENT, i Mr J. Shapleski has just finished 70 chains of metalling on a branch of the Kimbolton road that leads to the Kiwitea river. Last winter the road was almost impassable, and now it is a good road, having nine to ten inches of good metal on it. There have been about 20 men employed and three teams. The pulling being very heavy, each load took iivo horses to haul from the pit, the grade being lin 6. The Kiwitea Council would do a wise thing in getting some able bodied settler for a month to go along the road and put the metal that is kicked and forced into the channels on the wheel ruts again, in fact to keep the metal in its proper place. This step would pay the Council and ratepayers. Some time ago a deputation from Birmingham waited on the Council, askiug that body to get a pound erected in or near the township. The hardship to settlers was pointed out, "to remedy which the cost would bo infinitesimal. The Chairman thought the matter could be left with safety in the hands of Wardens Homer and Morton, but beyond a feeble attempt to get the saleyards for the purpose nothing has been done. An expenditure of .£3O would build a suitable place. The Council, from this riding, had £'500 in rates last year, and this year the rates, I believe, will be, £'1000, and yet we are no nearer getting this paltry expenditure than ever. A petition is going round the district and town praying the Kiwitea Council to give us another representative. Increased representation always means increased taxation. Perhaps this Avould not matter if we got more benefits. I am sure the Council will agree to this proposal. A more numerously signed petition will be presented to the same body asking them to spend £30 on a public pound and relieve the settlers from an unjust burden. As Artemus Ward says : " Nuf sed." The sale of Mr McDermott's cattle, sheep, horses, furniture and farming requisites was a thorough success, almost everything being sold, thus showing what management will do in a sale as well as elsewhere. Settlers came from a longdistance. The auctioneer was kept busy selling from 11 o'clock until dark, and before finishing it was 9 o'clock. The potatoes in the ground were not sold. Draught horses brought from £15 to £22 ; cows, from £3 5s to £6 ss ; one pen of mixed sheep brought 5s per head, and two other pens a much less figure. The stallion Little John was not sold. The two new sawmills in our district, Mr Nissen's, on Mr Bryce's property and Bailey and Co.'s are now in full swing. We have had a good many bush fires around this district, some going over a lot of country on their own account, burning standing trees and logs in all directions. Winter will shortly be upon us with all its discomforts. There is a tale told here of a man riding along the Kimbolton road one winter a few years ago when he saw a hat lying on the mud. Getting off his horse he picked it up and, much to his surprise, discovered that it was on a man's head, who had sank in a mud hole almost out of sight.