MAPARA.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 461, 1 May 1912, Page 5

MAPARA.

-■> -■ • Own Correspondent. A word from the dead to the living! After a few weeks of heavenly Weather the gods have again turned their wrath upon our already ill-treated heads, and it is raining venomously. The roads are thus early almost impassible, and the main canal is becoming blocked with wreckage. During the short spell of fine weather the settlers endeavoured to burn their bush. Their efforts were attended with only moderate success, but though the new clearings are patchy with badly burnd ground, a large area of new grass has thus been added in the district, and owners of fern sec tions have been singularly fortunate in firing and grassing their 'and.

One decided boon has been conferred on the settlers by one or two amongst them who regularly kill and supply them with meat. First rate beef and mutton can now be had at reasonable prices, which is a happy state of affairs, after paying sixpence per pound and more for chased hides. In civilised communities such articles of commerce are sent to the nearest tannery, and after necessary treatment are worn outside instead of in.

Desperate efforts are being made by the board to build a school this season, and with surprising success. Already several blocks and a few boards are to be seen not more than two miles from the school site, and we expect to see more ere the coming winter is ended. As the aettlers in this part of the district are short of firewood, the material may yet be consumed as fuel. Men of erudition and professors of metaphysical thought, who differ essentially in their teach ings, all agree that nothing in nature is wasted. After a laborious sequence of thought, we arrive at the deduction that the helpless bunglers who bring these things upon us are really unable to waste. This is pretty hard to swallow, but one fact is still plainly evident, they themselves wrongly continue to protrude at the waist. The other day as I was riding past our excellent schoolhouse (save the mark) I saw the teacher, minus shirt and singlet, clad in running pants and the spiked shoe, racing round and round the domicile in a style that turned my mind to Lockie McLaughlin in his hey-day. Knowing the chap well, I asked him if his ambition aspired to lowering the world's record at the next Olympic games or whether the trouble and discomfort which he had endured for some time past had not deranged his mind. In reply he informed me that he was pracising long goes, and advised me to show no surprise should I clvance a< any time to see him flying past my place with a dozen mothers in hot pursuit. Incidentally, he is at present working under conditions that are likely to send half his pupils to hospital, and get himself scratched to raga.