MATIERE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 604, 20 September 1913, Page 5

MATIERE.

Own Correspondent:

Spring here seems fairly forward at the present time, and the number of iambs in evidence would rejoice the heart of an old time "shepherd king. just as the percentage- would prove fairly satisfactory to his present day scion.

The local factory has made a start with some new gear, including a cream vat from the Nino Nino factory, which has chised down, a step to be regretted as a retrograde one to the whole district. It is not, however, that the district as a dairying centre is m fault so much as tiie eternal bickering and heart burning which form vehicles cf malice reacting on the settlers themselves. Had those who took shares supplied the factory, or even upheld the directorate in a loyal manner, n.iite a different complexion would now be worn by the affairs of the company instead of the very sinister one obtaining at present. It is a very remarkable thing that a co-opertive company with the backing of the farmers should succumb while a proprietary concern could paddle along, but history repeats itself, for I recollect] when a large dairying company in the Feilding district was, through similar causes, only "saved by the skin of their teeth," and a public spirited directorate who personally guaranteed their names for several thousand pounds to the bank. We may hope that "finis" has not been written against the company and that the cuckoo-like cream cart may again herald the spring.

The four-hor3e team of the Niho Niho factory has been purchased by Mr Floyd, who i 3 running it on the old route to Mangaroa and Huatahi bridge to collect cream for the Matiere factory. Mr Paul Jorgenson has also invested in a brake and run 3 the cream from the Otangiwai an'l Whs"luakura suppliers. Quite the greatest topic of conversation with settlers here when they can spare time for a "smoke oh" is the very extraordinary effort of a section of the Ohura County Council to put the said tettlers in possesions of a showground and racecourse they do not want and never asked for. With the roads in their present condition this high flight in a motion proposed by Cr Loveday reminds one that "it is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous." The other day a lady had to be removed from here to the Hamilton Hospital for at! operation of a serious nature and six miles of the journey occupied the vehicle three houis. Verily, with a proposal such as this before us in face of our roading necessities we are forcibly reminded that Nero's riddling during the burning of Rome is repeated in later history. A school is to be erected at the twelve mile (Mattrakau) for the children of new settlers there and the children of workers on the line. I learn there are the nucleus of a fair school which promises to be much larger in the near future.

The road to the twelve mile and through the township is in a bad way, but "hopa springs eternal in the human breast," and the earnest of the Government as evidenced by the railway works gives promise that the road will be greatly improved this 3uram9r.