THE Kawhia Settler. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1907, NOTES.

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 341, 6 December 1907, Page 2

THE Kawhia Settler. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1907, NOTES.

iln our list .i-sue appeared a report | ft tn the Waikato Argus stating that 1 t ie Hamilton Chamber ot Commerce had decided to ask the Government to instruct Mr Monntfort to survey a road between Hamilton and Kawhia, through the Moerahgi block. From a Hamilton point of view the idea is a good one, but will it commend itself to tbe general public ? Certainly not. We always advocate progress, but that progress must bo in the right direction, and i cannot be said that under present conditions it would be a good move to construct tbe road above menlionet In the first place the road benefits native land, which is not revenue producing, and taking the Hon. R. M'Nab’s view, the construction ot th j road would enhance the value of tbe land, for which more would have to be p»i l when the Government purchased it. There is a good road to tbe W iltatn, via Te Bau a moa and Pi rongia, which tbe settkri now use, a <1 as that roid is <J Importance to th ••-■h >:«3 of ’ho Dominion ouUide a<;itation sbouhl be c.-uterad on getting it metallal. Again, the controversy which hi- .. in g;ing on lately relative o rAiding in this locality very c' trly shows that the Government bi- not done justice to tbe districts that are air.ady settled, and it would bn ridiculous for us to advocate for tbe ope ling of 36 miles of road through n ilive land when wo know that many i/ our readers viho have resided on :L ir sections fur years have not yet t,v. u a Git. track. Let the obuntry bet is cirt ady in occupation be prop! ly roadfcd, and it will be of benefit • o all. There has been too much of tbi-< sort of btisinWj and it is high lime that tbe ce-tfeAtouk a kss selfish VII w U-tbings.

Looai and General. The Kawhia school will “break up” for the Christmas holidays on Friday, 13th i’ost. In tbe Supplementary Estimates ap pears the item, £5OO provision for an additional stipendiary' magistrate at Hamilton. We fibknowladge the receipt of an invitaii-m to be present at the Hainilton Chamber of Commerce banquet on Wednesday, December lllh. The meeting of the Kawhia Tnwn Board, which was to bavo been bui lm. Thursday evening last, tap ed on uc count of there not being a quorum pre sent. Another very enj ;yable dance was held in (he Opirau school on Friday last in aid of the school building fund. The attendance was large, and a good surplus will result. The chairman of the Kawhia County Council has appointed Mr Caulfiatd, of R >as, clerk aud wharfinger at a salary ot £l5O per annum, the dudes to com mence on January Ist next. Not withstanding the low price of flax Mr C. H. Williams has commence 1 running his mill at Pnkoka, tbe first load of the fieislxd article being brought into Kawhia on Thursday. Mr Legge, a visitor from Auckland whilst fishing off the wharf on Tburs. dny morning, had the misfortune to rua a fish hook into his finger, which required Dr 0. Campbell Jenkin’s attention to remove.J The work of protecting the pohutaka'wa trees on the Kawhia beach by a stone wall has been completed, at a Cost of £5O. The wall around one tree is 160 k long, the other measuring a few feet less.

Cr Lusk has been re-elected chairman of the Waitomo County Council for the ensuing 12 months.—Mr W. Johnson has been appointed member for the Waitomo Riding, vice Mr A.C. M'Cardle resigned. By all means give the Maori who can and will farm a chance of getting a piece of land. Thanks to the system of individualising, of which so much unintelligent nonsense is talked, we have made that almost impossible. Napier Herald,

Tbe Christinas number of the Ob server, which is just to hand, main - tains the high, standard which has already been reached. The sketches of Auckland celebrities are particularly good and altogether the issue is a very cheap sixpennyworth.

There does not appear to be much interest taken in sports in Kawhia, for a meeting called for that purpose on Tuesday night last lapsed owing to the sparse attendance. Truly, Kawhia residents seem to ba getting very drowsy this warm weather. Mr Stewart, Inspector of Schools paid: his usual visit to schools in this district during the week, and was well pleased with the progress made. He has als i been deported to pick out a site for the new school at Kinohaku landing, which we believe is to be erected almost immeoiitely.

We draw attention to the new time tablo in this issue of the s.s. Waitangi’s running for tbe m mth of December. On perusal it will be noticed that splendid arrangements have been made to cater for tbe travelling public at Ch?istniftB time, and it is to be hoped that the efforts of the company will be taken full advantage of. Tbe Hon. W. W. M’Cardle, M.L.0., returned to Kawhia by coach on Tuesday, locking particularly well after the hard work done during the session. He informs us that both His Excellency the Governor (Lord Plunket) and tbe Premier (Sir Joseph Ward) have promised that Kawhia will be visited during the recess. In reply to a question by tbe Te Kuiti Chronicle representative on Monday last, Mr F. W. Massey stated that tbe matter of minors interests in Na tive leases, which had held up the completion of several transactions in Native lands since last session, had been satisfactorily dealt with by the Parliament before tbe session closed.

Al the last meeting of the. Kawhia Harbour Board Cr Babbage brought under notice the fact that the men who were constructing a road near jbe Awaroa River had rolled logs into the river, which was interfering with navigation. He thought that the authorities should be written to and asked to remove the obstruetions.—Cr Norton objected. If tbe Government was making tbe road it would be unwise to interfere at all.—The subject then dropped.

The following story from the Waikato In dependant will ba appreciated. A Cambridge boy of mature age of five years, on being asked if he bad enjoyed himself at tbe opening of tbe local tennis club, said: “Yes, but I would have liked a drink, but didn’t care for tea.’’. When it was suggested that he shnuld have a<kjd for a drink of milk hi- roply was; “I wai’vd for the ladies tn slop talking ; but as they did not stop I didn’t get a chance to aek that’s the worst of ladies 1”

An extraordin try miser’s hoard has been discovered at Abogill, near Ballymena. An old woman was knocked down and killed instantly on the roadside by a dray. When the police inspected the wretched dwelling in which she old creature lived they found it almost packed to the door with branches of trees and wood for the wiour'n Dial. Further search revealed a tegular board of money. Two largo buckets and a tin trunk were filled to overflowing with all kinds of current coin, as well as a bigger wooden box and abmt a dozen mugs, and when tbe whole of the money was counted and put into a beam and scales weight the total was considerably in excess ot a hundredweight.

Don’t forget that good printing can be done at the Settlsr Office Mr R. Sircombe has been ’busily em ployed lately attending to the worst places on the Kawhia-Aotea road, the work being ordered by the Government. Tbe usual monthly meeting of tbe Kawhia School Committee will be held on Monday evening next, at 7.80 p.m., when srrangeitenta will ba made for the holding of a school picnic. The s.s. Rothesay endeavoured to get to N i; k ihakeri with a load of flax mill plant, btH wb.so about way it was found that tbe surf waa tuo heavy, consequently the vessel returned to Kawhia. Mr. Bathe, Mr Barton’s successor arrived last night from Okariri, via Te Kuiti. He will spend a few days.-iu going over tbe dietriot plans and work in bend with Mr Barron, and returns shortly after Christmas, to settle in Kawhia and take up his offiohl duties. A settler on the main coach road during the winter bought a galvanised iron tank, and as the road was too bad could not cart it to his section. Tbe article was required, so be rolled , it from the ferry to where it was wanted—a distance of five miles. This ie a fair sample of the ingenuity of backblocksmen.

Undoubtedly one of the prettiest rivits flowing in o the Kawhia Harbour is the Mahoe, and it is surprising that this stream is so little k r iown and so eeidom visited. On the banks thereof is some of the finest bush scenery that is p issible to obtain anywhere, whilst at high tide the stream is deep for many miles. Ou Sunday a p irty made the trip and were delighted with tbe outing. ‘‘Russia will be a loyely place com pared with (his country,” said Mr Symes tbe member for Patea, in tbe H use of Represents fives on Friday. “Cail this democratic New Zealand,” he added, with acorn. “You won’t be able to find a word that will describe the tone of this country directly. W’e shall all have wings and Jews’ harps before very long, or if we don't l , it wont be the fault of tbe legislation. I hope when I go to the next country I wc>nt meet a lot of the people 1 have to meet here,” (Laughter)

A very sad occurrence happened on board Mr Walter Morgan’s launch on Saturday afternoon last. Tbe boat was returning from Awaroa, having on board a Maori named Tupa his wife and mother, who wars bringing their sick baby to Kawhia for medical advice, but when off Mototara the little one peacefully expired in its mother’s arms. Needless to say tbe relatives were much grieved, and gave vent to their pent up feelings in true native fashion. Mr Morgan took his passengers back to their kianga, where a large number were congregated, and a tangi was quickly started.

Just before Parliament closed for ths session, an amendment to the Counties Act was brought down by Governor’s message, it provides for the payment of tbe cost of constructing and maintaining all roads within the county (not being Government or district roods) as the Council from time to time by special order declares to be main roads, and all bridges on, and ferries established in connection with such roads; and for the making of separate riding accounts for any riding in New Zealand. The cost of those roads not Government roads is thrown upon the ridings in which they arg situated. In response to objections, the Premier agreed to make the Act permissive, and with this amendment it was passed.

Some time ago Mr T. D. Hamilton received a circular from the Auckland Railway La&gue asking for a subscription as a “mark of appreciation of the efforts in agitating tor tbe construction of Auckland Railways.” The memo was handed to us, and on perusal we found that the League did not recog nise the Kawhia Harbou- Railway at all, but many other proposals which are not nearly so important. Needless to say the subscription was not sent. When Auckland lakes an interest in our welfare support will be forthcoming, but to ask Kawhia to con tri. bate towards advocating for other linesand perhaps jeopardise tbe chance of'a railway to here is too much to expect from even the long,-suffering residents of this locality. A Taranaki gentleman id feres ted iu the native land transaction relates that for several months- past a well-known Maori refused to sign tbe transfer of a piece of bis land whose sale had been negotiated. He gave as hie reason that he wasut consumed with a ba ruing desire to complete the deal, aa he wished to settle tbe land on his children. Wednesday hat be waa passing through New Plymouth to Parihaka, and palled -on the agent. “Yoa get the paper now,”, benaid, “I sign ’ The agent asked, “VHjat about the children then ?” “Ob, I get plenty more for them,” waa the reply. When you talk to me before I never s’gu beoVuse if I sign then Te Wbi’i be lake half the money. Now Te Whiti dead. By korry I sell now; get all th? mot.ey.” A yarn of a CGtniCiil nature, mines from the Main Trunk Line. A man was employed at one ot the mills, and his mates, for a joke, toll him the police were looking for him. Possibly conscience told him that tbis might be correct. However, he hastened to the office and obtained his cheque, selling his tools for what be could get, aud rushed for the nerrest railway station. When seated in tbe carriage be was not surprised when the local constable tggk his seat beside him. Taking a piece of paper from his pocket he -eribbled a note to bis mates; “They have nabbed me all right,”, ind handed it to a friend on the platform for delivery. The voyage was resumed and the man was electrified a few stations fartheron to see the constable have the train without taking further ' notice of him. Conecience.