WAIRARAPA AFFAIRS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 34, 16 September 1871, Page 3

WAIRARAPA AFFAIRS.

MEETING OF RATEPAYERS. A meeting of ratepayers, convened by advertisement, was held at the courthouse, Greytown, on Saturday last, for the purpose of fixing a rate for the construction, maintenance, and repair of roads in the Greytown Highway District. A large number of landowners were present. S. Revans, Esq., J.P., occupied the chair. He stated that the advertisement was addressed to ratepayers, and that none but ratepayers would be allowed to vote. In order to enable votes to be taken several members of the board had paid their rates, to render their proceedings legal, and not with the slightest intention of taking advantage of the circumstance to do more than vote for the adjournment of the meeting until a future day, in order to allow time to be given for the case of appeal now pending in the Supreme Court to be decided one way or the other, as until this was done they should not know whether their prior proceedings had been legal or illegal. He had expected that the case would have been decided months ago. The board had received the following sums from the Government: —First instalment, 283 Z. ss; 2nd do, 14 U. 12s 6d ; 3rd do, 141 1. 12s 6d ; making a total of 566?. 10s allotted to the board out of the 5,000 Z. grant. Two or three items had been paid, and the balance in hand amounted to 549 Z. 9s 3d. The accounts had been audited by Messrs Moles and Hirschberg, and they had certified that they were correct. The board felt they had no right to spend this money until the rates had been collected. A long and irregular discussion followed; and ultimately, on the motion of Mr Tocker seconded by Mr "Walker, the meeting was adjourned until Saturday, October 14th. Though a board of wardens has existed, no rates have been paid for the construction and repairs of roads in this extensive district since 1867 ; and yet it is stated in a return, published by the late Provincial Secretary, that the amount of rates paid by the district for the year ending the 30th June, 1870 was 587 Z. odd ! How are these two statements to be reconciled ? NATIVE LAND COURT. This court has been sitting at the Court House, Masterton, during the past week, Judge Rogan presiding, assisted by Mr Commissioner Locke, junr., Hawke's Bay. The proceedings have had reference chiefly to the sale of the Seventy-Mile Bush. GREYTOWN SCHOOL. Some of the members of the Greytown School Committee, under, it is said, instructions from the trustees, proceeded on Saturday last to take off the shingles, which they succeeded in doing. Tenders are invited for certain additions and repairs. In the meantime it is announced that the " Greytown Public School" will be kept in the Town Hall. I give the bare fa,cts, and purposely avoid making any comments. READING ROOM. Mr Moles contemplates opening a reading room adjoining his stores, Greytown, which is to be supplied with the best English periodicals and reviews, as well as the leading colonial journals, which will be kept filed for reference. I trust that the enterprise may turn out a success, not only for the sake of the proprietor but the public; but I must again direct public attention to the fact that it is not just to the proprietor of this journal for me to give publicity to announcements which ought to appear in its advertising columns, THE LATE ACCIDENT. The piano, books, surgical instruments, linen, and furniture, belonging to Dr. Boor, which were precipitated down the Rknutaka last week by the accidental capsizing of the wagon in which they were being conveyed to Wellington, have all been recovered, though many of the books and other articles were much damaged. PLOUGHING MATCH. A ploughing match, open to all comers, is to take place at Tauherenikau on Wednesday next. A large number of entries have already been made, and, should the weather prove favorable, it is expected that a large number of visitors from all parts of the valley will be present. A ROYAL- ANTLER. I have been courteously shown by Mr

Tully a royal antler, which was found by Mr W. Skeet, surveyor, in the new township of Gladstone, now being laid off at Tupurupuru, in this district. The buck was seen by him with the antler on his head when he entered some scrub, and seeing him again in about an hour afterwards divested of this ornamental appendage, he made a search for it, and ultimately succeeded in finding it close to where he first saw the back. He describes him as being a very large one, as large, in fact, as a good two year old heifer. The antler is a very fine one. It measures two feet eight inches in length, and the thickest part is about ten inches in circumference. It weighs six pounds. Though known as buckhorn, it has not the properties of horn, which are hollow and never shed, but those, chemically and physically, of true bone. The antlers are solid processes from the frontal bone ; they resemble a handsomely forked and crooked branch of a leafless tree • and must grow more rapidly, as they are shed annually. This is the first royal antler which has been found in this province, if not in New Zealand. It was shed by one of the deer imported into the province some nine or ten years ago, and which were originally placed, it will be recollected, on Mr Carters property on the Taratahi. The province will soon possess all the wild animals which in Europe, in former ages, furnished sport for royal huntsmen. W T ild boars have long been abundant; there are innumerable herds of wild cattle, more valuable than the buffalo ; and we are now promised wild deer. The fact is worth knowing to English sportsmen, and might be the means of supplying saloon passengers to the Californian steamers, if it induced English tourists, and lovers of field-sports, and exciting adventures, to include New Zealand in their grand tour. The extraordinary size of the buck seen by Mr Skeet proves how well adapted is this couHtry for the propagation of wild animals generally, and of deer more particularly. But little more than a century ago there was not a quadruped, worthy of the name, in New Zealand. The contrast, in this respect, between then and now, is not a little remarkable. There is no other country in the world that can furnish a like parallel.