WAIRARAPA AFFAIRS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 36, 30 September 1871, Page 15

WAIRARAPA AFFAIRS.

SUDDEN DEATHS. A man by the name of Johnson, a shepherd in the employment of Messrs Riddiford, at Te Awaiti, on the East Coast, was found dead in his bed on Thursday last. He had been seen in good health the preceding evening. Poor Hartley, who was killed while working in a gravel pit on the Mungaroa, was an old Greytown settler, and a very quiet, steady, and inoffensive man. He married one of the Misses Greatbead who came out as servant with Mr and Mrs Fox, and who died in childbirth. Hartley then sold his farm, and has ever since been employed by the Provincial Government as one of a party of roadmen. He purchased a quantity of 5s land on the Mungaroa and it is supposed he had a large sum of money invested. He died without a will, and has no relatives in New Zealand. SICKNESS. The influenza has been very prevalent at Masterton lately, and there has been more than ordinary sickness in other parts of the district, probably owing to the long continued wet weather. I am sorry to say that Mr Wardell, our Resident Magistrate, was taken suddenly ill while attending the Native Land Court, at Masterton, with inflamation of the lungs. He is now getting better, but is net at present able to attend to his official duties. CROWN LANDS. A block of superior land, comprising about 3000 acres, adjoining Borlase's run, passed through the Native Land Court at its recent sitting, and will be shortly sold by auction in small sections by the Provincial Government. A few years back such land would have readily fetched £3 an acre. It is said that the greater portion of the land recently purchased in the Seventy-mile Bush is worthless, the natives having reserved all the choice portions for their own benefit, which will be largely augmented in value by the public works now in progress, and towards the cost of which they will not contiibute a farthing. EOAD BOARDS. A meeting of the ratepayers of the Lower Valley road district was held on Saturday for the purpose of fixing a rate for the construction and maintenance of roads for the current year. The adjourned meeting of the ratepayers of the Greytown road district will shortly be held for a similar object. It will be necessary for those who desire to vote on the occasion to pay their last year's rates to the collector, or otherwise they will be precluded from voting. An act now being passed by the General Assembly will confer on this and other boards the necessary powers to fulfil their functions, and remove all doubts as to the legality of their past acts. This act is not to enable the Provincial Council to give powers, but it places those powers in the boards themselves. Under these circumstances, the ratepayers of the Greytown road district will perhaps consider it an act of prudence to pay their rates, in order to qualify them to vote at the forthcoming meeting. It will also cause the disbursement of a large sum of money now locked up in the Bank. GREYTOWN SCHOOL-HOUSE. This building has at last been closed, but Mr Poole, the late schoolmaster, still continues in possession of the " lean-to," alias " teacher's residence." A summons, issued by H. T. Spratt, J.P., for non-payment of school rates, was served on Mr Freethy, and the case was to have been heard on Saturday, but the plaintiff did not put in an appearance, he having subsequently obtained a summons from the Resident Magistrate's Court, Featherston, where the case is appointed to be heard on Wednesday next. GRANT TO ROAD BOARDS. As this matter will shortly come under discussion in the Assembly, I wish to direct attention to the fact that the return laid before the Provincial Council by the late Provincial Secretary, purporting to be a " schedule of rates returned by the various road boards of the Province of Wellington for the year ending the 30th June, 1870, and the proportion of £SOOO allocated to each," is not correct, and is moreover enough to destroy one's faith in figures. The sum stated to have been paid by the Greytown road district for the year ending June, 1870, and upon which the grant was apportioned, was never paid

by the ratepayers of the district, and the fact was well known at the time to the Provincial Government, their attention having been officially drawn to it by the chairman of the board. I have good grounds for believing that this is not a singular case—that money was allocated out of the General Government grant on the amount of rates, when it was well known to the Provincial Government that no such rates had been paid. The grant, moreover, was not apportioned either in 'accordance with the recommendations contained in the Colonial Secretary's circular despatch, nor in accordance with the suggestions on the subject made by the Provincial to the Colonial Government. Instead of a round sum out of the grant being set aside for opening up communication with Alfredton, and other outlying districts, not a penny was thus set aside, nor was a penny devoted to roads in the Whareama and East Coast districts, though it was well

known how much those roads wanted to be metalled and repaired. These remarks do not apply to the present, but to the late Provincial Government; for the conduct of the present Superintendent has been considerate, just, and courteous, which was not the case previously. THE WEATHER. The weather during the past week has been everything that could be desired. Everybody is busy, and shearing is going to commence. Already one load of wool has been despatched to town. WAIRARAPA. TOWN LANDS. I observe with satisfaction that Mr Bunny is about to introduce bills rela-. tive to this subject, as it is most desirable that they should be placed on a more satisfactory footing than at present. I wish to remind him, and other hon members, that though the members of the Small Farm Association, of which I am one, in public meeting at Greytown resolved that the management of these lands should be vested in trustees elected by the householders of the township, and that the proceeds should be devoted to educational purposes, it was at the same time distinctly pointed out and understood that " educational purposes" should be considered to embrace, not elementary instruction, but a public library and public grammar school, the one at Rugby being specially referred to by Mr Masters as having been the making of that celebrated town. I myself pointed out that it was most probable that the General Assembly would provide for the elementary instruction of youth, and it was generally agreed that the funds should be devoted to the establishment of a public library and grammar school, to which latter the children of settlers i who had distinguished themselves at the primary schools should have free admission. A resolution to this effect was carried unanimously, both at Greytown and Masterton, in the year 1867, at meetings specially convened for the purpose. lam convinced that if care be taken to prevent these town funds being appropriated for general purposes, and devoted to the objects here indicated, they will be the making of Greytown and Masterton.