WAVERLEY.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 343, 31 July 1878, Page 2

WAVERLEY.

(from our own correspondent.) Mu F. R. Jackson held the largest sale of stock that has been seen at Waverley, on Friday lasi. I should say there ivore not less than three hundred head of cattle in the yards, and very high prices were realised—young cattle especially going very high. I noticed one pen of young heifers, I should say from eighteen to twenty months old, that fetched £5 per head ; there were also a nvnnbci of cows and working bullocks, all of which I believe cpiitted at good prices. The usually quiet Waverley was quite lively, the street being lined with saddle horses tied to the fences, the stable accommodation being quite inadequate. The late fine weather has been duly appreciated by the farmers, most of whom arc busy ploughing. There will he a large amount of cropping done here this year. Messrs Morton and Lnpton will have a hundred and seventy-five acres broken up, Mr J. Dickie over a hundred acres, and few of the settlors will shew less than from thirty to fifty acres. Wheat is all the go, and Mr Hone’s

mill on the Mangatangi stream will be kept bard at it next season. In the bush, axes are at work, and a good deal of timber will belaid low before Christmas. Mr Alexander Milne had some hundreds of acres felled last year, and has lately let by contract two hundred more to be down by the end of the year. Mr Milne has secured an excellent block of land; the soil is of the best description, and taken grass wonderfully —the land on which bush was burnt last year being now quite green. There is no doubt that there will be no better run for sheep in the country than the socalled rough country at the backofOkntukn.

I paid a visit last week to Mr James Dickie, son., ami had a pleasant walk round his garden and shrubbery, which is tastefully laid out in a horse-shoe shaped gully. Mr Dickie is one of, if not the, oldest settlers on the Okntukn block, and has for some time given up the drudgery of farm work to the younger members of his family, while he devotes Ids time to his hobby of gardening. It is quite wonderful how he has converted what loan inexperienced eye, would have seemed a useless gully, into one of the nicest shrubberies and dm scry gardens I have seen. Mr Dickie has the knack of combining usefulness with ornament. The walks are lined with every sort of flower and ornamental shrub, while between them are fruit trees of all descriptions. I had the pleasure of picking what I think must have been the “ last rose of summer” in the shape of a fine “ cloth of gold.” There is also a small fish pond which feeds a tank in which a miniature fountain plays, round which several gold fish disport themselves, to all appearance perfectly contented with themselves and the world generally. I am looking forward to invading Mr Dickie’s territory again in the summer, when everything will of course show to better advantage.

The School Committee mot on Saturday last. Present—Messrs Mathieson, Thurston, Mason, and McDonald. The minutes of the previous meeting having been confirmed, it was resolved that the Chairman send the names of James Mathieson, Robert Dickie, John Howie, John Dyke, and Frederick Aiken to the Minister of Education, as youths eligible for cadetships in the Civil Service. —A discussion took place about the plan for the proposed additions to the schoolroom, when the plan furnished by Mr Swinbourne was approved of generally, but some alterations will have to be made. Two extra windows will be required, and the porches enlarged ; a provision will also have to be made for a saddle shed. It is estimated that as soon as the compulsory clause of the Act is brought into operation, which the Committee have decided shall be done as soon as the weather becomes more settled, there will be not less than 120 children attending school.