HAWERA.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 432, 4 June 1879, Page 2

HAWERA.

(from our own correspondent.) No nesvsj they say, is good news ; at the present state of aifairs, though, it strikes me very forcibly that that remark is anything but right. The number of war meetings’that have been held in this small but rising township, is perfectly marvellous. If you walk into an hotel you are immediately accosted with, “ What do you think of the native aifairs ?” &c., and then the person goes off into a long tirade about what is done, what is not done, and what should be done, until one feels inclined to leave this gay and festive scone, and go to Jericho, or any other place. If you take a stroll up the street, you are met by an excited crowd, and dragged into a discussion that ends in your being jumped upon for giving an opinion. If you go into your office for peace and quiet, some miserable imbecile flattens his nose against the window, and demands to know whether there is going to be war or not. lam thinking that if they started a Lunatic Asylum here now, by the time it wasbuilt, there would be a tremendous lot of candidates, the greater part of whose weaknesses would be chopping off innumerable Maoris* heads, and dying gloriously on the body of the last one.

One of our local tradesmen is going about with A list to enroll volunteers for a Rifle Corps. I believe he has a good many names, but if he got them the waj r lie tried to get me, I pity them. His first attempt at me was talking until he was tired, and then he pulled a shilling out of his pocket arid showed it to me. I expressed great wilingness to have the shilling, but would not sign the list. He went away unhappy.

The state of affairs does not seem to affect the carpenters’ trade much, as they all seem employed. The Bank of New Zealand addition has just been finished, making a very fine building of it, Mr Lloyd’s addition is also nearly finished; the carpenters being stopped only for want of timber. The billiard room, when completed, will be a very handsome one, and lovers of the game will be pleased to know that Mr Lloyd has gone in for one of the best tables he could procure. The Post Office will present a very different appearance when finished, to the shabby building they had before.