NOTES FROM WAIHI.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 462, 27 September 1879, Page 2

NOTES FROM WAIHI.

(eroji our own correspondent.) September 24. The football match of last Saturday, between Hawera and Waihi, attracted a goodly number of visitors to the camp, who took a lively interest in the game, and the result, although unexpected, caused hearty congratulations to be shown to the A.G.’s. I regret to see that some ill-natured writer, with more malice than truth in his pen, continues to misrepresent the men of the Force in one of the Wellington papers. As he also misrepresents other people, it is possible he may have to eat bis words in the Supremo Court, and thus be brought to contradict all he has written. In my last, I took the opportunity of expressing what I had good reason to believe was the almost unanimous opinion the residents of Norraanby held of the Postmaster there, which favorable opinion had been endorsed • in a very numerously signed communication to the Postmaster-General. In an illadvised article in the N.2j. times, its Normanby correspondent makes certain assertions against the Postmaster directly contrary to the opinions of the residents, and which is likely to bring him under the “ lash of the law,” and as he has already had his charge against the A.C.’s putin its proper light in your columns, I ma}' leave him with the castigation he has received. The rainy weather of the last few days has reduced the camp to' a state of mud, and interfered with the numerous rifle matches on the tapis, but the men are about organising a band and a troop of minstrels ns a remedy against idleness,- and no doubt Waihi will produce as much harmony out of its musical instruments as will afford pleasure and profit to the encampment so long as it remains. A movement has been 1 set oli foot by Captain Marshall, to raise funds wherewith to erect a monument in memory of the gallant Von Temeky, in the Waihf Cemetery, where lie some of oor braves, who fought in the last war. This small enclosure has lately been put in good order, as is also the grave-yard at Waingongoro, where sleep many of the soldiers of the Imperial Army, but I much regretted to see, on a recent visit there, that the headstones had been removed from their sockets,

and carried off bodily; One wonders whether any European could be guilty of such.an act of vandalism* as the Maoris are not likely to use the stones. I only hope that there are any amount of ghosts and hollow meanings in those kitchens where the engraved tombstones form tlie hearthstones, and that the sitters may some day see such a vision as astonished and sobered Tam O’Shanter at Alio way’s Auld Haunted Kirk: -

The question of a site for the railway station at Normanby stills forms a hot subject for discussion among land jobbers there. Government has been offered three acres in a very convenient and central position to the present business portion of the town, whereon to build the necessary offices, but that would not suit the ideas of persons who have land for sale a mile away, who are anxious to half it ’agin their own place, so the department is beset with petitions and counter petitions. It is to be hoped no log-rolling will influence the Minister for Works from fixing the site in the most suitable position for present and future requirements. Major Atkinson passed through, and had a look round the town when en route for Wellington, and gave, I believe, special attention to this burning question. In liawera wc anticipate a visit from the Hudson Surprise Party, which is very highly spoken of as a musical combination, —I notice that an important firm in town is anxious to dispose of their business and premises, but the tightness of the banks and their ready tendency to put the screw on at the wrong- time is apt to prevent speculation, not to speak of the unsettled state of the “ native difficulty” which keeps fresh blood and capital out of the market. —lt is reported that a resident of this town has secured the contract for supplying rations to tho Armed Force. This seems to indicate a move in a direction where the men cannot cater for themselves ; well, those who will have to eat the rations hope the quantity and quality will be considered by the contractor, but the men are laying in a good stock of flesh in anticipation of hard times; and they only hope that if ever they reach Parihaka they will find such a collection of “ flesh pots” and contents as is now tho standing stock in trade of the residents there, especially when visitors call.

The country around Waihi is looking splendid—grass in abundance; but a “new chum” wonders why such grand soil should be so little utilised for agriculture, and that there are so few smiling homesteads in a countiy which is praised by emigration lecturers as that where every man may sit under his own vino and fig-tree. The homestead law is not understood by New Zealand Legislators yet.