WAIKATO DISTRICT NEWS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 78, 28 February 1884, Page 2

WAIKATO DISTRICT NEWS.

(Auckland Herald.) Cambridge, Feb. 20. Mr. Gordon, coach-proprietor, of Tauranga and Ohinemutu, is about establishing stables at Cambridge, so that tourists from Auckland for the Lakes may make an arrangement for the round trip, either coming from Auckland via Waikato and returning via Tauranga, or vice versa. A meeting of the Town Board was held on Monday evening to confirm the resolutions passed on the 19th January proposing to borrow a sum of £6OO for the enlargement and improvement of the Public Hall and Library. On the motion of Mr. Richardson, seconded by Mr. Johnson, the resolution of that date was confirmed; and on the resolution of Mr. Clark, it was agreed to call a public meeting of the ratepayers for Saturday evening next, when the consideration of the proposed expenditure and loan could be discussed previous to a poll being taken. Harvest festival services will be held at St. Andrew’s Church on Sunday next, when the Rev. Mr. Gulliver, of St. John’s College, Auckland, whose ministrations have been largely appreciated in Cambridge, will conduct the services.

Although a large proportion of the wheat crop is in the stack there still remains a considerable quantity in the field more or less ready to carry, and some late crops, but a very small proportion, still uncut. Were reapers and binders more plentiful the harvest would be in by now, but farmers have to wait their turn in very many instances. Doubtless, should the co-opera-tive-association movement afoot come to anything, this state of things would be remedied by the facilities afforded to individual farmers and others in the purchase of machinery. The price of wheat is now beginning Io exercise the minds of our farmers, and here again a Farmers’ Co-operative Association would vastly improve matters. Wheat is likely to rule low this season, and without some such combination Waikato wheat, which is far superior in quality to that grown in the South, will all average together the one price. Wheat grown in Waikato, it has i been often shown, is equal in quality to that grown in South Australia, and an instance of its superiority occurred here only a short time since, when our local miller being out of stock of Waikato-grown wheat bought Canterbury grain, and the bakers’ customers began at once, without knowing the reason, to complain of the falling off in the quality of the bread. Ngaruawahia, Feb. 20. As a specimen of local industry, the barge 102 feet in length, with a beam of 18 feet, built by, and now being launched for, the Waikato Steam Navigation and Coal-mining Company, is well worthy of notice. It will be used for general freight purposes on both rivers. The Company are deserving of credit for starting an enterprise which brings skilled labor into the district and keeps the money from going out of it.

Another local industry which helps to keep Ngaruawahia brisk is the flax-mill of the Messrs. Bycroft, which employs some nine or ten hands regularly. The average weekly output of flax since the mills started has been eighteen tons. These mills also provide a considerable amount of labour for the Natives who bring the raw flax from a distance to it. Great convenience has been felt since the goods train began to run from Auckland here on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, as well as on the intervening days as heretofore, so that persons missing the morning train to Auckland have had the opportunity of leaving by this train, which starts about a quarter to three o’clock p.m. on the days mentioned. The train is being run to bring up the iron rail a which arrived by the s.s. Doric. Cambridge, Feb. 20, evening. At the sale of Native horses sold by the Sheriff to-day, there was the largest attendance ever known in Waikato. The horses sold for extraordinary high prices—the first fetching £l5, and in one case £25 being realised —on an average fully 50 per cent, over the usual Saturday sales.