TAHUHAROA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 24, 22 December 1916, Page 7

TAHUHAROA.

[FROM OUR OWN' CORRKRUON'riKNT.] In spite of dearth of labour, the common cry iu the country just now, a fair amount of bush has come down again this season in this district, a rough estimate of the total area waiting for line weather and the advent of the lire fiend is in the neighbourhood of 750 acres. W ith the state of the stock market in mind, it gives one “furiously to think” when :be problem of stocking the “bun - ' has to be met. Many a weary settlor, as lie scrambles up and down the burn with his cargo of seed, will stagger blindly through the mazes of the problematical values of stock next season as compared to the present buying price. Wherein his little bit lies is a doubtful question, and unless “coming events cast their shadows before.” and the future demand is ruling the present prices, it seems to me as d there will be very little margin. Especially as fat and store values seem to lie standing on one and the same foot.

With the past spell of fine weather most of the local sheep have been shorn. The next thing is to get the wool away, and it is to be hoped our County Council will keep things moving as much as possible to get the road open for wheel traffic.

The problem of education for the j local children still continues to trouble those interested, and herein lies food for thought for the members of the Education Board as individuals. The Government of the country evidently considers it better to finish off the town children with a high and often useless education than to provide an average education for the children of the hack-blocks. And yet they talk of free education? There are eight children of school age here, who according to a recent decree of the Education Board are to go uneducated as far as Government funds are concerned, while we. hear of technical classes and all the other “super” educational advantages for the towns and those within reach thereof. And yet these children here have just as much right,the “free education” as those 1 bthers, Mv . , ir., ; cot%:the Government .ClOCT,pq- annum Ho educate these few cMdrojd’ they 'would be

gelling no more.'titan their due and not as much there as they deserve, •considering the hardships they have to undergo. 1 say again: These are our future settlers, and it is a better proposition for the country to confer an average education on one back-block’s child, than to spend the equivalent in “topping off’ the education of any number of other children.