DISTRICT NEWS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 158, 3 January 1912, Page 6

DISTRICT NEWS

MAKETAWA. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Farmers round about do not view the prospect of winter with any too cheerful aspect, on account of the terrible weather experienced for the past two: months or so. It makes rather doleful reading to hear accounts of oat crops stunted in growtli and thin in quantity;, barley heavy with smut on account of too much wet; turnips planted early coming up in patches and disappearing; maize rotting in the ground and second sowings barely growing; grass simply swamped. To top the lot numerous cases are mentioned where ploughing has not been started and again a number cannot finish. Those who ventured a small area of carrots report complete loss, so there is every reason for viewing the approach of winter with apprehension unless our good angel intercedes. Letters received by a resident from relatives in Sussex (England) state that the summer and autumn there, notwithstanding tho wet spring and early part of summer, has turned out the best experienced for 70 years, and crops that had a severe set-back came ahead, splendidly at the finish. Fanners there are jubilant at the way things turned out as regards the yields of everything, and maybe our case may pan out on similar lines.

(It would be interesting to know the quantity of rain which fell from 5 p.m. on Wednesday last to some time on Thursday night, during which time it rained in torrents continuously, accompanied with strong wind and thunder, ete. Rivers and creeks were the highest seen for years and paddocks were simply sheets of water. The continuous wet weather is having a marked effect on the milk supply at the creamery. There is one thing we can congratulate ourselves over, and that is the water soon gets off and does not float our beds about and such like, as happens in other parts of New Zealand at times.

I heard of a contemptible trick by a motorist on election day. It appears he was out with his car and decided to take a short cut by going over a Toad newly opened and which, on account of the rain,' was in soft condition. The machine was \ bogged, and after appealing in vain to | several passers-by for the use of their | horses, succeeded at last in inducing a i lady driver (who had miles of soft road I to traverse in pouring rain) to lend her horse to get the car out. After freeing I the cart, during which the horse's harI ness and the wbipple-tree of the cart were broken to pieces, the motorist drove away, leaving the lady and her children in the lurch, not even attempting to ! give a hand to fix the 'harness. The lat- ! I ter had to wait in the rain a considerable time before assistance was received to enable her to proceed home. I think this takes the plum for mean actions. TIKORANGI. Probably the most important feature about the recent political upheaval is the petulant whimpering of the defeated party and the charges of ingratitude brought against those constituencies which have seen fit to change their representatives. And it is because the reins of power have been held by one party for so long that this idea of a divine right to so continue is cherished. However, the electors have fortunately shattered the illusion and have unmistakably declared that parties' interests shall be subservient to that oi. the State, and, not as commonly believed by many of our politicians, that the State exists in order to serve the party. Whatever fate may be in store for either party, it is apparent that the era of government by Orders-in-Council is at last ended, and Parliament will again exercise the privileges and | powers which in late years it weakly J and shamefully surrendered. 1 Writing of elections l reminds me of an incident which tends to show that, to a very great extent, our political opinions are the result of heredity or environment, or both. The master of the local school, following his usual excellent custom of interesting the chJldre» in their studies 'by giving them a lesson on some current event, was instructing them on the. ballot system of election, and had for this purpose placed the names of Jones and Smith on the blackboard. Turning to the class, he said: "Now, for whom do you want to vote?" Unhesitatingly a weak little voice from the back .piped, '"Mr. Massey, sir!" Tikorangi'e political allegiance is apparently secure for yet another generation.

The weather, which is as (unsettled as the political situation, has brought farm work to almost a complete cessation, shearing and haymaking being quite impossible. But it is an ill wind that blows nobody good, and one effect of the constant rain as that the Waitara river is continually in flood, and consequently the sand difficulty at the river port is, for the time, not in evidence. This is most opportune, for it is rumored, ,and Tumor is not always a lying jade, that to whisper the word "weir" in the ears of members of the Waitara Harbor BoaTd has the same effect as would be obtained by surreptiously letting off a packet of crackers behind them.