DISTRICT NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 January 1919, Page 7

DISTRICT NEWS.

1 \ SVAITUL

(From Our Own Correspondentj. The advent of 1919 has found local residents if not a little nearer the millenium, at least better provided with some few facilities to make life more tolerable. Perhaps among the chief are the two party phones, which have proved a very great boon, particularly through the recent sad epidemic. The' phone makes for greater social intercourse by putting neighbours in close ouch, and for invoking medical aid an, business dealings saves time and wo. .-, matters with certainty and despatch. The rural mail delivery has proved a boon only second to the 'phone, and Mr. Dick Grylls has mada a. \ery efficient and punctual mailman, so much so that I learn a be- ] lated Christmas box is materialising. The luxury of the morning paper with its news items of connneicial interest is duly apprpoateu by soma settlers who have erectwl ji?opur boea easy of access to the ma'!a>ix!i. OVo.ew too slack and lazy to put up a proper box certainly deserve to tramp a few miles for their mail as before. Consideration and the item of a fair deal to the lad who gains his living by saying them many wet and disagreeable trips should weigh with the thoughtless members of the delivery route.

I learn that Mr. C. Martin's farm at Kaimata changed hands a short time ago at £45 per acre.

A proposal under the aegis of the Kaimata Farmers' Union is afoot to establish scholarships or bursaries for the benefit of soldiers of the present war. I learn that the idea is being warmly taken up, and our old friend, Mr. & Mackie, of Kaimata, with all the Scot's warmth of feeling toward educative processes, is working energetically for its furtherance.

At the last Farmers' Union meeting ox the 23rd ult., several subscriptions running up to the half century were promised in the room. The scheme is, of course, in the nebulous stage at present, but it is generally agreed that the broad principles of woiking will allow widt latitude, to th? trustees to give auxiliary or monetary help to any deserving scion of our returned fighting men. The concensus 6f opinion was that the tuition should 1)e of a practical or technical nature rather than that of a classical trend.

It was pointed out by one speaker that it was better to equip a young person with an education than to give monetary assistance in a direct manner, as. it would bo impossible for the recipients to divest themselves of a training which for their life's span would provide them with a livelihood. It is to be hoped that other centres of settlement will move on similar lines and provide for the descendants of our heroes returned from ths defence of our liberties the means to win their 'way in life, in which they would otherwise be handicapped by the failure of a physically disabled sire to accord them.

Everett Road residents are energetically pushing along their bridge and metalling loan, and both ana likely to materialise this summer.

I learn the Moa Road Board propose .to..buy a concrete mixer, driven, by a small engine to assist in the erection of the above bridge and the one 'over the Makara stream. No doubt 'such a plant in these days i-of scarce and highly paid labor would soon pity for itself.

Should tho ideas of the Road Board with regard to a county and the harnessing- of hydro-electricity come to fruition there can scarcely be any doubt that cheap power will be utilised in concrete road construction, as well as in crushing and general stone w;rk and road formation. ,

I have not seen many disciples of Izaak Walton whipping the Manganui, or heard of any large bags, which either shows there are less fish, or the scare of the epidemic has made fishermen more, thoughtful and less likely to indulge in. wild stories of heavy weight trout, One "ould cannibal," as an Irish acquaintance describes such, is said to reside in a deep hole in tie Manganui at its junction with another stream. One settler describes it aa being as long as the handle of a hay fork but whether the estimate was made in Christmas week your scribe knoweth not.

Fat stock buyers are. now working through the farms, but the season is rather disappointing, and "plain" lambs seem to predominate. Haymaking has been nmch delayed, many not having cut the crop. Shearing is still in full swing when weather permits, and turnip sowing is general, as in many eases the first sown' crops were a rank failure.