DISTRICT NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1919, Page 3

DISTRICT NEWS.

; RAHOTU, (From Uur Own Correspondent). Ngariki road suppliers met the factory directors recently and asked to have a factory built up their road. After a great deal of discussion, it was decided to go into the question of a motor lorry to convey the milk to the local factory. The Parihaka Road Board is no more. On Friday it merged with the Council. Some of the Council and the secretary attended to take charge, but the chairman was absent, he and Mrs. Wright having gone to Cambridge for a week or two, where Mr. Wright has bought a farm of 300 acres. It is reported that Mr. T. Wilcox has sold his Ngariki farm to his brother-in-law, Mr. A. Williams. Mr. and Mrs. T. P. Hughson, sen, have returned from an extended trip around the South Island. The Methodists did good business at their harvest sale, the sum of £23 odd being taken. After expenses were paid £lB was netted. House accommodation is badly needed in Rahotu. Tin-kettlers rolled up on Saturday night to welcome Mr. D. Quickenton, one of our worthy butchers, and his bride home. Rahotu folk are all pleased to hear the satisfactory report as to the condition br Dr. Walker and trust and hope he will soon be his old self again. It is with sorrow we hear our little painter, Mr. Stuart, has passed away, he having been ill for some time in a hospital in Auckland, where he went under a serious operation. Old Mr. Saunders is ill in the hospital, Mr. Kasper has his two sons safely home from the front. Sergeant Harold Kasper, M.M,,. is looking splendidly. Their friends are pleased to see them again. The New Plymouth band is to play sacred music here next Sunday and sliould it be a fine day it should be a very pleasant outing. The young folk are holding meetings to arrange for a sports meeting, to be held* probably at Easter.

MAKETAWA., (From Our Own Correspondent.) The Moa Road Board's road staff has been giving the side roads in this part a dressing up, and no one can gainsay that the present system is a great improvement on the old style of one man to a length. Instead of the old-time pottering about—a'day here and another somewhere else—the whole road staff, ail working together, make a more substantial and a quicker method of dealing with repairs.

On Sunday last some person or persons, with an abnormal bump of destruction, could find nothing better to do than set lire to a large tree in the Forest Reserve, the locality being between the Ngatoronui and Ngatoriti. It seems a great shame that wanton acts such as this are committed, there being neither sense nor reason for so doing. It's bad enough, to my mind, to know that each year a considerable number of "sbootists" visit the reserve in search of the pigeon—and get some. Given line weather, the Maketawa factory district picnic and sports on Thursday should prove a most enjoyable outing for young and old. Mr. A. Marshall's paddock is an ideal spot for the gathering, and there seems no reason why the success of past years should not be repeated in the present instance.

A fair amoiuit of interest is being aroused .regarding the poll on April 10, and many people have expressed the opinion that the prohibition question presents a different aspect this time than on previous occasions.

The blackberry curse is yearly becoming a bigger bugbear to many settlers, and no wonder, when one notes the carelessness of some settlers regarding the matter. The big authorities in Wellington preach a lot about the welfare of the Dominion, yet here we have one of the finest dairying districts in the North Island being slowly strangled through the "fhiters" not having backbone enough to take hold of the matter as they should, in the most drastic manner possible, and without fear or favor.

About a fortnight or so ago three young men from the Durham district put up a creditable performance in climbing Mt. Egmont. Determined to reach the top in time to see the sunrise, an early start was made from the house, .and the top was reached in a little over'2 hours. Considering the climb was in total darkness, which necessitated extreme caution, the young fellows deserve all the encomiums given, while the view obtained was "simply gorgeous."

From all accounts a considerable alteration in the ownership of several sections on the Durham Road are pending in the near future. Personally, I fancy rumor will prove "off" this time. Settlers in the,part mentioned have not in past years felt inclined to "up stick and away," recognising the value and quality of the land for dairying purposes, while the advantages of being within easy distance of railway station and borough, not mentioning school, factory, creamery and good metalled roads, makes .people just a hi; cautious when the selling-out mania arrives.

A good deal of interest was shown in regard to the poll tor unimproved value rating for the Moa Road Board district, a fair number of settlers turning up. Many settlers, for various reasons, were prevented from attending, and were naturally pleased to hear that the proposal was carried. I have been informed that in other parts of the road district many settlers thoroughly sympathetic with the proposal would' not bother to go to the poll, "because they knew it would be carried, and they would not lose the time to go." There is not the slightest doubt that that idea permeates the minds of too many settlers, and it's time they shook oil' the apathy regarding local affairs; leaving too much to the other chap, or overloading' the willing horse, is not the right principle to adopt in such matters. .. Farmers all over the Road Board district are much concerned regarding the muddle in connection with the butter profits payment, which seems "so near and yet so far." They toll me that tlic.r respective directors can give no light mi the matter, and that nothing but blue departmental papers of one kind or another are received from Wellington in response to requests for settlement. Why is it that a plain, straightforward statement of the why and the wherefore is not published, considering that the payment is for last season's butter, and telegraphic reports say that the British authorities have handed the "dough" over? Why the delay?