WAITAHUNA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 3, 29 February 1868, Page 3

WAITAHUNA.

;From otjr Own Cjrrespondent.)

During the last two or three weeks, the miners have, in most cases, succeeded in repairing the damages inflicted , by the flood, though some parties will take some time yet before they have got everything properly put to rights.

It is to be hoped that this Cold, stormy weather may soon cease-, and that we may enjoy warm, sunshiny days to ripen -the crops, and to enable them to be secured in proper condition. Some of the fields appear now nearly ripe, though harvesting will not be general for ten days or a fortnight. In Waitahuna there are this season about 220 acres under cultivation, of which about thirty acres are under wheat, more than 140 under oats, and forty or fifty in potatoes and turnips. The wheat and oat crops look very well ; and if we now could but enjoy a few days of fine, ripening we&ther, the yield would prove an exceptionably heavy one. Wheat, it is estimated, will yield an avera3e from thirty-five to forty bushels per acre, and oats from forty to fifty. The potatoe crop looks very poor, and will scarcely turn out one-third of last year's crop, which, however, was a particularly good one. Many of the tubers, especially in damp fields, are now diseased ; and if unfortunately this weather continues another fortnight, I fear that in very many instances the crops will scarcely repay the expense of digging them.

Agriculture has considerably extended in the district during the past six months; nearly 100 acres of new ground have been broken up, and seven or eight hundred chains of fencing erected. And now that several long-pending agricultural applications in Murray^s Flat have been decided in favor of the applicants, it is probable that in consequence, 300 or 400 acres of land will very shortly be brought under the plough.

The branch road from the Round Hill to Waitahuna, so much needed, so long asked for, and so often promised, has at last besn commenced, and in a few weeks we may. expect to see Cob and Co.'s coach drive through Waitahuna ; and probably a considerable part of the traffic between Tokomairiro and Tuapeka will take the same route.

On Saturday, the Bth inst, a meeting for the electioli of a committee for the Episcopalian Church for the current year, and the transaction of other business in connection with that body, was held in the School-room. There was a very fair attendance,, the Rev. Mr. Martin presid-

in^. Mr. M'Whinney, the secretary "" the retiring committee, rea«l — * itlire for showing the recu^ blowing gentlemen the Y.-«jtected as a new committee :—: — Mossrs. Hi^gins, Tanton, Dewes, Ferris, Tirnbull, Bulgin, Hicks, Evans, Hurst, ;,"■-] M'Whinney. £_ The election of delegates for the Mining: Conference came off very quietly on on Monday last. Forty-five votes only were recorded ; and of those who voted, ,but*a small number did so personally. Forty-three votes were recorded for Mr. &<#,th, the local candidate, and two for ■L. Carr, of Wetherstones. The whole to be regarded with indifferminers in this place. Chinamen is steadily daily appear-out-of-the but a CMnaof establishing between eighty quite enough to v t o all the Euroon their claims-,

| filching their water, and in various wa\ i subjecting them to a thousand irritating annoyances ; moreover obliging them to take precautions new to this place, against getting their sluices robbed "when the time for washing down is near at hand. Complaints are'also rife of fowl-houses being plundered ; and still more, serious, one 1 man last week had his house broken into while" sleeping in it, and a sum of £12, besides a watch, carried away. But it is doubtful whether the last exploit can be laid to the charge of John Ohiuanvin, or to the credit of some European tliiaf.