TAPANUI.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 31, 12 September 1868, Page 3

TAPANUI.

(Fwm a Correspondent. )

Laet Thursday evening, the Mutual Improvement Society gave an entertainment with an alteration of their programme, readings and recitation* being substituted *Qr essays and debates. Mr. Neish, whose scholarship and training peculiarly fit him for elegant an<l impressive elocution, gavo Montgomery Bell's beautiful poem of "Mary, Queen of .Scots,'' most effectively. He was followed by Mr. Rodg«r«, who gave " Mortality," to the manifest- delight .ot the audience. Hire. Paterson then delighted the assembly -with, " Lochiel's Warning," and was followed by Mr. Crawford, who read a piece on " Thg Union of Man with Man." Mariy other recitations and readings nerved to fill up a very pleasant evening's amusement. The debate for Thursday next is "Should the use of tobacco be abolished ? "

At a meeting of the School Committee held on the Ist inst., Mr. Strean laid a statement on the table, -which showed that at tho end of the present month the Committee would have to make up £12 of the master's salary. It was resolved that a concert and ball should be held, in order to provide 'for this small deficiency. The rapid progress of the youths attending this School, Under the able tuition of Mr. Neish, is a subject of generpl remark.

It 1b gratifying to observe thafc, in spite of the lateness of the season, the ploughs are busily at work on the lately purchased ground, and that there is every prospect of a large portion of ifc being cropped.

MeMtu. Smith and Co., of Invero&rgill, who j recently bought out the right of 3/essr*. M'Coll and Co., have their new raw mill almost in working order, the machinery having all been landed except the boiler! A work of this kind mutt, .of course, materially *dd to the prosperity of -the place. • It -i« .rumored here that the Government contemplate selling the bu*h 'reserves. Such a measure should be strenuously resisted by the people here, as they are solely dependent on" the timber trade, and would be ruined were the bush to pass into private bands. The timber here is magnificent, not indeed to be surpassed in, the colony ; it is therefore all the raoro necessary for the inhabitants' to defend their right* to the best of their ability.