MAKURI WILDS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5061, 26 June 1895, Page 3

MAKURI WILDS.

From Our Oien Correspondent. A well-attendedmeetingof settlers was held at Mnkuri on Monday evening to consider the question of asking the Education Board to establish a school in the township. Mr McCardle, member of the Board, attended and fully explained the policy of the Board in respect tc country schools, It was resolved that the Board he asked to build a school at Makuri on landreservedfoi that purpose, and in the meantime tc open an aided school, It was alsc decided to ask the Board to havt the School Reserve cleared of fcimbei at once. It was stated that there is sufficient timber on the ground tt erect a building suitable to thi requirements of the township, whicl can be sawn by hand more cheaply than the mills can deliver it, 1 vote of thanks to Mr McCardle fo: coming so far to assist his fellov settlers was unanimously earned

and also to the Chairman, Mr D nulling. The provisional committee met Mv McCavdle the following morning, and inspected the school ground—which is one of the best sites in the township for the purpose —also the cottage of Mr Murphy, which is offered as a temporary sehool-house. It is expected that there will be an attendance of about thirty children next summer, but the impassable state of the unmettailed roads and tracks will prevent many from attending during the winter months, The settlers in the Upper Makuri have recently been suffering severe lossesfrom having wilddogs amongst their sheep, The dogs in this locality have engendered a peculiar habit of ' biting off sheep's ears and it is said ' that they have subsisted so long on this diet that their sense of hearing ' has become so acute that it is impos--1 siblo to approach them with a gun. ' An exasperated settler has hit upon the novel experiment of sewing up arsenic in the sheeps'ears, in order 1 to circumvent tho cunning of the 1 dogs. The earless sheep wore at ono I time thought to be undergoing the first stage of evolution, and that they were gradually developing into 1 a species of aquatic bird suitable to the climatic condition of the district, r and that a peculiar ora in the ' history of the sheep, had arrived, ! If we suffer many drawbacks in ' this district, we also haveadvan. . tagea over other parts of the Colony This should bo a perfect paradist ■ for gardeners, with soil unequallec t in richness, droughts unheard of, anc '. frosts of so mild a form.that'sucl r plants as pelargoniums, dahlias, ant I fufiohias, are still to be seen in ful i bloom, and flourishing in our cottagi ; gardens, and an abundance o jjj flowers making it more like sprim j thanmid-winteri • '