CORRESPONDENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 297, 7 April 1874, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

[We do not necessarily endorse tlia opinions expressed by our correspondents.]

(To the Editor of the Waikato Times.) Sib,— l was under the impression that your columns were always open for the reception of facts bearing on agricultural and pastoral matters, or I should not have written. In my last letter^ which you term intemperate, I denied the truth of your statement that Hereford cowi were not £ood for the dairy, aud I wroto that I could give scores of instances (a word you did not print) of first-class Hereford dairy cows. You say 1 adroit ibat writers of good authority have stated that Heiefords are not good milkers ? I make no Buch admission, I emphatically deny it. I consider I paid the Waikato settlers whose initials I used in my letter a personal compliment in alluding to them. Ido not suppose Major Jacksjn's sheep were injured in their sale from being in high condition, and when I add that the grass walked over by all the sheep I saw would have fattened an equal number of oxen a thousand weight each, I mean it as an encomium on the value of his |rich and splendid farm, and not intended in any sense derogatory to tue owner. Although in yeur foot note to my letter you may treat in a flippmt manner my remarks on the very important question of grasses suitable for permanent pasture in the Waikato, and in printing my letter are pleased, instead of poas t« print peas, yet I assure you there i,s no. question »ffeoting tie grazing and partoral welfare of the province second ii importance to it. You go out of your way to reflect on my former letter on the decision of the judgei of the four aged shorthorn bulls exhibited at .the. late. Auckland Cattle Show. Sir, Ido not offer opinions, I merely state facts which will be borne out by the prices at which these auimal* will ultimately be sold., and the prices realized by the bulls and heifers, their offspring ; that will be the crucial test whether lam right, and whether Baron Wetherby is not worth the whole of the others together. You say \ seem to. confer, in my own estimation, I am the only judge of stock in the province. There are men who dare to pass judgment on shorthorns who do not know the reason why one pure Jkerd in England sells at an average of thirty guineas, and another herd the same day at three hundred guineas, and to whom such account sales are incomprehensible and a complete puzzle. There are men who attempt to judge thorthorn who do not know the meaning of the term s do not even know why Devon or Hereford is always sp«U«d with a capital letter and shorthorn is not. I have been an exhibitor of stock for thirty years, and always * pjr«(b- winner ; theje has never been a show in Auckland since JB5O that our flock or herd has not been represented, *nd never without some first prizes. SomeV>ay, a judge, mjjft be at th« helm oa our farms, if I am, not. — lam, Ac, Evert Machan.

(To the Editor of the Waikato Times.) Si«, — " Lend me jour ears," and also your voice, and apeak a word for up poor women, toiling at our household duties, parohed with Hirst nnd drinking swamp water, or the wretched tea, or stilj more wrftched burnt corn, retailed in Auckland, and by a fiction, plcnsant to dealers, called coffee. Men legislate for us and hold ua in political bondage, but who gives a thought to our speoial wants 3 They have their bars, and tbeir poisonous drinks - which they seem to like — we have our nerve-shattering tea and our expensive sugar. What we want ii a cheap and wholesom* draught) of light wine, such as the meanest peasant m France enjoys. Australia produces it, but it i* practioally forbidden to us. In the meantime, many a mothor of a family wastes away from debility and disrase brought on by over-work and unwholesome dtu'nk, or from absolute unquenclied thirst. Will our rulers ever admit th» light wines of Australia free ? Iv giving this boon to the country they would do much to attraot people to its shores— to say nothing of preserving the lives and. usefulness of those ajready here. I «ould give many more reasons in support of my appeal, but they will no doubt suggest themselves to your superior knowledge. I forbear to trespass further on your valuable space, and remain, Yours, <&0., HoosEwirr. April 6tb, X 874.

Th* gentleman organ-grindor wbo calls himself John Brown, though it in atatefl that he belong* to a family named Kifrau, holding a good position in the county Month, after having feetn three timtt fined by the Dublin magistrates for ob»twioting thji thoroughfare, was again brought up on January 13 in the Southern Pojic* Court, wb«a hii solicitor itattd tb*t Mrßrowo had. concluded hi« kinsular wager, and would not be t >und ob»truo#n.g any mo». Tbo magistrate said if the prjaoner gay« hU word of honour a« a gentleman to that effect he would diioh&jge him. The accused did to, and wan discharged. On a tombitoni in South Carolina is the following bwitaful tnbutu to departed worth :-» " Her« U«| the body of EoUr^ Gordin, Mouth alantjhty. and teetb^ »olso^diu : Stranger, tread h^btly ov«r th'» woad#r, If he opens his mputh, you are goat, by thunder." A petrified negro was lately found in a garret over a law office. It was supposed that he uudertooW the btudy of tho law and became absorbed in $lacks>tonc.