The Waikato Times. " OMNE SOLUM FORTI PATRIA." THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 1874.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 330, 25 June 1874, Page 2

The Waikato Times. " OMNE SOLUM FORTI PATRIA." THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 1874.

Once more we return to the subject of roads and bridges in this district. It must be evident to all who have travelled on the road between Raglan and Waikato that a naturally bad road has been sadly neglected, until, indeed, communication between the two districts has become necessarily limited. The punt over the river at Whatawhata is in such a disgraceful state of disrepair that horses and cattle cannot be crossed upon it. necessitates travellers' to resort to the expedient of sAvimming them, which is fraught with a > considerable amount of difficulty",' and even danger, inasmuch as the approaches to the punt on the western, side of the river are steep and boggy. If the traveller succeeds in surmount- 1 ing the difficulties we have just mentioned, otherST await him. The first four bridges over which he has to pass are fast decaying, and •in # the case of some it is far preferable to nln the risk of fording, the creeks than to trust to' structures that cannot bear their own weight. '- An, expenditure of about .£BO would obviate this most undesirable state of affairs, and make the road tolerably passable. The non-performance of this work is attributable to the fact that it has been considered the duty of the Koad boards to do these works out of their'rates anasubsidies which hitherto have not been sufficient, to keep them froma condition of absolute penury. ' It is, as we have .before pointed oup, plainly the f business of the Government to undertake the"' forming and maintenance of main roadsl They' have, at last, shewn that they recognise 1 it to'be their duty, Dy their avowed intention of making- the ro|dbe^ tween Ngaruawahia and Alexandra:,, .Viewing the' matter in the ( <tfW.|^yei^i^t,^yS tueeof opinion that the Government could not better expend their money. The enhan^ment^jtn the,yalue of lands consequent * upon tnV execution' df the works we have alluded to," wbulcf becorfsiclerable. As a question it' is indisputably due.to the»setfclersJthat'?thßs& works should be performed without^elay^]VGu?y# v 6ur' settlers have takon up their abodes /onthe outskirts of, ,the, Baglan diatrici When- they purchaleditheir land they were given to unders^^'tHa^'c^r^Jn^rd^i would be formed, a promise which^'if^tj]!^ jßeen adhered to, would have considerably J^ghtgned^heu- burden of isolation, and caused^their Jagricitfturi^pursuits to be, if not ' lucrative; (aY ( aY lelist^seuf-iuppprting^ That the Government will before Kong jSnd it expeT dient to act upon the suggestions we have made so repeatedly is open to.littledoubtf and we see no reason why anjdehvy, should^occ^r in the,carrying out of an object ihat ( would be in every fe|ge6i advantageous^'fco the c.oun&^r '/• t '-' [j," '*/-'

. The Government, it w.atinouimed by'fr^Wof/ihj[lon jo«p«' nal, proposes to abandon the sj»tt' ( m'of «noual rißo comps)it ions, and to »üß»tltute instead » y<|te"fopjespeti4ituro in » he yolunteer diitrioU of the cpjonj^for the purpoao of en-um.-utfing rillo praetico on locul[ringoii. r , -

We oro glad to-n'nd that the piople of Kanumoa < .1 o taking steptjjjtjijcjt'ablish a school for the cducitiun ol the r children A meeting was hold on Saturday last, m the churei 1 , the R"v L C. Bi.idy m the o'mir. The minutes of the lest ' meeting wore rend and N confirmed. It was proposed by Captain Bqckett an 1 seconded by Mr W bitfield, "Thatii - subscription list be opened in anl ol the llangiaohia School Building Fund."— Carried unanimously. The subscriptions already proirusod .amount to £51 ; but as this sum is quite inadequate to carry out fcho objetc, we trust that the,, list will be liberally tubsunbed to. There are a largo number of children grow ing up in ignorance in this, one of the moit , populous districts in the Waikato. The meeting closed with. . a vote of thanks to the chairman. ' i Several settlers near Te Eore have had their sheep worried by u couple of stray dogs. Mr Scott had nearly forty killed in ono night, Mr Cox seventeen, Messrs Westney/Tisdali, , Seccombo, and others have also been visited by stray dogs, and sufferoil loss. It would be well if the Dog Act were enforced in every Highway 1 District ; then, perhaps, a man would not keep more dogs than he could feed, and horsemen would not be annoyed whilst riding through the different settlements of the district. ■The following is a list of the trades Tind occupations of the .immigrants arrived by the ship Loch Awe : — Married men with families — bricklayers,!: blacksmiths, 2; carpenters, 3 ; farmers, 3; farm laborers, 10 j gardeners, 2} laborers, 12 jtuetal worker, 1 ; 1 j packer, &c, 1 ; plumber, 1 j p'aintet, 1 ; tnnner, 1 ; tfnpktb worker, 1 ; zinc plate worker, -1 ; ongincer, 1. Married men 'without families — carpenter, 1 ; farmer, 1 ; farm laborers, 4 5 laborers, 3 ; navvy, 1. Single men — baker, 1 ; bricklayer's laborer, 1 ; carpenters, 6 j farm laborers, 31 ; /gardeners, & ; harness maker, I ', laborers, 26; railway laborers, 3 ; painter, 1 ; ploughmen, 2; shepherds, 3 j shopmen, 2 ; Bmiths, 3 ; shoemaker, 1 j weaver, 1. Single women — general servants, 24 ; cook, 1 ; milk-re-taibr, 151 5 maid. servants, s ; nurse; 1 ; parlormaids, 7, Summary — male adults, 155'j female do., 102 ; male children, 49 ; female do:', 39 } 'infants, 32— total, 367 souls. Nationality—English, 195 5 Irish, 91 ; Scotch, 8 ; Danes, 73— total, 367 souls. .".:, ,i X ; Mr Anthony Trollope's book on the colonies is not one of the most reliable works of its kind, but there is an amount of truth in the following that renders it worthy of re-pro-duction :— 'With ,a population not quito a fifteenth part that of Canada, "'she can spend an amount of public revenue less than that of Canada by not quite a ninth. While Ca"nada spends 1 little *tnoro than £1 a head, New Zealand spends more than £13 a hea,d. But Canada, with its_partly French population, maybe fiioughtjlo b'eVa.sleepy place. Victoria, however, is wide, awake, and is supposed to kuow the value of stirring business!""' -She ipends abdut £4 10s a-head ; and New South Wales, .' who Battered .herself that she was certainly nob deficient in spirit during that year, spent something over £7 a-hea'd.rsPoor Jamaica bad not even £1 a-head to spend, and lacked the spirit to spend all she had. There c in. be no doubt that if audacity, dash, aud true adherance to ' go-ahead * f principles will make a colony, Mew Zealand o tight to flourish.' *~ Major Gordon, in a report upon the late prize firing, writes in the following uncohipliinenf ary terms of some of tho& who took part in the contests :— " Clause 5, page 9, prize firing regulations of 1874 directed that 'no Volunteer will be eligible to compete in the colonial prize firing unless he was an efficient voldnteer of the year ending 31st March, 1873.' I regret to say that, in 'my opinion, very many of the competitors of this year were not by any means efficient volunteers. Many of them were quite guiltless of understanding tho meaning of the terms ' half -right' or ' half-left turn,' or, even in some cases, of ' right-about turn !' I think officers commanding districts should be advised not to be too generous in the construction , of the fourth paragraph of the Volunteer Efficiency 'Ceirtific'ate when they affix theil* signatures thereto ; for awkward, careless, and undrilled men in tlie ranks, and with loaded riiles, are a cause of very serious anxiety to the officer who may be moving them, if only from one firing point to another. Eesides, however able a volunteer may bo to punish an enemy in the field, it is very desirable that his friends should feel l "that there is no possibility of their beinu made liors de-comlat by ther own comrades." The immigrant ship Loch* Awe, just arrived from London, has- made 'ono of the ftisfesb'ptissugafc on record, having made the trip from land to land in 69 duys. The immigrants, which are said to be of a better description than those hitherto sent to us; sire noNr open' for engagement, aud comprise male and female servants, agriculural labourers, mechanics, &c. A liss will^be.found. elsewhere, A southern journal Ws tho following 'advertisement in its columns : — " W«njted, a Wife. Pleasing manners preferred to good looks. ,Must be accomplished, and at the same time able to do house Post-office, Eiverton, enclosing carte-do-visite and address." The result seems to. Lave been scarcely satisfactory to the ''printer" of the papefy as Will be !e%H/<the following,- which! .appeared ,in a subsequent issue of the same journal : — " Public Notice. — Our Editor having, jin a,iit of mental aberration, committed matrimony, this'issuo is rattier weak. What effect on tho future of Southland this will have remains to be proved. — TpB.PRINTBB."' «f • , . * A' report 'has "been current' that Mr Ralph Simpson and family had been .drowned whilst en, route from Boston to j New Bedford. We are glad to be able to state our belief that the report is without foundation, a Waikato settler having lately received a qommnnication from Mr Simpson. A facetious friendTsays" the railway trains in New Zealanp runat such a slow rate of speed is because thp wheels are ho tire-d. Up to the time of our going to press thore was no intelligence respecting r the San Francisco mail steamer. She is now several days overdue, and may be expected to arrive at any moment. ___________________