"OMNE SOLUM FORTI PATRIA." THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1875.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 413, 7 January 1875, Page 2

" OMNE SOLUM FORTI PATRIA." THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1875.

Tnfe State of the School-house at Hamilton West, or rather the building occupied on sufferance for that purpose, is most disgraceful. The roof is in such a state of decay, that it has been found necessary to make the desks -water-tight, in order that the leakage from the roof shall not damage the books &l\, belonging to the school. When \ve stated this has been found necessary it is scarcely needful to point out for the information of <he Board of Education, that the building is quite .unit for a sohooMiouse. Application has been fre"sutly inside to the Board for assistance to build, id the settlers are prepared to pay their share of the •oat. .Repeated applications to the Board of Educaion have been also made by the Committee of the jchool for necessary school appliances, but so far Vom the desired result being brought about, the etters ha\e heen treated with apparent contempt. The school-house at Hamilton East is in nearly the aine deplorable state as that on the west side of the iver. The two cases we have instanced are by no oeans singular, in fact they may be considered the ale rather than the exception. Such being the case, „ 16 no matter for wonder that ihe tax for Educaon is so grudgingly paid- When the Act was be>re the Council its pilots said, " only pass the Bill IU I all difficulties about Education will cease." In (ace of this being the case in the country districts, uu-ever the erection of a school-house is necessary otexaet antithesis has resulted. The settlers in ia.iy cases, had the tax not been levied would have •me for themselves, that which they now naturally o^ffßo^iX to dolor them, the Board Joes &^ ;;, consequently the cause of Education \ d Board by this time should know pretty '"J^hat funds are likely to ho ta its disposal. We /v why is the Secretary not instructed to at once form local committees of the amount of assistance ey are likely to receive, and when the money will 1 If this were done, much delay would ftsaved, tenders could be called for the erection of and the collection of voluntaiy subscriptions .mediately commenced. The Board is doing its tk most unsatisfactorily, and the sooner the memrs wake to a sense of their grave responsibility liter will it be for their reputation.

, b ab\ who ki-sea »m v.other and fights Ins father may Mto be nl'n 1 ' '<o lllt4 rrKl aml U!81 " llrtl t0 lns P a> >l u .| m iiff.-t:Hou..to «irl, "J am willing ivt to livo on bread and water," — ir Au^ustu^, " yuu fur id lbs water." 1 an L-uh pair of tlicv

e$ - . .^e )s iD^s* %w *arged with ifiwtoatry oneo *' v John Th. -pson, lately Mr Quiok'a manager #as j sentenced to four years penal servitude for ember element. We notice that Mtea J. M. Coleman, of Hamilton has succeededi n winning one of the prizes given by the Right Rev. the Bishop, to children attending the Sunday Schools in the diocese. The R.M. s..'. Macgregoj' arrived in Auckland on Tuesday at 10 o'clock. The letters and papers i brought by her arrived in. the Waikato last evening. Her latest date by letter is the 17th November. All the immigrants that have aa yet been sent T» the Waikato have found work of some sort, this is evidence of the scarcity of labour in this district, as many of themwere quite unsuited to the work required of them. It is not often an innings at Cricket results in no., runs made off the bat. This took place however, last season, at Bishop Lydiaii, West Somerset. The Storey toam was got out with 28 runs, 2 leg byes, came to the rescue and saved a round 0. We have been requested to remind members of ,the Church of England, that the annual meetings of the members of the Church of England, will take ; place at Hamilton, on Friday the Bthr January, at 4 p.m., and at Cambridge, on Tuesday, the 19th inst., at 7 p-m. We are glad to be able to report that the wheat crops are looking magnificent and if the weather proves at all favourable till harvest time much more | ! than an average crop may be looked for, the hay I crop, however, although of moderate quality in j some places has for the most part been utterly destroyed by the exceedingly unpropitious weather that prevailed during the time it was on the ground. I Great scarcity of winter food and very high prices j may be looked for. The annual treat to the children attending the Wesleyan Sunday school at Cambridge took place ; en Monday last (having been adjourned from New i Year's Day in consequence of the inclemency of the I ! weather). Children of all denominations were in- [ | vited, and about sixty juveniles were on the ground ! — a paddock kindly lent for the occasion by Mr Reynolds. Upwards of forty adults were present, and assisted in amusing the children by getting up races and scrambling those things after which the juvenile heart always hankers. Some of our Cambridge settlers are suffering very much from caterpillars, we fear that no cure for the pest is practicable till the railway brings freight down to a reasonable amount, or the business of lime burning is commenced in the district. The limestone exists, and the business of burning would^ without doubt be profitable if undertaken on a sufficiently extensive scale. Every farmer in the district is more or less interested in the matter. We suggest the formation of a Limited Company in £1 shares ; Properly managed it would find a direct profit and the probable benefit to the district is incalculable. By the GHenlora from London, the Acclimatisa tion Society received 18 hedge sparrows. A number of nio-htingales had been put on board, but the last one died a night or two ago. The hedge sparrows were conveyed to the Society's gardens yesterday, and those engaged in cultivating the soil, whether as farmers or gardeners will be glad to learn of the safe arrival of so mauy birds, which live wholly upon insects. If they thrive and increase in anything like the same way the pugnacious garden thieves, the house sparrows, have done, in a few years their beneficial effects will be generally felt. It is now time that the Society took steps to hare the house sparrows extirpated. — Cross. An old — we beg his pardon — a gay bachelor, j in the prime of Hie, travelled the othec day from I Auckland by Quick's coach. He was seated next [ a lady dressed in the height of fashion. Our BachI elor being a i .an proverbially polite to the fair sex, of course di\,w his companion into conversation ; the two chatced pleasantly enough, till the bachelor suggested, as a cure for the fatigue complained of by his lady companion, a cup of tea at the next halting place. He was met with a +art reply, " tea is all very well for good templars but I prefer soda and brandy when. lean get it, and when that is | not to be had a small bottle of stout." The long i angled for- baeLelor wjh.o previous to tliis remark was ! greivously temptod to bite, immediately collapsed. A settler who has just returned from town tells ! the following story in reference to the " lady" immigrants by the Assaye. He was on his way to the hospital to see a friend ; on the road he went into an hotel to get some refreshment ; he heard merriment going on in one of the rooms ; he opened the I door and looked in. There was a number of young women dancing a hornpipe with some sailors, and 1 displaying a little more of their " understandings" I than is usual in polite society. He asked the landlord who they were, and was informed that they had just landed from the Assaye. Those young women, as was remarked to us, will make fine wives for our settlers. On veaching his destination, the hospital, he found four cabs just drawn up, contain- ! ing female immigrants who required medical attendance, as he learned, for disease contracted by vice. We have received the following from a correspondent resident at Te Awamutu. " Several residents in the vicinity of Te Awamutu were made the victims of a number of practical jokes on the evening of New years' Eve. The nmues of the perpetrators have not as yet transpired — but it is to be hoped that the guilty ones may be found out and made a public example of. This species of blackguardism ought not to be allowed to pass unnoticed ; but should be traced home if possible. Young men who tire supposed to know better, ought to consider it a disgrace to lend themselves to such unmanly and flagrant proceedings. Similar complaints have reached us from other townships. No reasonable person objects to fun, provided the fun, as our correspondent characterises the proceedings in Te Awamutu does not degenerate into blackguardism. There were also some disgraceful proceedings in Ngarauwahia, we trust that in future years the police will put a stop to the annoyance that quiet residents in our township have hitherto been annually subjected. Each succeeding day says the " Thames Advertiser," there are small parties of miners leav ing with theii swag and equipments, for the Ohinemuri. Yesterday there were about 25 diggers amongst the passengers by the Lala Rookh, and a gentleman who returned from Katikati on Tuesday night informed us that he encountered a party of about a dozen encamped about 10 miles beyond Ohinemuri settlement, close to the Waitekauri Creek. There are already several other parties encamped around the. Ohinemuri settlement awaiting the proclamation which is io throw the district open for inspecting, a, id for gold mining operations. The gei tleman to whom we have ak'oady alluded, who is himself a practical miner and prospector, informs us that from the niture of the surface and the formation of the country, especially in the Waitekauri district, a great deal of prospecting will be necessary, because in very low instances is the stndslone rock exposed. The ranges are not so steep and abrupt as thobo of the Thames, and aave therefore n »t boon to such -a • i K'ut extent deuu-li'l ul' llu j'ni^.c iWiUfoioii, _i>*i 1

extont r jei&jbj of oik possessions, >kbk -b ins %:*&OSt* Agreeat^P sensation" t should imagine. I nave hejird of a man in Auckland who is constantly in tliia happy,* state. He owns so much land that he is generally safe in granting, oh spec, applications to sell or lease land in any parish in the proving. . Qf course the affair doesn't always come off, and then our friend calmly refunds the money, apologises, and tries again. He made one of his bad shots lately in the-Waikato district. A friend of mine called upon this amusing proprietor, and requested him to sell a piece of land in the neighbourhood of one of the townships. "Ceri tainly," replied the man of land, " the price is £— " (The money was paid. The vendor had some land in fchat part of the country, and felt tolerably sure "this must be the identical piece. My friend went away and stocked his new purchase. On going one day to gaze with pride on the rounded forms of his rapidly fattening cattle, he saw a man. This man had a straw in his mouth, and was standing on the land with both hands in his pockets, pensively gazing at the surrounding landscape. As my friend came up, the pensive look faded from his face, the straw dropped from his mouth, his hands were withdrawn from his pockets, and one of them held a paper writing which he presented with a, smile to the unfortunate victim of misplaced confidence. It was a bill for rent. 1 draw a veil over the explanations that followed, >md pick my friend up in the land proprietor's oflicc once more. Internally furious but externally pale and collected, my friend sternly enquired why ho had been sold land which he could get no title for. *• My dear sir,* 1 innocently replied the vendor, "You told me it was mine." " Great Heavens!" gasped my friend, "don't you know where your own land is?" "Oh dear' nof responded the land speculator, " I have some in that neighbourhood, I believe, but I am not at all sure. Oblige me by permitting me to refund you the purchase money." The late purchaser found that the land really belonged to another man of the same name at tl}e Thames, by whioh fact he had been misled, — Correspondent.