ALEXANDRA.

Waikato Times, Volume XI, Issue 894, 16 March 1878, Page 2

ALEXANDRA.

March 13, 1878. Our native neighbors are excessively busy just now, threshing their wheat, etc. Pour machines are kept constantly going, m and around Te Kopura. A few small loads have already been sent down to pay current expenses, viz., to buy floor and other provisions, for the assistant threshers, which costs something considerable. It is most amusing to watch their operations. I visited the machines tyw; week to see the modus operandi. At the tail end of the machine are two men, with a fork each, to lift the straw from the grain, -which they pass about a yard to the first couple out of a long string of men and women squatted on the ground, close together, m a double row, facing each other, who, to the music of a song, I pass the straw along with their hands to | some "more men with forks, who, again, j put it further away, where, when finished, jit is burned. Some 50 to 60 were thus laboriously employed at each machine. I Meals are tiken three times a day, and the quantity of food consumed is con - siderable. The Ngatimaniapoto have had a meeting at Te Kuiti, and it is reported that Rewi will be the inviter of Sir George Grey at the ensuing meeting, and not the King. If this is so, the meeting will, m all probability, take place at Te Kuiti, as "Wahanui, the great Ngatimaniapoto orator, and a chief of great influence, is greatly averse to any meetings being held anywhere adjacent to European settlements. The battle of the railway terminus, I see, is not yet fought out at Te Awamutu. We hope yet to see the Government adopt the most economical and advantageons route, and have the line surveyed nearer here, and so avoid the necessity of cutting down large hills to fill up a sucession of deep hollows, and swamps. The natives are, to a man, of opinion it would-be the most direct route, and who should know the geographical features of the countrybetter than they do ? 1 The news of the decease of Mrs Roberts, wife of Mr yincent Roberts, storekeeper here, was received, with universal regret. The deceased lady was respected by the whole of community. — Own CobbespohDENT.