HARAPEPE. [OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Waikato Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1223, 1 May 1880, Page 2

HARAPEPE. [ OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

On account of the long continuation of dry weather the punt at Te Rore is unworkable, as the Waipa River is now so low that you can ride through it. The punt not being able to cross causes a good deal of extra trouble to those getting goods across. The proposed Te Rore bridge is now in the handa of the Government, aad we hope soon to see something done. At the last meeting of the Waipa County Council I see that the Chairman stated that the inhabitants of tkis district had not given the principal part of the moneys collected for the bridge. Now I can inform him that they have, as about two years ago the District Highway Board, as their share of the £40,000 grant, received about £960 to spend on roads, &c, in this district. Now, in place of spending it in improving roads that run by our own doora, solely for our own particular benefit, we decided to bank it and let it be the commencement of a fund for a bridge at Te Rore : it was made up to £1000 and placed in the Bank of New Zealand, and the interest is now another £100. The bridge will benefit both sides of the river — Te Rore as well a 9 Harapepe — and one half of It is in the county of Waipa, and should properly be of as muoh interest to the Waipa County Council as to the Pirongia District Board. When asked to subscribe their share they very liberally voted €50 instead of £300 as they should have done. The Board of Education certainly act vsry liberally towards this district. The schoolhouse has been repainted outside, and the ground around the school ploughed ard laid down in grass with a liberal allowance of bonedust per acre, and planted with trees for shelter, and a whitethorn hedge planted around the grounds inside the fence. The potato crop in this district has not turned out so well as expected, I hear. I think the dry summer and autumn is the cause of it, as a good deal of care and trouble was taken in most cases,

It is proposed to hold an exhibition of local industries at Timaru during the pressent year. The Sultan has directed his 2nd son and the second son of his predecessor to enter the ranks of a regiment of body guards as privates. This event is without example in Turkey. The New Zealand Court in the Melbourne Exhibition will have 60ft. frontage, equal to 8000 square feet of space. The only European country that equals our birth rate is Hungary, but the death rate in that country is three times that of New Zealand. The word rste for telegrams to Kurqpe is now in force. The cljarge right through from New Zealand to Europe is lls lOd per word. When Mr Gladstone visited Scotland a few months ago, he was received in the most enthusiastic manner at each place he visited. For a week the newspappis were full of his speeches, and his political friends not unnaturally regarded his Scottish reception as a great Liberal triumph. In connexion with this, a friend brings me fron} tlje old pquntry the folio wins? story i— One of Mr, Gladstone's political admirers, writing to a lady who was a still warmer admirer of Lord Beaconsfielt, concluded with an air of triumph, thus: — " What do you think of my friend Mr Gladstone, now? See how splendidly Scotland has welcomed him!" The lady's reply was this: — " As for your frieud Mr. Gladstone, take this frpm tj]e. $oqk qf Esther <chap. v. verse 13) — ' Yet' all this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King's