NOTES BY A TRAVELLER.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1254, 13 July 1880, Page 2

NOTES BY A TRAVELLER.

Tiik repair* reccitly effected at No. 1 Bridge, Hamilton West, are a very creditable piece of work. The road is rendered much wider and safer by earth works rendered powerful by manuka stakes driven deep into the banks. Here is a fair sample of what should be done to secure e-nbin'-mcuts. The two bridges at Hall's, fn the Ngaruawahia road, are well nigh completed, and, so far, reflect mirh credit on the contractors. ' The old bridges were low and the approaches steep and dangerous ; the new ate several feet higher, and the road is being raised to meet the increased altitude. The woiks, iucluding road and bridges, will cci t unly be marked improvement, and will very much facilitate traffic. The Ngaruawahia Town Board is at present engaged in an experiment, which appears likely enough to check the river encroachment. Live willow 6takes, three rows thick, are being planted along the water's edge, and high up the bank, which is levelled with a gradual slope, three tiers of well-pre-pared sod", and beaten firmly into the clay. If these protective works prove as useful as they are ornamental, the Board is to be congratulated on its enterprise. The river has been making vast havoc on the banks m question. When will the Borough of Hamilton imitate similar works, for such works are needed ? Pro/t do/or! aetu/n ctt dc aioo apnd Ngaruawahiain. Sorry lam to relate that it is all over with the supposed gold find at Ngaruawahia. The prospectors, having struck tent and made their exit, are now in quest of othex pastures yellow, the field having turned out too green to be profitable. Poor Ned Healey, " the last of the Mohicans," — yes, and the first as well, still buoys himself up with the hope that an El Dorado is hidden somewhere on the picturesque slopes adjacent to " the meeting of the waters." I cannot keep Don Quixote out of mind here. The pugilistic encounters of historic Don against the windmill were no less likely than the prospecting operations of honest Ned to win a crust of bread. Auriferous the place may be, but the indications yet to hand, if any, are too slender to inspire a man of no capital with anything approaching reasonable hopes. Some chains of the road at Hopu Hopu are in a state almost impassable with mud and furze and briars together. The highwaymen should consider of their ways in this quarter. Here, too, is to be witnessed a small brigade of pigs, old and young, most earnestly engagecf in ploughing up the sides of the road »$ the adjacent paddocks. Profitable ploughmen they ; for they produce hai enough for themselves and for some scores of turkeys closely following in their track. " Cocksnails man !" (a classical exclamation of James I.), but the pigs and turkeys seem to thrive well on the road and paddocka at Hopu Hopu, and to be preparing themselves for a ready market. But the ploughing is not very picturesque so far.

The Czar is determined to keep book agents out of the Winter Palace, hence the stories about maniac commanders, paralysed governors, dynamite explosions, a»4 the like— New Qshmt fkayunu