TE AROHA. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1387, 24 May 1881, Page 2

TE AROHA . [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

The Battery, &c. Tub work of tho battory here is skill at a ->Uud, the necessity for the boiler being allowed to cool for the visit of the iuspeotor last week, having kept us without the assistance 'of 'that indispensable member till this morning. The 40 tons from the Smile of Fortune and Morning Star claims contracted for, are coming in, and in tbo meantime there will be a supply from the Little Jessie to go on with and I ■>hall have to report others as corning to the Lre I hope in the course of the week. In the meantime we are .suffering from the attack of low fever, which seems to be pervading the country from Auckland all through the W.ukato and Thames districts. One or two families have' several members laid up with it and it has been decided to obtain the attendance' of a medical man from Hcimilfc >n or, Cambridge. It is called .-carlft fever h'erej but whether it is that or the milder form of scarletina, or maybo typhoid does not appear to be di>tinctly understood. ' In all low-lying districts like ! 'this < too • 'much care caunot be taken to preserve the sweetness and purity of the ' water used for drinking, and I am 1 sorry to say that that absolute necessity for good health is not sufficiently attended to here, the creek that affords the only supply for .the upper parts of the settlement, being largely impregnated with the decomposed carcases of cats and puppies, and with the sewage that mugt drain through the soil — where it is not openly emptied into the creek— mingled with the soap-auds of the upper ten on washing days, that are floated down to form the drink of the lower ten. There is a law thai; the creek shall not be used . for a sewer 5 nor for washing purposes, and np doubt if anyone was ctught breaking the taw he or she would be punished ; but there is also no doubt that people do have to drink highly flavored water, or soap and water sometimes, and illness is a result that must naturally follow.

The Proposed Bridge. , The want of a bridge ' across the ' Waihou is very much felt, and loudly complained of from time to tithe, wh'^&hjfan'' j have leisure to sfive vent to their feeling's, i The bridge is actually part of the mataJSkd' from the Waikato: to the Thames, which > ought to.be provided by the Government ;< or the County .Council*, and the Want 'of it is a drawback to > the growth of thisplace," not to mention others >y the iprimi*. • tive punt for men' and horses being rather out of: date, and not sufficient- for J the traffic.- 1 (HoweverjiJt will probablyi'bd laid up with the other goods thiiiga pro- " Liaised f or, tlie Sharpy future, along with the schoolv'jaafl perhaps along with the funds wanted for i ,,,ppening,,;fup lt ; roads to< , v th6 .diggings,- * which -tWqre , applied for last week, no reply

having been vouchsafed so far by the red tape Gods in office. The sweetness with which everything asked for has been refused to To Aroha by the givers w'gpbd thihgs, is, as the clergymen say, ttfty comforting, and will, it is to be hoped, I bd remembered in the future. The steamer Vivid, from the Thames stuck 4 <Sn ft Mfdbank, in the river, about four iaU«s below' this place, on her passago up on Saturday evening, and has not yet been got off. The passengers, after trying most of the night to haul her off, arrived here on foot yesterday.