THE PIAKO COUNTRY. [By Our Travelling Reporter.]

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1405, 5 July 1881, Page 2

THE PIAKO COUNTRY. [By Our Travelling Reporter.]

Near the machine shed is a long building of 60 feet by 40, used, as actable, for the working horses, and, in the .season as a woolshed. Having duly inspected this and again admired' the trim cottages About, in which the heud men of , from 40 to 60 always employed on the property reside, and thinking that they must have a most desirable life of it— none bsing engaged under £1 a- Week wages, with substantial food and a comfortablo dwelling place — I followed my obliging guide at a brisk canter down 'the broad private road of 11^ miles) through the estate to the laddingJplace on the - Waihou River, and presently we oame to some fine paddocks of about IiOO acres, sown with grass and turnips, iut which the bullocks of, , the herd were enjoying themselves. The grass only wanted , a little, rain, of which it has since ' had abundance to afford first-rate feed, and the turnips, though only half grown and somewhat retarded by the dryness of the season, were healthy and plentiful. The good condition in which the cattle appeared' fully attested the excellence of their keep and their enjoyment of the state of life in which it had pleased the pigs to place them. The herd includes l",900 head of all kinds with the yearlings and calves, and nearly all are tolerably pure-bred Shorthorns, about two-thirds of them having been bred on the place. Some of these contented gentlemen were pictures of the good points of the Shorthorn, and others showing in theif looks that Mr Dibble wisely favors a little cross-breeding oceassionally in the production of good meat, were quite ready for their destination, the slaughterhouse, and carried a great weight of tender fine meat. So many of them were beauties that it would be hard to particularise, but we pulled up to admire a score of them with the shapely heads, bulky frames, broad level backs, short lega, and hanging dewlap of the breed, and each one of them would have been fit for a show, and stood a good chance of carrying off a prize. I saw some of' the bulls, of whom the following are the best specimens :—: — "Waikato," bred by Mr Fantham ; "Duke of York/ a fine white animal, bred by Mr Mac Lean ; "Major," another handsome white shorthorn; and "Napier," bred by Mr Firth from a bull bonght at Napier, a good looking roan. There are, besides, several imported from Melbourne, and about a dozen from John, Ureig's celebrated kind at Long Beach, Canterbury. Many of these might be prize winners, though Mr Firth never shows, I am told, a fact to be much regretted, in my humble opinion, as an agricultural show in any district affords a treat to those who are following any other pursuit than fanning, and is an encouragement to good farming, ; aucl an advertisement that is always desirable of the good qualities of any young settlement, if I had the pleasure to be a prosperous land and stock owner, I should always a-lvocate and promote shows- in every town within, my district. ' In some splendid paddocks of 700 acres each in .mother direction I had the next day the pleasure of .seeing perhaps tha t pick of Mr Firth's Matamata herd, namely, BnO beautiful yearlings', nearly all of the Shoi thorn breed, many of them 'of the purest blood, perfect in form, and perfectly rioting in good living, with plenty of grass on the broad pastures in which they enjoyed fhemselves, and some twenty hay and clover stacks in which to find all they might want by way of variety in their pne pleasure of everlasting feeding. If the creation of these little beauties was for the express purpose of finding AngloSaxons in beef, then I can only say that no man of that race could look upon them without uttering a thanksgiving for the grant of such a plentiful supply, even though he might not himself get any of it, and the poor little beasteies might look upon the mercy from a different aide. They were playful and jolly enough on the occasion of my vi-it, and exhibited all their good points without a ( suspicion of the carniverou/j propensities of the awful gorilla who wns admiring them. Aa we cantered along the broad road known, by the bye, as the "Avenue," though the avenue as yet is amongst the things to be ; the trees planted certainly, along the sides of the road, promising^. erßrything for Mr Firth's grandson, but being only, so far, in theif nrststage; I noticed that the land on one side is arranged in tea paddocks, known by their numbers/ the smallest of which, is of 700 acres in extent, and on the other "side in eight, numbered from. A to H, ( one being of ,1400 acres. , Isaw, t top, that there was a plentitiful provision in some of them, for 1 feeding grounds' of graaaand.turnips for the hippy bullock^, to succeed .those in which, they are at present lpcaHled whon they shall have arrived at the end of that stage on the road to beef. Along the' road I was told there are some fifteen niilea ' of ditch and bank fencing, and, altO^aher, about th'e'place over.fiffcy 6f3s[sees have been competed: ' THT flhe^Jfcere the next claimants/ifprmt^sritiloflri.^ntt they are an important feature in the notes to be taken of Matamataj ..for tfhey are/ not only the most extensive nook I 'have see n,s about this i part; of, ;thej colony, but they are a very good orosa between thei Lincoln and Merino jbr^eds .thatjonly Messrs Owen and LethbridgeV old flock at Watfgairafc— how 'sblcfoflVFam sorry to hear — could - surpass. The merino giTes- ifirmnesS to »> the "naturally;.', .drercoarse wool of the Lincoln,; rand the Lincoln^ jayes^eigh^ - to, th^eece and immunity from foot-rot, to Which the lands. There are about 7oOQ,,n'eacl of this cross in the flock, and. hst'iseaacra the,

shearing gave an average of about 81b. Jer fleece that realiiefl from^B(l to 9d *per ft. The best of the rftms eatno, lam told, from Pntrick Leslie* well-known flock, $n<i i are pf tho purest Lincoln breed. Altogether the sheep are worthy of all admiration by those who believe in the Lincoln and a cross with either the Meriiio, the Leicester, or the Romney MarAbY m superior to any of the absoluteljWjnfe breeds. The pure Leicester or tlieSduthdown is 100 fat and too delicate ' fdr the varying feeding of this country; the pure Merino must have broken ground* "alflf fjlns. » n d carries a very light fleece, and the tdncoln wmbjnes^the good qualities of Eofcn, "his'^tfcwback bping the rather coarae quality of hi)S eno&nQuS .Weight of wool, though now thig coarse quality is beginning to be looked upon aa a merit by the makers of tweeds—t he main Troollen manufacture of the day. The horses, of which there are about 70 on the estate, are, I noticed, mostly very handsome, well-bred working horses and hacks, some of the latter being models in their way ; but I did not see any thoroughbreds or show sires to remark •upon, Mr Firth not being a man of a horsey mind, and most of the work being done by contract. The manager bestrode a handsome chestnut cob that trotted her fourteen miles an hour, and the beautiful bay on which I was mounted would not be beaten, and kept up the pace at a long slashing canter that would have carried me into Te Aroha in a couple of hours. On the road we passed at a distance of several miles what is at times one of the most lovely pieces of scenery in New Zealand, the Wairere .waterfalls., In the spring, or for a day or two after a heavy rain, they are wonderfully grand, a stream of from 30 to 40 feet in width falling at one leap over a sheer precipice of 270 feet in depth into a basin that the water lias formed in the solid rock, and with a roar that may be heard for many miles, and wrapped in a sheet of foam and spray that springs half way up the cliff again, hurling itself down 180 feet furthtr to the bed down which tho stream rushes into tho valley. A walk up the gully towards the lower fall will, at such a season, afford a tourist a magnificent sight, and at the same time, it mdst be owned, an equally magnificent drenching with the spray flying out of the furious turmoil. Or a walk of two hours up a spur of the range will place him above the precipice, and he can gratify hib feelings by looking down upon the whole Hcene far below. I should very much have enjoyed a look both from below and above, but, unfortunately, there was the one great drawback, that in consequence of the long dry season there was no water, and a waterfall without water wont work properly. Should I spend the winter in these regions, however, I will certainly not miss the sight on the first favorable opportunity. I could see a thin trickling stream dropping over the bare rocks that headed the deep glen, and that alone would have been sufficient to afford a sight to be remembered for a life time, standing in that grand hall of the giant palace for the gods that once abode here and watching the naiad of the scene playing and &ingmg. But I want to see her arrayed in all her gloiies and her terrors, making the earth tremble with her pa«sion, and all the hills echo with her plaint, tossing her white arms, and thiowing herself over the precipice in pretended despair as she has done for a<res whenever .she dreams hei giant lover, whom sho lured to destiuction when the earth was young, i*» again approaching to look over the ranges at her blue eyes sparkling in the morning light. She never cm forget, her crime, and it is her everlasting 1 cm-be that again she repeats the pretended sacrifice for ever, though Ouly poor little moitals, wandering photographeis, and penny-a-liners stand by to watch her artifices, and the giant lover stands turned to *tono looking daikly out to -ea and waiting 1 sadly for the tiumpet to hound that shall release him. I bet? to appeal to any respectable German who owns a pocket handkerchief whether it is not better to indulge in a little tancy over our hills and lakes ami falls after the fashion of old Vaterlandt, than to pass them by with a blank stare and a grunt after the fashion of old England. However, Mr. Dibble would not wait to allow me the luxury of finding nermons in stones, or piping on oaten straws to wake up the sleeping fawms or disturbing Oamarina, or any other act of lunacy, and we trotted briskly on to the hading place on the banks of the Waihou 11V miles from our staiting point. (To be tontuimd.)