The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1859, 5 June 1884, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gam.

THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 1884.

TnE present scorns to be a time of general awakening amongst tho agricultural class in New Zealand. It is our hope that the farmers of this part of the colony will take their place in the vanguard of progress. The first and most important step has been taken : the settlers have bound themselves together : it now remains to be seen with what spirit they will follow up the work. The Co-operative Association was designed chiefly with a \iew to provide better markets and secure higher prices for tho farmers' produce ; and this we have no doubt it will do, But if the farmers desire to avail themselves of the benefits to be conferred by the society, it is very clear that they must grow the jiroduce for which markets are being sought out. We allude more especially to what may be termed auxiliary products. Beef and mutton, wheat and oats, must form the staple articles of production, but there are numerous others which offor a proportionately higher renumeration, the raising of which can be accomplished without much trouble. We have at different times advocated the ' growing of sugar beet, and we are sanguine that before long the production of raw sugar will be one of the prominent industries of this district. Just now we wish to speak of two other products, the cultivation of which would, we think, exert a healthy influence on the financial condition of Uie farmer. The first of these is the tobacco plant. The suitability of the soil and climate of Waikato for the growth of this plant has been amply demonstrated in years past, and it is not, therefore, necessary that much should be said on that point. It is true that up till quite recently the inducements to grow it were not particularly strong, but now that the manufacturing industry has been established in Auckland, the most conservativecultivator of the soil can no longer find an excuse for neglecting so important an aid to his prosperity. We have remarked chat the adaptability of i this district is so well-known as to be beyond question ; it may, nevertheless, be interesting to record the opinion of a gentleman thoroughly competent to judge, concerning the quality of the leaf grown in Waikato. Last year Mr Lewis O'Neill, of Olaudelands, obtained a parcel of seed from the New Zealand Tobacco Company, and successfully raised a large number of plants in his garden. After drying them according to directions, he sent the leaves to the company, and the other day he received a moat gratifying letter from the manager, Mr Vollbracht, who says the leaf is "equal to first class Connecticut, and suitable for cigars.'* Further on he says :—": — " I must s\y, if we could always get leaf like your sample, our American cousins, would

soon lie obliged to withdraw from the New Zealand market iiltogether." Nothing am be more convincing than , this. What Mr O'Xeill can do others can do equally well ; no extraordinary amount of care, no more, at least, than could ho bestowed by the ordinary farmer, was lavished on the leaves under notice, while it is very possible, that with experience even better^ results ciuld be. obtained. For one thing, it is necessary that the seed should be of the best quality, and this the company is prepared to supply on very liberal terms to prospective suppliers of leaf. The aspect of the case to which we desire more particularly to draw the attention of the farmers is this : Tobacco growing, with other similar small industries, means ready cash ; whatever quantity is grown can be at once converted into bullion, a thing which farmers do not handle any oftener than they could wish. In the United States it is quite a common practice for farmers to grow in their gardens small patches of tobacco, which they sell to the nearest factory, and if nothing more were attempted, this practice might be followed with equal or greater, success here. The amount of tobacco imported into New Zealand last year was about 500 tons, and it may appear to many, in the light of this fact, that the market for the raw material could easily be overstocked. But it must be remembered that there is a lai'ge market close at hand in Australia, where, so far, all attempts to grow the leaf have been unsuccessful. Should the Auckland factoiy maintain the reputation which even thus early it has established, the sister colonies will soon purchase from us not only the dried leaf, but the manufactured article as well. We commend these facts to the consideration of our agricultural readers. There is ample time before the sowing season commences to make arrangements for a trial crop. The second article to which we intend making reference is linseed, but the importance of the subject demands more space than can be afforded in this article, and we shall therefore defer it*? consideration until next issue. It may, howbe remarked that the growth of the flax and the manufacture of twine are industries already in operation in the Canterbury province.

Commander Edwin telegraphed at mid-day yesterday :— " Indications of hard frost to-night."

Mr John Thomson has been gazetted clerk of the Resident Magistrate* (Joint at Cambridge, vice Mr Charles Chitty.

At the annual sitting of the Cambridge Town Di&trict LicoiiHing Bench, held on Tuesday last, renewals were gi anted to the four local hotels.

A concert and dance will be held in the Hukamii Hall on Thursday ne\t, the 12th. Home of the best local talent has been scoured, and the entertainment promises to be a great success.

We were in error in stating that the Kev> Mr Deiv.sbmy'> luctme to-niorrow evening on " Sir Walter Sott " will bo doliveied in the We^leyan Ohurcli at Cambridge West. It will, as announced in the advertisement, be held in the Pukekura schoolroom.

Mr Yon Stunner having resigned his seat at the Hamilton Bmough Council, an election to fill the t.'icancy will be held on Tuebday, the 24th iiiht. Nomimitions must bo delivered to the leturning officer, Mr Gelling, before noon on Tuesday, the 17th imt.

Travellers having occasion to visit Whatawhata, as well as the residents of that district, will be glad to hear that Mr G. T. M. Kellow has token the Whatawhata Hotel. During Mr Kellow's former occupancy, the house afforded excellent accommodation for visitors, and we doubt not it will soon regain its good name.

Our readers will observe in our advertising columns a notice of tho dissolution of the law partnership of Whitaker and Campbell. We understand that Mr { Campbell leaves Waikato for the purpose of entering the firm of Messrs Russell and Campbell, solicitors, Auckland, into which business he is to be admitted as a partner.

Mr Hewitt is carrying out great improvements to the corner opposite the Cnteiion Hotel. In addition to building the extensive and handsome bor->e bazaar, he is filling in the unsightly corner which fur a long tune past has been a veritable eyesore to the town. The footpath will also be put in better repair, and properly gt a veiled.

The wife of a man named John Green, a labourer residing at Rlorrinsyille, applied to Mr Northcroft, at the Hamilton Police Court yesterday, for a prohibition order against her husband. It appears that Green has been " on the spree " lor the past .seven weeks, and lias " wasted his substance very considerably. The order wan granted. ,

We are in receipt of the first number of "The N.Z. Referee, a journal of bporfc, mv.sic, and the dr.una." The new comer is published at Chiistchurch, and is under the editorial charge of the well-known sporting writer "'Sir Lanncelot." The journal contains a large amount of matter inteiebting to the sporting community, and ought soon to become a favourite ainong-st that class.

The Government steamer Hinemoa left Onelmnga shortly after two o'clock on Tuesday afternoon with Auckland members. The following were passengers :— Sir G. M. O'Rorke, Hon. Mr Chamberlain, Hon. Mr Dignan, Messrs Hurst, F. A. Whi taker, Swanson, Hamlin, George, Mohi Tawhai. A telegram was sent to Sir G. M. O'Korke from Taranaki, requesting that the Auckland members should call at New Plymouth to see tne progress of the breakwater. It was, however, we believe, decided not to do so. — Herald.

A special message to the Press Association, dated London, June 3rd, says : — The committee appointed by the French Senate have but slightly modified the Recidiviste Bill. In their report they approve of hending convicts to New Caledonia and Cayenne, and reject the proposals that the Marquesas Islands hhould be the place to which prisoners should be sent. The committee also recommend that six years' good conduct should entail a remission of the remainder of the sentence which % convict may have to serve.

A correspondent writes from Cambridge :— The statement which appears in Tue&day's Herald under th« heading of " Waikato District News,'' to the effect.that one of the native women who attacked Major Green at Cambridge on Friday last intended proceeding against the Major for violent assault, he having kicked her when in a pregnant condition, is incorrect. Those who observed the occurrence from beginning to end flatly deny any such charge. Major Green did not use his fists nor yet his feet in self-defence. When attacked by the women he merely pushed them aside with his arm, and then not violently. I cannot allow such a mis-statement to pass unnoticed.

The Wellington correspondent of the N.Z. Herald, writing on Tuesday, says : — It is thought very probable that Wahauui will be called to the Legislative Council. - During his visit here he and one of his wive* and several followers m]\ be' maintained at, the charge of the ooloni, Why Mr Bryce should take thin extrejnely exceptional course is not apparent, but no doubt it will become so before the session •nds. His presence herd "will -doubtless have some influence on. tuttiu), legislation this session, and on tnv lao«ir3 of the Native Affaire Committee, The. great <*£ief might have been in the Council ye.ar» ago if he had wished, btit now, if thej Go^rp-; mwt ret*i« office, he ie likely ty be qpp--

nated. When Taiaroa \taw a Oodncillor there were three Mauri members, rfo that Wahan ui 'a elevation; "tyauld tiot.rabe the ( uumbor dl native Councillors to dri unprecedented number. , ;

Wo have received from publisher, Mr N. G. Lonno*, bookMftter and stationer, Auckland and Hamilton, a copy of a pamphlet entitled " Hard Times and Land Monopoly: An appeal to the electors to stamp out poverty and abolish all taxation upon industry by JWationalising the future unearned increase-in J^tul value,'* by "A Voice from the; BeofricJ?' The pamphlet is largely compfwAd jiM|xtrnct3 from the works of Henry GS&MK^A; R. Wallace, and other advocates oFthe principle of land nationalisation, biuV there is much original matter having special relation to this colony. The subject of the land is one absorbing a large amount of 'public interest ju<it now, arid this little publication, as it contains in a small space a mass of informa tion on the question, will be found useful to those wishful to 'inform "themselves. The title sufficiently indicates thfl scope of the work. The price is one shilling.

The natives, whose whares on the Pukekura block were destroyed by Mr E, B. Walker, still continue to squat on the land, and are now quartered in tent*. While engaged carting off some potatoes the property of the natives, they were interrupted by some of the - women, who puller) the bags and kits off the pledges, and ripping them open, scattered the potatoes all over the ground. The natives had previously had them .covered, in in pits. In order further to ,' impede the operations of Messrs..' and (irice, the natives brok^ down the bridge over f ,he Mangapiko near Rotorangi. Proceedings have been instituted against three natives, named respectively, Kauwhata,," Hanita, and -Malta,- who are believed to have doihinifityl 'the offnnce. The lessees _ will yet, it appears, have a little more difficulty than they have already experienced in clearing ttfe natives off the disputed property.

The Hon. GK M. Waterhouse has written to the New Zealand Times ridiculing the idea of supposing that prosperity will return to the Colony if only wo nave a heavy land tax, and he very decidedly asserts that it will have no such effect. When people talk of taxing the land, they seem to think orly of a fewlandowners who possess large aroas, and forget the thousands of smaller landholders. Mr Watei house very pithily ;vnri very effectively states the ca^e of the landowners. He «ays that the property tax leturns show that there were in the Colony in 1881 no less than 00,(55!) owners of real property, of whom «nly 1(303 own more than 1000 acres each. And we know, from the large area? taken up by small settlers since that return was made, the number of small holders has increased largely. He very rightly points to the depressed condition, of the landowners, and Very naturaly asks : Will special taxation upon this clasa induce a return of a general prosperity ?

The "New Zealand Blondin" has been getting himself into trouble. He arrived .it Hamilton at the beginning of last week for the purpose of giving evidence in the larceny case against, .the lad Watson, and put. lip at the Waiknfco Hotel. Aftor the aciobat's depaiture on Enday, Mr (iaudm mitred a couple of flags, and at once communicated with the police, who eventually found the missing property in a oarpet-bag stowed away in the new station building at Hamilton East. The presence of some tights, &c. in the bag confirmed the suspicion attaching to Mr "Blondin," whose name, by the way, is William Jerome, and Sergt. McGovern at once put himself in communication with tho To Aroha police with a view to Jerome's arrost. On Tuesday Mr McGovern received a telegram from Sergt. Emerson, of Te Aroha, stating that Jerome was under arrest at that place on another charge of larceny. It is probable that after being dealt with at Te Aroha, Mr "Blondin" will be remanded to Hamilton to answer the charge of stealing the flags, which, by-the-bye, he admits.

An official statement shows that the total land area of the United State*, not including Alaska, is 1,900,800,000 acres, and according to the last census 53(i,051,530 acres were in farms. V A large amount, comprising at least 300,000,000" acres, is worthless, either for culture or for timber, so that the amount of public! 'iands available for settlement is really about 073,950,000 acres. Recent sales have reduced it to about 907,000,000 acres. It is .suggested in the American journals that it will promote the prosperity of the nation if the whole of this land is reserved for actual settlers. The average area of the i,008,907 farms of the Republic in 1880 was 133 acres each, and the proper division of what remains of the public domain would add about 8,000,000 to the total - number of fauna. The Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of the General Land Office have concurred iv recommending the repeal of the pre-emption law and the amendment of the Homestead Act, and they urge Congress promptly to enact such measures as will save the public land for the us« of those who will settle upon it and till it for themselyea.

Both the Moscow Gazette and the Journal de St. Petersburg are very pressing in their advice to Euiope to stem the advancing tide of revolution and Socialism by international co-operation agains-t dynamite a&iasMns. M. KatkofFs organ attacks the right of asylum upheld principally by England, and insinuates that by maintaining this doctiine England ,Jias aided and abetted in many revolutionary diaorderd in other countries. The reported intention of the English Government to address the United States Government with respect to the fabrication^ dynamiLe in America for murderous purpose in the United Kingdom has naturally roused the hopes of the Russian advocate* of the international interference, and encouraged them to believe that England, for her own safety, or through international compulsion, will be obliged to relinquish her cherished right of refuge to political fugitives. Tho Russian Press follows the revolutionary troubles and Fenian outrages of other countries very closely, and it is not at all chary of its comments and opinions in regard to them. But scarcely % word ever appears in its columns aa to revolutionary doings in Russia herself.

Accordiug to the Otago Daily Times, the topic of conversation in Oamaru is the discovery that a gentleman who has had many lips and downs in the district, and who has lately earned a living by acting as assistant bailiff to the Resident Magistrate's Court, bids fair to end as the occupant of an earldom with an annual income of some £70,000. The gentleman referred to is Mr Y. W. 0. "Grant, whose father, the hon. James Ogilvie Grant, has just succeeded to the title'; and estates of the Earl of Seafield, consequent upon the death of his nephew, the late earl, without issue. Mr Grant— who now becomes Lord Reidharen, and, the* direct heir to the earldom, has long been a resident in tho^ district, and has filled a variety of positions, from commission agent down to labourer. When the news arrived of the death of his cousin, an event which gave him * title and » competency, he was, and is still, the " man in possession" at a farmer's homestead in ' the district, a duty from whioh hestoufcly ?ef USfij to be relie.Y«d\ so that the unfortunate farmer has the satisfaction of knowirg that, under compulsion, hq is .entertaining a, lord, and a prospective mein'ber of the British House of Peers, The prepenj; Earl of Seafield is in his 67th year, so that the Oatnapu assist t»nt bailiff will in all likelihood be the ninth to bear the title .conferred by William 111. He in married to a daughter of Major Evans, of Oamaru, and has a family. \. • j> '-\ /

A corre&ojident "writing tp the Scotsman shj$ ;— * Two land law reform associations are meanwhile contending for euprewapy in the tfigfhlftnde, vis. ttojia of

London and \EdinburghV &Tht htffai is supposed to ato indirectly kt Cbiipch disestablishment, to most distasteful movement' ftf-fhlly lineteen twenfciethfoof the population oftfe Highlands and , Islands* and consequent^ the London association is by far the nitre popular organisation. Throughout SkyAthe crofters now consider their claim.** m a calmer iplrit. TJie visionary scheme if Mr Henry George has tnan productive rf rather an opposite result from that intended by the anther of Progress and Poverty. In the parishes of Portree, Str.ith, Sliat, and Bracadale, the land agitation has •jeased to absorb much public interest, thourh in tlio remoter parts it has still — in its le« feasible forms— some hold on the minds of the people. At Glendale a number of crofters have paid up arrears of rent to Mr Robertson, the factor ; and at Bppadlord the dispute with the proprietor has 'befn settled and rente paid. An exaggerated report legarding the land agitation in South Uist was lately circulated, but later information states that no excitement prevails in any part of that parish. The attention of the inhabitants is taken up with the good news received from the emigrants to Manitobi, and many of them are desirous of leaving for the Far West.'

It appears that whenever there is surplus moisture a large eucalyptus will prove of great service, and a group of them will dispose of a vast amount of house sewage. But where there is water which it is not desirable to exhaust, as in a f»ood well, it will be wise to put the eucalyptus very far away. The owner of Bay Island Farm, Alameda County, recently found a curious root formation of the' eucalyptus in the bottom of hie well, about 1(5 feet below the surface. The troe to which the roots belong stand 50 feet from the well. Two shoots pierced through the brick wall of the well, and sending off-millions of fibres, formed a dense mat that completely covered the bottom of the well. Most of these fibres are no larger than threads, and are so woven and inter-twisted as to form a mat as impenetrable and strong as though regulaily woven in a loom. The mat when first taken out of the well was water soaked and covered with mud, and nearly all that a man could lift, but when dry it was nearly as soft to touch as wool, and weighed only a few ounces. This is an excellent illustration of ths wayi'i which the eucalyptus absorbs moisture, its roots going s-o far to find moisture, pushing them -.el ye-, through a brick wall, and then developing enormously after the water is reached. It is through that one of the causes of the drying up of wells is the insatiable thirs of these vegetable monsters.