RAGLAN NEWS. (from a correspondent.)

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2148, 15 April 1886, Page 2

RAGLAN NEWS. (from a correspondent.)

The road over the range between the Waitetuna^ and Waipa has a few landslips on it which should be removed before the winter sets in, as the water tablet are filled up, and on rain falling the water is ■ure to.' scour over the h roads, % causing damage. -By the wa!jr knJeffort -should be made by all the public bodies, in Waipa and Waikato particularly, to conserve the forest on this range for climatic purposes by getting the Government (in whose hands the greater part of it still remains) to reserve it for the foregoing purposes. Inhere should be no difficulty about the matter as the country is very broken "and totally unfit for agricultural purposes. The bridge on the Waipa side of the range, which collapsed over.two months ago, and to which the attention of the Government was drawn by the member for Waipa, still. remains as it' was then, though Mr Lake was assured by the Public Works Department it would be at orico attended too. All that is wanted is a few pipfes to carry off the water, and some earth to cover them, but the blowneas of the Works Department is proverbial. The result i* that on Friday last, after Mie Thursday* night's rain, the mail coach had to be detached from the team, and taken as best it could over.the collapsed structure, thehorses being driven through the water. Thin performance had to be repeated on .Saturday, the water having subsided very-httle. i Several settlers here have lost both cattle^ sheep and pigs, which have disappeared' in a most mysterious manner, and on Monday last Mr W. P. Cogswell discovered on his boundary line a sheep's head recently killed, with both ears cut off. The carcase' had been removed. His fat wethers' have year after year disappeared, leaving not a trace bshind. ■ There teems to bo a gang here who only want a little more scope to develope.into a "Kelly Gang, "and* mutual protection society is talked of, by whose means it is hoped the lawless may be brought within the clutches of the law. The Whaingaroa Road Board which have by a stroke of the pen of a so-called paternal Government, had the main road m their district transfered to their care, have decided to replace several of t the bridges by culverts, which it is hoped may not bo the continuous draw on the rates that wooden structures are, and have called for tenders for three..