ALEXANDRA NEWS. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2214, 16 September 1886, Page 2

ALEXANDRA NEWS. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

At the usual monthly R.M. Court held here on Friday last, MrMacky, J.P., on he bench, no cases were brought forward, all having been previously settled out of court. At the Otorohanga Land Court, the Ngatimaniopoto case is now on. The court met on Saturday, and was adjourned till Monday on account of Wahanui's continued indisposition. There are still a large number of natives present, the great majority of whom, the young people, have no business whatever, but to pass time away, and this must be a hard matter, the uncomfortable manner they are housed, in tents with nothing but mud and water surrounding them. The number of stores there must be to them a god-send, for there they congregate the whole day, every store being crammed with them, btit apparently not much business is done. That there are dome dishonest characters amongst thoso assembled is certain, from the fact that one night lately Mr Hill's store was surreptitiously entered after busineHs hours, during the temporary absence of the person in charge, and the cash b>x abstracted, containing in notes and cash a sum of nearly £20. The discovery of the robbery was made shortly after its occurrence, and the police, assisted byWeterete Uerenga, have since endeavoured to get information of the guilty party or parties, but as yet without success. At night some kind of amusement is ponurally got up in the hall at a charge of Is Od front seats and the body of the hall Is. Dancee, htikas, songs, etc., form the programme. On Friday night a boxing entertainment took place, when home well-known amateur* took part (so thn bills said.) A fight to the finish for £1 was also part of the programme. The affair was a regular take in. Hardly a blow was struck, but a good deal of agility was displayod by jumping about around each other for some time, when Ngapuhi (?), taking off his glo\es, announced, "He beat, he win, he take money." A dance concluded the evening's entertainment. The music, an accordeon played by a Maori, was really good. The road between here and Otorohanga is something awful in pi rices, at the crossings especially. The only way is by Mangaorongo, where you have to swim your horse and carry your saddle over the railway bridge. The banks are now so rotten that none but'a 1 strong, clever horse cm get out again. I, and those with me, had to assist ours with ropes, and the attiuuls wero too much exhausted to be tit f >r further travelling.