ALEXANDRA NEWS. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2217, 23 September 1886, Page 2

ALEXANDRA NEWS. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

At the nomination of candidates for the biennial election of commissioners for the Alexandra Town Board on Wednesday last, Me^ri Matthias. John Auhui, Alexander Grant, Jesse Sage, and Alfred .Smith, wore duly nominated .md elected. Mr J. D. Hill was also nominated, but retired. Our busings people '■till coni[)lain of there being little or nothing dom^r, .mil I fear there is no likelihood of impiovent^nt. It was tho (lovernment money paid to the Constabulary and the native trade that kept us going. Now th.it the Const. ihnlaiy ha\e gone, and the native trade is comparatively nil, it is hard to s,»y where the money is to come from. The natives appear to have given up cultivation for *ale entire.lv, barely raising enough for their own want*., the low prices they obtained for their produce h.ivmg fauly sickened them. The Native Land Court now hitting at Otorohanga will also h ue an unfavourable effect, as nearly all the native-, in the district are assembled there, and no land is prepared for this year's crops whate\er. The few natives residing at Whatiwhatihoe are very badly off at the present time, and not likely to improve. Tv Tawhiao, " the kind's" eldest son, is very ill. He has been ailing for some, time, but is now unable to pet up. The young fellow is a geneial favourite from his happy and generous disposition. He had his faults, we all kcow, but he was invariably kind and civil t-> Europeans. He is to be pitied, with no medical attendance or comforts, which in his state he require-, badly. I hear the natives arc thinking of taking him over to the Aioha. His father, Tawhiao, is away at Taurautra. _ When on the road to Otorohanga, a '-hott time ago, J noticed how the rabbits lme spread these last few years. They appe ired to be eating their way ahead. In places near and about Kopu i, where they weie plentiful a year or two ago, they are now comparatively few, but the whole road to Otorohauga, ,»cio--s the fern hills, they aie to be seeti. Theie is little or no gias», so what they li vi upon is a pu//.le. I e\p.-ct they get their living pnncip.illy on the .small \eg-'t<ition grow ing in the gullie>, as tiieie is no cultivation. They cannot b^ doing miuh liaiui, and must I think inevitably die out for want of food. At the pi.' sent time, however, tli**y aie\ory numerous, as I saw them in all directions on th" fein hills along-ide the track. A hare was -*i,ot not long sincn at Otoiohang.i, so they, too, are spreading. — -(Sepfember 20.)