NOTES FROM OTOHOHANGA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2226, 14 October 1886, Page 2

NOTES FROM OTOHOHANGA.

Otorohaxoa is a jolly ])].icc— jolly with the nnrthfulne.ss of the ev.uheio.ut health i>f its inhabitants ft is jolly with the pleasant racket of business, talk and laughter. It possesses a numerous population, chiefly composed of aboriginals. There are five stores here, all appaiently doing well — a restaurant that lures the people to their " kai " with the tintinnabulation of a bullock bell— a butcher's shop, containing beef fat and juicy, that knows not the civilising aroma of the turnip— a billiard-room, whose green cloth, the sign of scientific luxuriousness, is nightly framed with a crowd of eager facea, masculine as well as feminine, that watch the game with an intentness that makes their countenances assume an interesting beauty or an equally interesting expression of vacancy. There is no public-house hera, neither is there a church. Expressions of regret have vibrated through the air at the absence of the former, but no ! not a whimper of regret has been even echoed for the non-existence of the latter. The Land Court is daily thronged, and the eloquence of land disputants is listened to by those appointed to hear them with a auiet patience that makes an outsider lank his stars he is not a judge of a native Land Court. But surely the judge-* will get the reward their long-suffering patience entitles them to. Hv and hy the fifteen puzzle, or rather the Chinese problem, of individualising the land will inaugurate the greatest debating society New Zealand has ever |>o-,<es«<ed, and it will certainly make very small fry of local debating societies that plume themselves on their oratorical declamation and rhetorical periphrases. The circumlocutory cycle of talk will be like a wedding ring, round, round and round again, and then a fresh start with the same result. The platelayers are fast approaching this place with their parallel iron lines, and the engine is expected to rudely salute it by puffing a " reek " of steam in its face in about a fortnight. The land about here is very fertile, and it produces fern and furze plenteously. On Saturday nights the Land Court is turned into a " dance house," the admission for gents being "a bob a nob." On Saturday last a football match was played by natives and railway employe's. The natives won the game easily, and as easily enjoyed the grand dinner that Richard provided for them at the lailway employes' expense. The Maoris are kind, pleasant and agreeable, and the native ladies are as affable as some of them are good-looking. Oh ! to wrong her would be wrong ; therefore publish this as the prologue to the manellous book, the pages of which she is bound to fill with matter of moment e'er the epilogue or l'envoi is written. Kai Tuhituhi.