OHINEMURI NEWS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2354, 11 August 1887, Page 3

OHINEMURI NEWS.

[BY TKLEOKAI’H—OW.V COUIIKSTONDKNT.) I’akkoa, Tuesday. At the County Council meeting to-day considerable feeling was manifested, at tbo action of tlm Oovornment extending the imwers of the Thames Harbour Board to Uhiiiemuri. The council resolved to call meetings and agitate the matter. Messrs Mackay and Cadrnan will bo asked whether they will support the revocation of the Ordcr-in-Gomioil, and the council will go with the candidate who so pledges himself. The council have constituted a new riding ; the Thames end of the Waitoa riding is to bo known as the Nethortm riding, and have one member. This will give the council nine members. The matter of the extension of the limits of the I’ort of Thames, giving, as it does, the Thames Harbour Board jurisdiction over the I hiimnuurl county rivers, has oc casioned some excitement here, especially as the Ohiuemuri County Council is in receipt of all that it asked for—namely, a river board. The power winch the Thames Harbour Board has recently had conferred upon it has always been regarded by our local statesmen as a child regards some fabled bogey. When it Hrat loomed out of the dimness, some twelve months ago, a petition was got up, praying the Governor to proclaim the county a river district, and it was largely signed and was quite legal, with one exception, i.0., that it was not advertised for four consecutive weeks, in accordance with the law. It accordingly fell through until there were more vague hints of the appearance of the longthreatened Giant Grim. The county council, now thoroughly aroused, did the thing properly this time, willing to sacrifice the uttermost farthing of their (brothers’) money in order to gratify that Thamesophobia, which has so long been prevalent hero. George Kliot says of two people who hated each other very much, “ they were like two folk who differed about baptism.” The modern simile will be “ like Oliimunuri and the Thames.” It is a strange thing that two districts such as these, bound by so many common ties, geographically the same country, with such a community of interest in their industries, should be thus divorced. However the petition for river autonomy was this time properly fixed up by Devore and Cooper, the Auckland solicitors, sent to Wellington and granted. Still they are not happy, for the Thames people were on the jobbed ire them, and.itjnow appears that the Ohiuemuri Kiver Board will have the extreme pleasure of collecting any rate that may be payable to the Harbour Board, and remitting the same to Thames; i s it is said that River Boards boar the same relation to Harbour Boards in the same precincts as Town and Road Board do to Comity Councils. It is now hoped that either one or the other o( the bodies will pay some immediate attention to the river and the wharves. One of the latter, at the new township, I’aeroa, which cost the Thames Comity Council some hundreds of pounds, is now being left to go to ruin. The recent heavy flood lifted the entire structure several feet, breaking the iron strap bolts, and piles. An outlay of about £2O would make the wharf as good as over, but if left as at present, the next Hood will take it down stream.

News was received on Saturday, from Messrs Houston and Ritchie, two Chinemuri men who left some months ago tor Barberton, South Africa. They state briefly that the field is to all appearances a duffer. On landing they had a long tramp of nearly 000 miles in order to reach their destination, and on arriving there, saw at a glance the position of affairs. “ Far off fields are green" and sometimes so are those who make for them.

A football match was arranged to take place at I’aeroa, on Saturday last, between a crack Katikati Club and a team selected from the Mountaineers tKarangahake), and the Lowlandcrs (I’aerua). It is stated hero however, that while the Katikati men were playing a tost game at Katikati, in order to choose their men, a free tight took place which prevented many promising Katikati lads from whipping the local men. Be this as it may, the eastern men never turned up, and the fifteen I’aeroa men had to indulge in (and pay for) two suppers per man, on Saturday evening. M> .James Muckay is now in Cambridge, and will bo in Ohiuemuri at the end of the week. Ho is suffering somewhat from rheumatism. Mr Cadrnan will bo here about the same time.

The ordinary monthly meeting of the Ohincmuri County Council, which should have been held on Saturday, was adjourned until Tuesday. The council is making a number of necessary preparations for obtaining a loan, part of which will bo spent cn the erection of county offices and oilier necessary works. The county cbik, Mr Nepean'Kenny, is now in town on business connected with the pioposed loan.