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Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 306, 28 December 1898, Page 5

A: correspondent./who visited Henderson with the Helping Hand anniversay picnic writes:—'l .. took

a stroll around and found a marked improvement "yi the neighbourhood. Land is being taken ; xvp in fair sized sections for cultivation, Mr, Smythe being the purchaser of three sections last week. Mr Woodward is about to build a tiutcher's shop on a town allotment near the railway station. -A public hall is in course- of erection and. will soon be ready.for opening. A neat Wesleyan church was opened on Christmas Day, the officiating, clergymen being the Keys. W. J. Williams and Chapman.

Good congregations attended each service, and a ( liberal collection wds taken up on behalf'of the trust fund. I noticed the crops in the neighbourhood, are looking exceedingly well, and a good gathering-of gx-apes may be expected .to reach town from the vineries of Messrs Jane and Platt." Mr Spooner has erected a.comfortable house on a section lately purchased from Mr Cranwell, and as the land is good average soil it struck me that the neighbourhood might be considered as> an: eligible site for" a village settlement. The land is l'eason-ably-cheap, and the distance from town onty 30 or 40 minutes by rail, and with a woi'kman's 'train morning and evening the whole thing could be soon fixed up. What 8 a paradise a few acres with cow and poultry yard would '' be compared with being cooped up in a 'stifling narrow street. I was much pleased to see such a large number;,of ■■ children and young people oh the picnic ground, apparently exceedingly well managed, the officers understanding their duty and the scholars under good control.' '