WAIKATO NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 7, 10 January 1899, Page 3

WAIKATO NOTES.

(From Our. Own Correspondent.)

CAMBRIDGE, Monday.

The annual meeting of the Domain Board was held on Saturday. There were present: Messrs T. Wells (chairman), J. Fisher, E. Lake (as chairman of the Pukekura Road Board), and W. F. Buekland (Mayor of the Borough). The annual balance-sheet showed the receipts to have been £216, and although the year was begun with an overdraft of nearly £40; that had been liquidated, and at the 31st December there was a credit balance of £11, and liabilities nil, with £71 due for rents. The statement was adopted, and the chairman authorised to sign same. The next business was the election of chairman, and Mr Wells was again elected, this being: his eighteenth year of office. He has occupied that position since the inception of the Board, and justly so, for it is thanks to him mainly that the town has a Domain at all. He, together with Mr Percy Smith, the Sur-veyor-General, and the late Sir Frederick Whitaker, did the whole.business; and since 1881 Mr Wells has had practically sole charge of our Lake Reserve, and any of your readers who have paid our town a visit will, I am sure, appreciate the good work he has done. All round the edge of the lake was formerly a swamp, and the banks were the dumping ground for old kerosene tins, 'dead marines,' and other refuse from the town, but now grass grows down to the very water, and the banks are almost covered with trees, while the gardens on the upper level are a delight to all. I do not believe in anyone having a mortgage on a public office, but, nevertheless, I am sure in Mr Wells as chairman we have 'the right man in the right place,' and, what is more to the point, the inhabitants, to a man, agree with me. The farmers were somewhat disappointed that Mr Weddel could not pay Waikato a visit to have a talk about frozen meat. Many of them are preparing for breeding lambs for the London market, and they intended calling a special meeting of the Farmers' Club to discuss the matter with It* would hardly be possible to have worse harvesting weather than we have been having the last few days; enough showers to keep the crops wet and warmth to make them grow. Our polo team were having a game on Saturday when Mr N. Banks* pony dropped dead.