ON HAURAKI PLAINS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 251, 23 October 1922, Page 9

ON HAURAKI PLAINS.

ON TO TURUA. j; i jjiE BOG AND THE FERRY. ! Fi CTS AXP FANCIES Or THE ROAD. (Brthe '><mV t-pn-inl noprwentative.) Tn obriatr. ilio nr.-os-ity for crossing iverybadpu.h »i t-t«c-n r«cre» an d furua. tl." .Ir«-i- <-i mj .-«r divided \ a try another i.n-1 longrr tn t'-„ WP v.-/ ..10112 iho Thames 0 { the name. STATELY EXILES. To'the Icfi I saw wfcm ?tnmr an fiu'ht— s>oaio;.hing 1 had not .Jen hiht iiMviii? Arrioa many rears a ; 0. On the rrW of.. Mr. WaHor, β^vhotlmn -u-r in. Hikiitniu. aJid. just jjonojiun thr rtwl, six stately ostriclios-thrcn r.uninoii grey* and three mn.snilii'cnt black?, with ulntp and prey trimmings. Here is some ftot-k lor our Auckland Zoo! WIDOW WHO WORKIED TIIKOCCU. Furilicr on to iho right there arc stacks of timber, ready, I wa* informed, for thr cuiirtru.-liuii of a bungalow which is to cost between £4.000 au.l fi.nmi. This is lo b<- built For Mrs. Corbett. who owns the lural hotel j —the only "wet" spot in an i\Ueusi\e . dry area. j And, I"! I forsret. nrreahoiit.' i- a : farm, well kept, which is rcnviikal'li- lor i the fact that no man work- upon it.j unless yon count n boy a man. The j former owner died in the iinforpcttuble epidemic, of 191S, leaving a widow and nine children, (ho rldesS of whom was hut thirteen or tc.iirtts.-ii year*. The wido"" wept, hut f-he worked :i* she wept. Pile shouldered the whole liunloii, with ■what'fraall the elde.-t children could £;ive her. and Mir battled bravely through. To-day Ai° is in a safe position. The children do the milking, and she doe? the .-epnniting. and n. fine ireiplit of cream jroe> daily lo the factory, whilst genres of calve? and pijrs arc continually beins raised on the separated milk. A TOWN WITH A NAME. Hiktitaia is the name of a l;usy ruva! township seven milμ from L'aeroa. It is a. name that lends itself to playful mispronunciations. .-pirits call it •■Shi'ck"-Htaia. fur the reason that it has t the only hotel in a -prohibited area that stretches all the way to YYaihi in one direction and to Tc Aroha in another. Jlany miners come all the way from ■\Vaihi on Saturday afternoons to wash the dust of the week's work from their throats here; and Taeroateans journey the seven miles from Paeroa for that irhich the doctor ordered, because there is this most peculiar anomaly about Paeroa; there is a brewery there in full work, but you can't buy a pint of beer in the town, and have to send your order to the Thames or Te Aroha. PLEASAXT RIVALRY. Leaving a fairly good road which bears cou?ideraLne tratnc ifor this is sale day at Uikutaiai, we roll with a bump into Thames County territory, on ttie W-harepoa Koad, wnich is everything that anybody ever called it—and profanity piled thereupon. The woFS-t stretch is when it reaches the river and runs along the bank to the ferry. Here cars became hopelessly bogged recently and had to be dragged out by horses. It was stated to mc as a solemn fact that the Thames Council declared that it would not repair this road because it was mostly used by Paeroa cart —another inetance of the pleasant rivalry I existing between the twu towns. For! many weeks this stretch remained a ' quagmire, and the unfortunate ferryman | at the river crossing "did a perisn' , j because no traffic could come his way. I All this while the Thames Council was arguing the point with the Hauraki Plains Council. Then out of the multitude of councillors there came wisdom and an "honourable agreement," whereby one council supplied the metal and the other filled the ruts. Xow the ferryman (who rents the punt and has to exist on what comes his way) has begun to put on flesh again, for cars and other vehicles come once more his way to cross the river. ' ■.-[# ■ i.g THE FERRY AND THE FERRYMAN. As we go down to this queer contraption, memory flashes back to boyhood's recital of -'Lord Ullens' Daughter.' , "Boatman, I'll gh-c theo a sliver crown to row mc o'er the ferry.'' As a matter ot fact this boatman charged tarec silver =uillitigs —one ana sixpence each way, a= by axed tarin, duiy prescribed and uilurccd by Lueai Autaority— and liuvil a sigut did wo see of Lord L'llcus' or anybody else's daugnter. "Motor-car and* driver, 1/; lor each passenger iid.' , I asked the lerryman what he would charge for motor-car only, supposing a car came rolling on to tUc punt ot it* own volition. He said he didn't know; he supposed he would have to charge 3d for \ olition—the same as any other pase «>ger. Aβ we roliea off the ferry he shouted out instructions for us to "tell everyone the road vaa all right now.' , WHEN IGXORAXCE IS BLI&S. Sow we strike the Turua Koad—or | the road strikes iiut tne car holds together, and we crawl along. One is amazed Here by the plethora (one might almost call it plague; ot pigs—"fathers, m °tiiers, sisters, brothers,' little pigs ana big pi gS) almost as plentiful as tiie rats enarmed out of HamJyu Town by tte i'leu p lper . _ U1 lhese mud fat. wallowing in natural lee <l. growing mighty of bulk in blissful ignorance cf the close" proximity of bacon lactones. Pigs never reach a ripe and honoured age hereabouts. They lend a iragrance to the breakfast table in early youth as soon as the unerring eye of the. breeder discerns them to be of profitable weight. A LITTLE CHEESE. Before reaching Turua, township, we «°me to the cheese factory of the >'ew "aland Dair ying Co., which was estab "Shed some seven yeans ago. Inspection reveals a modern'plant, which utilises n ?~ £ received from suppliers within a radius of tw o m iles and it-half to the number of 27. The output of cheese last J-earjwas r.on ton;, an increase of -10 tons OT «r the previous year. This season's supplies will br bigger. Thr. factory is Dow separating and forwarding 'the "earn to th< Xgatea factory for the making of butter. It- has not yet been decided whether the factory will make . ese again this reason or continue to ,u PPIy its cream to iTo be Continued.)