WAIUKU. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3119, 16 July 1867, Page 3

WAIUKU. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

July 13. I have to reoord the occurrence to-day of two sad accidents. Early this morning a lad, of about (fifteen years of age, a box* of one of our moßt esteemed settle™, Mr. Charles Barriball, went out with a double-barrelled gun to shoot pheasant*, xt is presumed, on his father's farm. Owing to some mismanagement he shortly after returned home witl» his hand shattered— one finger hanging by the skin only. Unfortunately both our medical men — Messrs, Pattie and Topp— are absent, so that he could not get surgical assistance. Dr. Pattie, I hear, is gone to Awhitu, to set the broken leg of a man named, John Jones— one of Mr. MoTier's workmen. Later in the day, the whare of one of the most thriving settlers in the Whiriwhiri Block was burnt to the ground. The father and mother — Mr. and Mrs. White— were absent in Waiuku, and I suppose the children must have occasioned {the fire. Great sympathy is expressed for their loss. I hea? that the whole of their effects are destroyed. I, in common with many others in this neighbour* hood, have noticed the recent correspondence is your journal relative to cats and hawks versus rats and mice. Of coarse we are all very anxious to get rid of whatever pest 3 consume our produce, but I think those who advocate the preservation of hawks cannot have thought much about the matter. One of our settlers the other day made this very pertinent remark on the subject :—" If it were not for the hawks, our fowls, turkeys, and ducks would go into the middle of our paddocks and find sufficient food for their support, thereby destroying innumerable insects and insect lary», while now they are afraid to venture more than a chain or two from cover." I have also heard it repeated several times that the remains of pheasants have often been lately found in the fern, I hear that the recent feathered arrival, tho blight bird (Zosterops dorsalis), is to be seen in all parts of the district, and at present is 3 great fatourite.