Hastings.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 6376, 11 February 1892, Page 2

Hastings.

(own coheespondent.)

Borne of your readers having questioned the correctness of Ihe amount of imnort duty upon potato farina, I have made further enquiries, and find that I waß within the mark instead of exceeding it Ihe correct figures are—Sydney, £9 6s 8d per ton ; Melbourne, £18 13s 4d per ton So that those ports are very effectually blocked for the article. What will most come home to the potato grower is that a duty of 10s per ton will be charged upon even the potatoes. lam aware that these duties are not actually m force yet, but they may be by, 1 suppose, an Order-in-Council. Under these circumstances, it would be out of tha question to take tho risk of sending it The hop season, such as it is, will com mence iv about a fortnight. It w iH n T however, bo of the local importance that it has hitherto been, as only about half the quantity ,s in cultivation. About eleven and a half acres is all that has been grown this year. However, what there is is looking well, the recent rain being of ere it service to the late varieties. _ "•■"■-<. Failing finding an English market where the entrance is free, aud being shut out by prohibitive duties in the colonies, there is still a hope for the potato manufacture A further stage of manufacture transform's the farina into what is called dextine, of much greater commercial value than the farina It is a good cement and is taking the place of paste in saddlers' and shoemake-_• work But more important, it is used for" postage stamps which, of course, absorbs a We quantity. lam indebted to Mr Tvernm™ for these facts, and I hope that thSSS he has taken m the matter will be repaid to him by the success of the local industry The Rev. Mr Morrison, in his address at the annual meeting, used a trite observation and a good simile. He said that the duties of a clergyman were always lightened by his people being in accord with him, and the knowledge th*this congregation was in sympathy with him was always a stimulus to his exertions. The work,of a m™ er he said, was quite different in this from any other If a man had to dig a ditch and his friends liked to sympathize with him well and good; but if they didn't tho difei, would be dug all the same. ' S dltch The election of a Native Assessor for the licensing district of Patea is not usuallvof very exciting interest to Europeans" at Hastings. Ihis time, however, a sort of interest is attached to it, from the proceedings of tho Heretaunga Licensing Court at the two last annual meetings, "and which a leader in the Da_,t tS? Guam The point that the Court deemed unanimously waß that £ would be for the interests of the public and ho settlers to grant a license for an hotel at Moawhango, and that to do so would be the lesser of two evils. The Native Assessor has not merely his own vote, but an absolute veto. After a day's proceedings, in which the case has been v/ 8 1l lifted by both the lawyers and witness, the Maori Assessor who has perhaps been sitting quite silent all day simply says " No ,-- an § " is that it will be contested, one of the candidates being m favor of granting the license Anomalous as it may eeem, ma ° y a man ££ owed his rum to living in unlicensed district, me word is passed that a jar of whiskey will arrive on a certain occasion - observe too, that there is no breach of the aw in this, for the jar has been paid for at the Spit by money previously subscribed and there is no sale. Then after work tha meeting place in some shed or other and instead of being compelled to go home at 10 o clock, the entertainment lasts tillTir into the morning. Guess the result It is well for the peace of tbe committee that the mghtwatchman business is __H„T Mr Dickens said he was applications for situations and help to be forwarded to the real Bro. Cherryble (who_ existence he had admitted) that if he had the patronageof a Lord Chancellor he could not have eat i_ed them. So the, committee have been pestered and worried to the limif or their patience. As to the Mayor, he was buttonholed at every street corner, and came very near having his urbanity, which is a fixed quantity with him, disturbed I think it may, however, do as a general hint to candidates for office that the more they bother committees in these matters tha fewer votes they will get. I am glad to see that our MH R (Captain Russell) has nearly recovered from his accident, and is able to get about, but it will be some time before the doctors will allow him to throw away his friends, the crutches. » " 10

at _ rßntti'ii s, ot almost every variety from bouncing great apples (dear to the Maori mind) to passion frnit id filberts It is mteresiing, if only in showing tho resources of the district for tho production