KIWITEA JOTTINGS.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 9, 15 July 1882, Page 2

KIWITEA JOTTINGS.

(FROM OUK OWN CORUESPOXDEXT) Mr Duncan Mcßclh, of Kiwitea, has let 100 acres of bush to be felled, which will soon be completed. The contractor Mr H. Haynes, is doing it in a workmanlike manner. The green linnets here are very numerous, and I find that when they have devoured all the thistle. seed, they take grass-seed, or grain of any kind. The early autumn sowing proves to be the safest. Messrs Heald, Bros, have completed the erection of li. Mcßefch's house iv Kiwitea, which throughout is finished in a workmanlike manner, and does them great credit. The weather has been very mild so far. The grass is plentiful, and stock of all kinds are looking remarkably well. The stock are vow grazing on what was sown last April. Mr Rowles has purchased a section of land from Neil Sorrenson, on Kimbolton lioad, Kiwitea. The roads here are in a very bad state. For some time we have been paying a very lorge amount of rates, which have been all spent on roads leading to the Otamakapua Block, and still the roads are impassable. It would be a great boon to the settlers of this district if the Government would only give us some assistance. It would mean the opening of a large block of Crown Lands, as there are no less than four roads running through the Kiwitea to the Otamakapua Block, which are now in the hands of the Government. A matter that sadly needs rectifying in this district is the valuation of properties. Many sections that are out of the way and no roads, are valued at £3 and £4 per acre, while others on a good metalled road, at about half that amount; and further, many of the struggling settlers who are striving to keep their heads above water, pay their rates, while others who are well able to pay are allowed to go unpaid. However, we are about to have a Board of our own, when, I hope, there will be a change for the better. Absentees in anew district like Kiwitea are a great drawback to its advancement and progress. They do not fence, nor fall their bush, nor improve their property in any way. Therefore their Kites are hardly worth collecting. It is a pity there is no law to compel them to do something with their property.