Omahu District.

Hastings Standard, Issue 94, 14 August 1896, Page 2

Omahu District.

[Feom Gur Own Correspondent.]

Omahu, August 18

We are now experiencing a decided change in the weather —sharp, clear, and frosty nights, with beautiful, warm, sunny days—a decided improvement for the better. If it only lasts for a short time longer, we will be able to get about again with dry feet without the aid of shooting boots or canoes.

Young lambs are now very much in evidence out this way, and with the present fine weather and the abatement of the canine curse, they should do very well, as feed is plentiful. Shepherds vie one with another for the largest percentage of lambs on their different runs, and as we are all more or less pastorally inclined let us hope for a good lambing. I am sorry to have to chronicle the bad news of so many men out of employment. Without one seeing the many poor fellows swagging it round the country, it would be hard to credit the number that are doing so. Let us hope that the times, like the weather has done, may change for the better. " Humping the bluey" is a heartbreaking game. I speak from experience.

Whilst on the subject of hard times, if one reads the accounts of the meetings of the Charitable Aid, Board published in the different papers there must truly be a lot of destitution amongst us. Our fellow creatures swagging it from place to place on the plea of looking for work, know full well that asking for it at this time of the year is merely a farce, and that they have as much chance of getting it as they have of reaching the " North Pole "by balloon. But it is the correct thing to first ask for work and then for something to keep soul and body together. If the number of poor fellows that are supplied with rations by the station owners got the rations from the Charitable Aid Board I am thinking the Board would be put to its wits end to find them. Now the same matter perplexes the stationowner as does the Charitable Aid Board, and that is to sift the deserving needy from the otherwise. There are any amount of " sundowners " in this very district who would sooner put their hand in the fire than work. Although they ask for it in pleading tones, if by chance some of them should obtain it, they clear in the morning without their breakfast sooner than work. Who can blame a station-owner for refusing to give food and shelter to travellers after being served thus repeatedly ? I consider that it would be almost as hard to refuse to give a fellow-creature a little food when asked for as it would be to the asker to be refused ; but, again, I say holders of small runs cannot afford to feed all the needy that are now about, or they would themselves be very shortly in the same predicament. Let us* hope that if the cloud does not roll by before the next general election it will after. It gives me great pleasure and makes me feel inches taller when I find anything that I may have previously written on behalf of my fellow-men animadverted favorably upon in the Napier Evening News. Much as I may differ from that journal on one point—that is " politically," I fearlessly say that the News in my opinion which may be taken for what it is worth —is head and shoulders above the other journals published in the city of the travelling shingle in its outspoken advocacy on behalf of the " horny handed sons of toil," of which, I am proud, to say I am a direct representative, being descended from " toilers " since Adam was a boy.

The much-talked and written-about question, the Wednesday half-holiday, has its bitter as well as its sweet side, as I think the following will plainly show. A short time back a messenger was despatched from the vicinity of Wai Ronini to Hastings, close upon 40 miles, to see a medical man and to take back a prescription for a . suffering sick child. Arriving in Hastings a little after 1 o'clock he saw the doctor and got the prescription. He then went to the chemist to which he was directed, but found the place closed. He tried the other establishment, only to find it also closed, and had to wait patiently until half-past 7 o'clock at night. We can well imagine his feelings during the time he was waiting, knowing how the little mite at home was suffering. Having got the desired medicine, he proceeded back as quickly as possible, and arrived, after a long, cold, and dreary ride, to find a distracted father and a heart-broken mother weeping over the lifeless remains of their firstborn child. Let us hope that accident, sickness, and death will take a Wednesday half-holiday for the future. The newly-started mail-cart from your city confers a great boon on the residents out this way, as we now get our paper on the day of publication. I hope the enterprise of our fellowtownsman, Mr Joe Wells, the wellknown blacksmith, may be thoroughly appreciated, and that plenty of parcels and passengers may crown with success his new venture. It is men such as he that are wanted in every new community. It is to be hoped that he will shortly be subsidised by the Government.

I see by news imparted that you have " A. Tramp, Esq.," in your city. By all that is good and holy keep him there; do not by any means let him slip out of your fingers and come this way. We have hundreds here. It gave me great pleasure the day to see one of your most astute and energetic business men out here. I allude to Mr Thompson, general draper and outfitter, who was combining pleasure with business, having a pleasant outing on a pleasant day, and at the same time having his eye open for a business site and to secure shares in the newly-formed Willow-bank Company, limited. Advaaw Feruhili!