WHAREROA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 June 1924, Page 8

WHAREROA.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Mr. and Mrs. H. Benton 'and family,, who have been resident here for some five or six years, are leaving nest week for the Bell Block district, where Mr. Benton goes to manage a. farm for a prominent settler. Mr. Benton is a model farmer, and the North Taranaki man is lucky to secure his services. He was always willing to assist his neighbours by advice and practical help, and he will be much missed from this district. Mrs. Benton had been teaching at the Hurley ville School, and the Hurleyville people are organising a social to .farewell her, which.speaks sufficiently for her popularity in that quarter. She has also, for a considerable tiiqp, been our local correspondent to your excellent publication, and her mantle falls on my unworthy shoulders. Other families leaving here this winter are the Burtons and Partridges, who are seeking fresh fields and pastures new, the latter in the Okaiawa district. Both have proved themselves obliging and sociable, and each will leave a circle of friends .behind. The farm worked by the former is being taken over by the Messrs Hicks Bros., and the latter holding is shortly to> have another tenant.

Mention of the bittern (matnku) in a recent issue of the Star, reminds me that a pair of these interesting birds were seen on various occasions in a swamp at Waokina (off the Manawapou Road) last winter, and for aright I know, are still in residence there. Tire bittern is fairly common in some parts of the South Island (although rare here), and the stream that ran through the property whereon the writer lived as a. child was called Wai-Matuku (river of the bittern). A good many local farmers are at present busy (between intervals of drenching showers) in top-dressing their paddocks with various kinds of plrosphatic manures. It is now' a recognised fact that not even the richest land can long maintain its fertility under dairying conditions without frequent applications of fertiliser to the pastures. The' variety of manure required is a point of much divergence of opinion among dairymen, hut superphosphate, basic super and basic islag, with occasional additions to each according to the composition of the soil, appear to be most in favour. Various proprietary mixtures appear to be well patronised, and a large truck of a welladvertised top-dressing reached here the other day to the order of several neighbours.

The movement in favour of a local school appears to have quietened down of late, and classes are still being conducted in the local, social hall. The Taranaki Education Board notified a local farmer some time ago that they would require three acres from his holding whereon to erect a school, hut since then nothing further appears to have been done in the matter. A somewhat- exciting football match eventuated here this (Wednesday) afternoon between Hawera and Whareroa hut you will probably already have had particulars of the fixture. Quite a crowd gathers witness these contests, and the local boys never lack ban-ackers. Unfortunately they do not practice l so frequently as do town teams, consequently them efficiency 'is thereby lessened. The< games are p ayed on a level flat at the junction of the miareroa,. and Manawapou Roads, and the surface of the ground is hardly as level as that of a bowling green An interesting object at yesterday’s match was the presence of a pet opossum, which, was brought along by little Noaline Death, and was regarded as the mascot of the Whareroa team these marsupials are now fairly common m the Ararata district. A paragraph in a recent issue of the fetar recods the early arrival of a lamb m the Tangitu district. So far as I am aware none have yet appeared in this locality, and, as a matter of fact there is only one sheep farm: of anv extent on this road, the cow being dominant everywhere. Mary saw a little lamb, She tied it with a string * Biit soon she said a great big dam Had claimed the little thing!