KAUPOKONUI.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1535, 26 January 1887, Page 2

KAUPOKONUI.

- ♦ - „ (prom our own correspondent.) For nearly. six weeks ; have we enjoyed fine weather with only one or two, slight showers, hardly' worth mentioning. Warm weather almost roasting those unfortunates whose lot it was to be out in clearings ; housewives mourned over their butter not keeping ; fresh^meat.was at a premium), and most mortals working under the rays of the noonday sun presented a parboiled appearance. The fine weatber departed- but only for an hour or co on Tuesday last and we experienced fair weather until yesterday, while a similar thunderstorm to the one on Tuesday passed over tbe district near Egmont. Settlers are busy with grass seed saving at present. Harvesting operations have progressed favorably this season, and if the weather would not play false for a week or so more settlers will be, finished. Those who have grass 6eed 'for sale are wondering anxiously what tbe price is to be. Farmers and agents ate not;, particularly free in offering a. figure, but the next week or two may prove what amount of seed the district produces, and give buyers an idea how to offer. Some say that cocksfoot will be- 2£d per lb otheii 3£d — I should think that tbe latter price will be nearest tbe figure — that is for a good sample of clean seed. The potatoe crop throughout the the bush is to be a failure from present aspects, this year. Many said that' tbe tubers would send out new shoots, but it does not seem that such is to be tbe case. Labourers have been scarce in the bush this season. Maori laborers liave done a lot of harvesting this year, and from what I have seen of their work it compares very favorably with that" of their fairer brethern. Tbe natives charged 103 per acre for cutting seed alone, and they found lots of work at that figure. Pakehas have received high wages at harvesting, for I have heard of as high as Is per hour having been paid, and the men found in food besides. But bush harvests are not like tne open, for up here tbe harvests do not last more than three, weeks or so and the laborers " golden egg "is broken. The Eaupokonui School Committee have already had a space cleared of logs and stumps, preparatory to the erection of the school. It was generally thought that the school would have been on the corner of Hastings and Skeet roads, but it is to be a little above Skeet road. This slight snub to settlers having children on the east and west side of tbe Hastings road is, trivial though .it may be, spoken of in strong terms. We have not worked very happily as regards our educational affairs so far ; yet it is to be hoped that it is not always to be so. The Hunter road, from Neill to tbe Eltham road, was stumped a long time ago, but tbe creeks on tbe road did not have culverts put in. As the road is at present it is of no practical use to settlers, and now as tbe winter will soon be at hand, those to whom the opening of the road would be a benefit are inquiring about tbe culverts. It seems a mistake that so much money should have been spent on this road, and then left in an unfinished state, neither use nor ornament. Those who burnt their fallen bush in the latter end of December are repenting, and those who fired in tbe middle of January, rejoicing. I have seen some really grandly burned clearings since my last, hardiy anything left but tbe stumps — that's the burn to gladden the heart of a bush-farmer. Unfortunately there' are a few cases of those who finished felling in December and January, who have not burnt off yet. However, there is lots of room yet for a good burn, as we haven't reached the supposed (at one time) burning month — March. The other day I read in a Dunedin paper a table of the prices of produce in the above city for the last year. In fresh butter I found tbe price was : first quarter, 9d to lOd ; second quarter, lOd to Is Id; third quarter, lid to Is 2d; fourth quarter, 8d to Is. Good salt butter averaged over 8d all tbe year round. So things don't look so "glum " for the small cockatoo down southtimes are not so bad for the butter makers as they are up here. What a mania we have for sending butter to Sydney in Taranaki. It seems .that everyone churns butter special \y- for tbe Sydney markets, and too often tbe unfortunate shipper loses a large sum by sending produce to an overstocked market; yet he continues with a persistency which becomes monotonous, always hoping " that things will mend." From late accounts from Sydney there bas not been princely prices ranging for produce such as Taranaki exports, and its about time a market r was found (there's tbe rub) where a standard price could be obtained, and not to. depend on a fluctuating market which at one moment is below zero, and the next above boiling point. - ; The snow is fast disappearing from the top of "our rise," yet I have not beard of many enthusiastic mountaineers making tbe ascent, but I believe March is tbe time when mountain climbers set forth "on pleasure" — to wear out good boots and* clothes, and return borne scratched, bleeding, with a general feeling as if they bad been put through a thrashing machine; and then when they have sufficiently recovered they tell their friends, with a great amount of gusto, what, a -joyous time they had — glorious indeed — how invigorated they feel, and tbe exciting adventures, and hair-breath escapes. But it is all too thin. Most inexperienced climbers have a sort of feeling come over them when they reach the summit like unto this — when I get to tbe bottom I shant come up again — and it is these worthies who relate their experiences in tbe terms I have written above.