NOTES FROM THE BUSH.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1699, 11 August 1887, Page 2

NOTES FROM THE BUSH.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The long political effusions which appear in your columns under the heading or correspondence are beginning to get somewhat tiresome, and. were elections of more frequent occurrence, would, I believe, have to be excluded. 2s o doubt, in the eyes of those who write them these compositions are very interesting, but once people decide how they are going to vote they become uninteresting. The fine autumn which we had kept the grass growing well into the winter ; in fact, with the exception of a week or two in July, it has never stopped, and just now iv gardens or wherever the cattle cannot get at it the Italian rye is growing very fast.

Prairie grass is now.the favorite grass, and a great many are anxious to get clean seed to sow. If anyone could have foreseen this a year or two ago and had a paddock to save for seed, they might make a nice little profit out of it" Italian rye was once thought as muck of. but is now almost altogether discarded. The prairie is, I think, by far the better of the two but no doubt in time it will be neglected to make room for something fresh.

The pig-killing has had the desired effect ou the Maori, and since my last nearly half a mile of pig-proof fence has been erected at Mawhitiwbiti, and more is in course of construction. No persuasion would have induced them to fence ; but when they see their property being destroyed wholesale, and know that the Jaw won't help them, they suddenly become very industrious. Another plague is their dogs, for no one on horseback can pass but he has a pack of mangey mongrels barking afier him. The dog-tax collector is wanted here, and it would be all the better if it were part of his duty to destroy all unregistered dogs.

The concert and dance held at Te Roli school acted as a stimuulus to more ot the same sort, and nearly every week sinoe parties ot the same sort are held at the houses of some of the settlers. An evening is fixed upon and a few of the young ladies with their •' mashers " — for the bush is not without the latter cotuiodinty — nssemMe Bnd to the strain of the violin, handlod by tbe local fiddler, they amuse themselves for a few hours. Bush life i« generally looked upon as drenrv and monotonous, and in many cases it is. but when people choose to agree and not to let trifles disturb them, it will be found not altogether iuundurable. Cattle trespassing is nearly always the cause of quarrels among farming people. A bull perhaps is of an inquiring turn of mind and in anxious to explore some of the neighboring farms, or a pig suddenly takes a lively interest in some neighbors kitchen garden ; either of thesn will be sufficient to put the owners on bad terms with several of those about him.

Several of your subscribers, who have their papers dropped by the guard at the Ha? stations, complain of having them stolen. Should tire the thieves be detected, and it is to be hoped they will, they will certainly have to make their appearance before a Hawera J.P.

Lambs began to put in their appearance during last month among Mr. Buckthought's sheep at Te Iloti, but whether it was unusually early or not I am unable to say, but the mortality has been very Kreac among them.

Your correspondent's hint about using kerosene in washing has been tried by several, and generally with Buccess. One bathelor, anxions to give the experiment a fair trial, put halt a pint of kerosene into the boiler, which boiled over, and he was amazed to see the whole concern enveloped in flames. August 9.