Otorohanga.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 341, 1 March 1911, Page 5

Otorohanga.

Tuesday. The Otorohanga Town Board is, at present, doing very little. Until the present financial year expires on March 31st, It doe's not intend to levy any rate, but will adjust its proportions due with the County at that time. Probably the new town rate will be struck in April, and then proposals be made for raising a small loan of a few hundred pounds, which will be used for installing the sanitary service, metalling the main road, and draining | some portions of the townshp. Ratepayers are up in arms at the receipt" of demand notes for rates from the Waitomo County. They object, at all events, to paying any rates for the period since the Order-in-Council was gazetted bringing the district under the Native Townships Act in September 1908. They seem to think the County has no authority to collect any rates after that date. The Town Board was established under the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act and much the same powers as a borough has, it is claimed. Otorohanga children's annual picnic takes place next Saturday, and again promises to be a gigantic affair, attracting all the settlers, their sisters and their cousins and their aunts, not to mention the children themselves, to the tune of five or six hundred. Given fine weather, and it will be a great day. The Otorohanga saleyards are now being constucted and are expected to be ready for use in about a month's time. They are situated on the Te Kuiti-Otorohanga road, a little out of the town, occupy about ten or eleven acres of land and will have sheep yards 100 ft sqaare and cattle yards 90 by 110 ft. The capital of the company has all been taken up—that is, out of 150 £F> shares half a dozen remain to be allotted. The company deserves to succeed. A petition to the Town Board is being extensively signed in the township with respect to the time of closing the afternoon mail, which goes via Te Kuiti. As things are the mail closes at 2.45 p.m., and the inward mail reaches the town at 0.20 p.m., giving no opportunity to reply to any urgent correspondence until the following clay. Ths petitioners ask that the afternoon mail shall close at 5 p.m., and the mail bag be forwarded to Te Kuiti by the 5.25 p.m. train. A day would then be saved in dealing with correspondence. ! The recent dry weather has brought i down the milk production in almost | all dairying districts, but the Kio | Kio creamery has not suffered as ! badly as most places. Even now the j creamery is receiving 700 gallons of milk daily, which illustrates the I quality of the country being used. j Buyers of town sections in Otoroi hanga must have burned their fingers | at the sales of leaseholds some time I ago. Quarter-acre sections, not on i the business streets, were pointed out ! to me as bearing an annual rental of { £i) and £lO and other equally absurd j sums have been paid in the past for I other areas in the township. Another : sale is said to be about to be held at ■ an early date and it is to be trusted I experience will "do it," to parody the I latin tag. There is no better way of holding a town back than to rush the rentals of leaseholds to high figures.