ALEXANDRA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4271, 22 July 1875, Page 3

ALEXANDRA.

[from an occasional correspondent.] Winter, and Rise of the River.—Steamers.— lnflux of Natlvei with Produce.—The King Abandoned T« Kulti, and Residing near Kopua.—Gale—Pnbllc Hall Blown Down.— Roads and Highway Boards.— Educitlon Tax ; its Unpopularity, and the Position of a Collector, &c, &c. This ia a time of the year when things wear a cheerless aspect, in business as well as in the face of nature. Glancing the eye over Alexandra, everything wears a quiet if not an almost inanimate appearance. Wintry raina have raised the river, and has enabled the W. S. N. Company to send up either one or the other of their steamboats, commanded by very civil captains, one of which, for such benignity, ia the well-known Mr. Sellum, who ia a real sailor tar at his post. Inland natives have paid, and are paying us brisk visits canoe-wise, bearing with them cereals and produce of different kinds. Their royal master now dwells near Kopua, in juxtaposition to the main track to Kawhia, having abandoned the mountain recesses of Te Kuiti. The causes which occasioned him to forsak9 the famous head village of latter years, I will supply you in a future letter; suffice it to say for the present, that there is in it a kinship between itandthe Shakespearian verse, which says, Uneasy his the head that woars a crown, though his Kingly person's may be only of hawk's feathers. The terrific gale which passed over Alexandra, and levelled the public hall which was in course of construction and near completion was a disastrous misfortune for Alexandra ; as much trouble had been experienced in founding it, and at the same time frustrating the delectable and buoyant anticipations of the lovers of the terpsichorean art, who, wero to have been gratified, I believe, with tho indulgences of that fascination, on tho advent of the completion of the building. It is to be re-erected, it is hoped with more consummate success. Tho rainy season has made the roads very bad indeed. On the main road leading from Alexandra to Whatawhata, on the west side of the Waipa, tho transit has been raudered impassable by the recent floods, the bridges which were erected on tho creeks of that road having decayed and fallen down a few years back, and have ever since remained so. Tho Highway Board in charge of tho road is chargeable with negligence, if not with j lethargy, either in not erecting tho bridges, or petitioning the Government to do so, and this is in a district taxed with a rate. Tho Education tax—or as he is designated—pollgatherer, is now paying his unpopular visits, and extracting the demands of the universally abhorred tax. His position is certainly an unenviable one, he being subjected to tho taunts and insults of the rated. Often, when demurring payants are asked for their rate they burst into furious invectivea with an inclination to assume pugilistic attitudes. Another silently biting his lips, revolves in his mind the injustico of the tax, then steadfastly looks into tho collector's face, and exclaims with suppressed angry emotion, that he sees there a discernible defect, which renders tho whole thing deformed, — then sullenly pays the rate The unpopularity of this tax has served much to alienate many from the ranks of Povincialists and to fly to an "undiscovered country," regardless of consequences at tho "bourne" from whence "no traveller returns." However, the advent of Sir George Grey's re-appearance is hailed as an omen of a good patriotic tide, and the forerunner of independence and prosperity to this province. Vogelians of courso gnaw at the barrier likely to be raised against their eagle schemes.