WAIKATO DISTRICT NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6089, 24 May 1881, Page 3

WAIKATO DISTRICT NEWS.

[FBOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.] Hamilt6n, Monday. The great event here is the calico masquerade ball, to come on to-morrow evening. Some four hundred invitations have been issued, and it is reputed there will be fully one hundred and fifty people present, and as everybody is expected to appear in fancy costume, the affair will be quite a novelty in Waikato. Both music and supper have been provided from Auckland. Considerable dissatisfaction has been given by the manner in which the invitations have been issued. Very many who had every right to expect invitations have been passed over. What the contractors on swamp works in the Waitoa and Piako districts will do tor the next twelve months with the scarcity of labour at present existing in the district is hard to tell. Already they are freely offering Ss Cd per day for an eighthours clay's work, and cannot get nearly enough. Indeed a hundred good men could readily get work at the present moment in the swamp drainage operations now going on, and which will be be continued all through the winter and spring. Those who have short time contracts are heavily pushed, as, for instance, Mr. Isaac Coates, in a contract just taken up where he has to throw out 44,000 cubic yards from drains, and form roads alongside with the material, within the space of three months. There certainly need be no complaints in Auckland of want of work when such wages arc offered, but the men must work. Two men, James Steward and J. Fitzpatriek, a'ia-i Kelly, were fined 5s each for drunkenness, at the Police Court on Saturday. Ngaiiinipouei, Monday. There is little or no news in this or the neighbouring Tuliikaramea districts, but it is hoped that the opening of the To Rore and Whatawhata bridges will have a beneficial effect upon the whole of the Waipa river district, in time bringing new settlers, and thus causing the opening of roads and giving facilities for transit to a market which settlers at present do not possess. The land hereabouts is much of it superior to anything else in Waikato, but the difficulty and consequent expense of getting produce to market, I except by those living immediately on the the river, causes little produce to be grown. To show, however, what wo can do. Mr. Windsor, who lately bought Mr. R. Drabble's farm, has sent to Hamilton, to the toll collector's house at the bridge, some greentop Aberdeen turnips, which cannot, I think, be beaten. They are a fair sample of the whole crop, and, had the season even been suitable for turnips, would have been remarkable. They measnre 42 inches in circumference ; but when the crop was sown and Jiow treated Mr. Windsor does not know, as they were sown by the former proprietor. [BY TELEGRAM. —OWN CORRESPONDENTS.] Hamilton, Monday. About 50 head of cattle were yarded at Mr. J. S. Buckland's, Whatawhata sale, but realised low prices. The attendance was small. Cambridge, Monday. The following address and a purse of sovereigns were presented to Mr. Alfred J. Evans by Messrs. J. P. Thompson and Robert Fisher, in the name of the Trinity Church congregation, as organist, in recognition of his services :—"Cambridge, May, ISSI. Dear Sir, —The members of Trinity Presbyterian Church take this opportunity offered by your marriage of testifying our respect and esteem, and request your acceptance of this purse of sovereigns.—We are, yours faithfully, Jas. P. Thompson, Rodeut Fisiikk, on behalf of the subscribers. To Mr. All'rcc J. Evans." Oilutpo, Monday. At Mr. W. J. Hunter's sale, dairy cows realised £ti to £S 7s Gd ; weaned cows, £1 17s (id to £2.3s ; yearlings, £2 10s to £',i 2s Ud ; two-year-old steers, £4 to £U 15s ; fat cows, £5 us to £0 10s ; store wethers, 9s Gd ; fat wethers, l"2s Gd. After the sale a sura of £10 was subscribed by those present on behalf of Mr. Fohert, whose house was burned down shortly before the sale commenced.