WAIKATO DISTRICT NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6212, 14 October 1881, Page 3

WAIKATO DISTRICT NEWS.

Tfkom or/a own correspondents.] Hamilton, Thursday. Mr. Lavees, the contractor, started work yesterday on the new Wesleyan church here. The ceremony of laying the foundation-stone will take place shortly. A meeting of the Tamahere Highway Board was held yesterday. Present: The chairman (Captain Kunciman), and Messrs. Barugh, Wheeller, and Ormerod. Authority was given to proceed with several small works by day labour on the various roads in the district, which were not worth letting contracts for. An application was received from the proprietors ot the Mail for a share of the Board's advertisements.

The demand for labour this spriug and summer is likely to be greater than the supply, as, in addition to a much larger area of land being brought under cultivation, very extensive swamp reclamation works are in progress in the neighbouring districts of Piako, Waitoa, and Te Aroha, and others are in contemplation for an early start. One contractor was complaining yesterday that he could not procure a sufficiency of men at 8s 6d per day.

Tasiahere, Thursday. The natives at the Tawhere settlement here are anxious to get the tenure of their lands, which have been made inalienable, altered so that, instead of holding in common, each may have his own lot, either to hold or sell.

Members of the Cambridge Highway Board met Mr. Rhodes, as the delegate of the Tamahere Board, by appointment on Monday, but they would come to no arrangement for joint action in the repairs, either of the boundary road or tramway road. The local Board has determined to under' take several useful and much-needed work at once. Having made a tour of the dis] trict, they find that none of these can profitably be let by contract, and will therefore have them done by the surface men. The approaches to the Mangaharahiki bridge, near Tinne's, will be cut down; a culvert will be put in, where it is much needed, near the Newstead Gate, another at Hausford'e, and a third near Tinne's, on the central road.

Cimbridge, Thursday. Neither Mr. Wells nor Mr. ft. Kirkwood intend coming forward for re-election to the Waikato County Council. The Town Districts Act will come into force on the Ist of January next, and Cambridge will cease to be an integral part of the Waikato County. Of the £2000 grant for the Cambridge-Tauranga-road, ±1000, it is stated, will be handed over to the Piako County Council for expenditure, the other £]000 to the Tauranga County.

Mr. A. A. Fantham has determined to sell out, and offers his farm of Gwynnelands, some 700 acres, in one lot. If not sold by the end of the year, it will be cut up and sold in sections of from 5 to 100 acres.

It is proposed to make considerable improvements to the Public aud Volunteer-hall here, chiefly in the erection of a gallery, to seat some eighty or ninety people, the extension of the stage, aud addition of side-rooms as supper aiid dressing-rooms. A meeting of the Hall Committee is called for Monday next.

Waitoa, Thursday. There is some talk here of establishing an agricultural society or farmers' club, and a library, and it only needs to be actively taken in hand by one or two to receive a cordial support from the settlers generally. Air. Bernard Coleman has made a start on the Te Aroha drainage contract—having; completed the swamp portion of the Morrinsville section of the Waikato-Thames Railway for Mr. Lovell, the contractor, who has been fortunate enough to find a quarry of good building stone, adjacent to the site of the larger culvert, near the township, which will be built with the stone thus procured. Ngaruawahia, Thursday. Matters political are beginning to excite considerable attention, and there is already a third member in the field for Waipa, Mr. E. G. MeMinn, a former representative, and some talk of a fourth, an Auckland man of some political calibre who will gather up the scattered members of the Grey party who are far more numerous in the electorate than many suppose.

Amxaxdra, Thursday. The natives are very busy ploughing and planting on the banks of the Waipa, near this settlement. Tawhiao says he intends to have fully 150 acres planted this, spring, and has secured a 50-acre section from Mr. Finch, at the Mangapiko bridge, which is to be planted in potatoes also. The utmost friendliness towards the Europeans is manifested, and the King ami his followers seem determined, having thrown aside their former state of isolation, to work cordially with the settlers for the common good. At the Mangutika creek there is abundance of valuable road metal, but hitherto it has been looked up from use, the natives refusing to allow a road to be made. Tawliino is now anxious for the road to be surveyed and made.