WAIKATO DISTRICT NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6213, 15 October 1881, Page 5

WAIKATO DISTRICT NEWS.

[from odr own correspondents..] Hamilton, Friday. The adjourned meeting of the Waikato County Council was held yesterday. Present : The chairman, Captain Steele, and Messrs. Wells, Cumraing, Henry, ivirkwood, Fergusson, and Primrose. A letter from the Colonial Secretary was read, stating that the police, when called upon, would assist local bodies in enforcing the provisions of the Dog Registration Act. On the motion of Messrs. Fergusson and Kirkwoord, notice of this was ordered to be furnished to the sub-registrar, at Cambridge, and a list of registered dogs forwarded to him by the clerk. Mr. Searancke's resignation as returning officer was accepted, and the clerk, Captain McPherson, was appointed in his stead. A letter from Mr. Wright, of Taupiri, stating that he would have put in a tender for the cattle pens, as erected at Huntly, for £40. Mr. Henry said that the pens, as put up by the railway authorities, were inferior to those at other sections on the line. There was no outer yard, and there were other deficiencies. Mr. Wills thought that, as the Council had advanced a sum of £55 for the erection of these cattle pens, the railway authorities should be asked to refund the balance of £15, and the clerk was instructed to communicate with the general manager. The petition of the Waierangi settlers was formally considered. A sum of £450 was ordered to be spent in building a new bridge over the Karapiro Creek. On the motion of Mr. Fergnsson, it was resolved to urge on the notice of the Government the necessity of making a working plan at once of the proposed Hamilton and Cambridge railway line. The returns of the Cambridge butchers for the past year were ordered to be advertised, and to be advertised quarterly for the future. In reply to an application from the proprietors of the Mail, it was ordered that all matters relating to the Cambridge end of the county should be advertised in the Waikato Mail; those haying reference to the central portion appear in the Waikato Times ; those in the Rangiriri out-district in the Weekly Nkws.

The public meeting in connection with the Home Mission of the Wesleyan Church, held last night in the church building here, was well attended. Mr. James Gribble occupied the chair. The Rev. G. Bond and other ministers aud friends addressed the audience, and the proceedings were further rendered attractive by some very nicely executed pieces by the church choir. Notice was received by the sergeant of police yesterday that a lunatic, named Kate Kavanagh, recently discharged from the asylum, was on the down train, in care of Constable Tanner, who happened to be travelling back to Waikato, charged with travelling without a railway ticket. The unfortunate woman, who had twice before been an inmate of the asylum, was committed there from Hamilton about three months ago. When applied to by the guard for her ticket, no answer but a vacant grin could be obtained, and but for Constable Tanner being present, and recognising her, the railway officials would scarcely have known how to deal with the case. Her mania is to return to Waikato, to a settler's house where she has lived as a servant, and on her last appearance in Waikato, she walked a long distance, got into the house through a window, at night, and was found asleep next morning and refused to leave, and had to be given in charge. She stated to Sergeant McGovcrn that she had no money, but ou searching a bag she had with her, a. £1 note was found, which discovery she met with an imbecile laugh. She was brought up at the Police Court this morning, and her fare having been ordered to be paid out of the £, she was remanded until Saturday, on the charge of being of unsound mind. It seoms strange, as the Court remarked, that a person in her obviously unsound state of mind should have been discharged from the Asylum, putting the police to considerable trouble mil the colony to unnecessary expense in repeated medical examinations and travelling expenses.

Waitoa, Friday. A very serious accident occurred here to Mr. Booth, late of the contractors' firm of Livingtonc and Booth. Mr. Livingstone has No. '2 swamp drainage contract on the Auckland Association's Waitoa Swamp property, and, being shorthauded, obtained the assistance of his late partner, now a Hamilton settler, to "boss" a gang of 15 men working up a main drain where there is a large quantity of underground timber. A large quantity of dynamite is used in bursting up these roots aud logs, aud about 11 a.m. yesterday Mr. Booth was fixing a dynamite cap on to the fuse—about the thirtieth he had tired that morning—when the cap exploded, bursting up the flesh of the thumb and forefinger of the right baud. Mr. Breakell's trap was at the camp, and Mr. Booth was at once driven into Hamilton, where the wounds were dressed by Mr. R. F. Sandes.

Hun.tly, Friday. There is to be a second polling-place for the Rangiriri outlying district at the next County Council elections, and it will be fixed here, Rangiriri still remaining the second polling-place. There is some talk here of the ratepayers endeavouring to get this outdistrict made into two distinct highway districts. The Waikato Council are about to take action in the matter of the Waierangi petition. Some dozen or more of the settlers, many of whom have been established there for years, have been obliged to trespass on the farm of Mr. Sanders to get to their places beyond. Mr. Sanders has noted them that the trespass must be discontinued at the end of the year. The proper road is impracticable, on account of a small swamp crossing it, and tho settlers now ask the Council to make this road to let them into their properties. The Council have instructed their Engineer to visit the spot, and ascertain which will be the better plan—to make a. road across the swamp, or make a deviation through Mr. Sanders' property. Cambridge, Friday.

Thanks to the energy of Messrs. Wells and Kirkwood, the Karapiro Bridge is to be erected from the county funds, at a cost of £450. Of the two plans proposed by the Engineer, Mr. Gwynucth, the smaller bridge, as more within the means of the Council, has been decided upon. People have been very anxious to see a start made by the Government Engineers in making a working survey of the Cambridge branch line of railway. It will be satisfactory to the public here to know that our member, Mr. J. B. Whyte, wrote last week to the Minister of Public Works ; urging upon him the desirableness of having this survey made at once, so that the construction of the branch line from Hamilton to Cambridge may be completed by the time that the railway bridge over the Waikato at Hamilton is also finished. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENTS.] Hamilton, Friday evening. A petition to the Governor, very numerously and most influentially signed, is being got up, asking for reconsideration of the sentence on Lawrence Hayes, fresh evidence being adducible. Mr. Aitken, of the Thames, is suffering considerably from his accident, but fears of inflammation are groundless. It appears lie was thrown by the saddle turning round while riding down the hill.