WAIKATO DISTRICT NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6573, 11 December 1882, Page 6

WAIKATO DISTRICT NEWS.

[from our owx correspondents.]

Hamilton", Saturday. It is satisfactory to know that the medical attendant of Mr. Davy now states that the attack from which he is suffering is not typhoid fever, a3 at first feared, but dysentery. Mr. Charles Johnson, the spirited proprietor of the Hamilton livery stables, started yesterday with the first carriage and four which has ever yet essayed the Hamilton and Raglan-road. Mr. T. B. Hill, of Auckland, and several passengers accompanied him. Some part of the journey, unless a team of four were both a staunch and steady one, would uot be unattended with risk, as in some places for a considerable distance in crossing the mountain, th# road is nothing but a sidling in the hill, with a sheer precipice on the one side, and barely room for two vehicles to pass one auother, while, atthe same time, the turns in this part of the road are so sharp that vehicles travelling in opposite directions cannot see one another till within a short distance. As the tralXc on the Raglan road increases, it will become imperatively necessary that the Government should make a considerable grant for the further improvement of the road, to ensure the safety of the travelliug public. Cambridge, Saturday.

"Nothing has been decided as yet since the drill as to the continuance and reorganisation of the Cambridge Volunteer Cavalry troop, except the resignation of Captain Runciman and Lieutenaut Fisher. It is understood that while the Government is by no means anxious to see the three separate troops contiaucd in different parts of the district, it would encourage tke reorganisation of the force if one Waikato troop were established. The volunteers themselves are favourable to the movement taking such a direction—a full " Waikato troop " replacing the present three half filled up local troops. In thi3 case it is proposed that the cavalry should go annually into encampment for a week's drill, say, near Auckland or the Thames, where an annual encampment and drill of the volunteers of all arms could be held.

The foundation of the Tamahere Church was laid yesterday by the Bishop of Auckland. Archdeacon Willis and the Revs. Davis and O'Callaghan Biggs were present. An offertory collection was made, amounting to £15 16s Od. A large quantity of the timber is on the ground, and the work of erection will be at once proceeded with by the contractor.

Quite a little township is springing up at the corner of the Cambridge and Narrowsroads, and the lands in rural sections lately sold by the Messrs. Graham are being built upon and occupied. A meeting of residents in the Taotaoroa district has been called for Monday next, to take the necessary steps for the establishment of a public school under the Act.

Mr. J. C. Firth is about to establish a cheese and butter factory on his Matamata estate, and for this purpose has purchased from the Xe Awamutu Cheese and Bacon Factory the plant brought for them by Capt. Runciman from America, which they did not require, having meanwhile provided themselves with one in the colony. Mr. Firth has also paid to the Te Awamutu Company the £40 which they subscribed towards the cost of Captain Runciman's trip to America. Ojiaupo, Saturday. Mr. \V. J. Hunter held one of the largest cattle sales of the season, on Thursday, nearly TOO head being yarded. A large proportion of the animals put lip were purchased by Mr. Williams, for the l'atetere Land Company. So largo a number of cattle lining sent at once into the market is attributable to the shortness of feed, caused by the dry weather. There has been no spring growth of grass thia year, and the hay crops as a whole wll be extremely light throughout the district. Spring sown wheat also is suffering, and, as might have been expected, the root crops of all ki«ds. Mr. Delaney'slittleboy, who had so narrrow an escape from being crushed to death, is, happily, fast recox-ering from his broken leg. He was going to school, and was run over by a waggon, having a load of 1000 feet of timber on it. One of the wheels passed over the boy's ankle, but the steutness of the sole of his boot saved that part of the limb. The wheel then passed over both thighs (the boy lying on his side with his leg bent at the knee), and what between the sole of his boot lifting the wheel, and the top leg having the other leg underneath to yield to the pressure, a simple fracture of the one thigh bone was the result. Kihikihi, Saturday. Very many shares in the Auckland Native Lands Colonisation Company are being taken up by residents in this neighbourhood, who, like the Auckland capitalists who have joined the movement, have very wisely determined to assert their right of dealing with lauds which are in their immediate vicinity, instead of allowing the large profits to be derived from the re-sale of such lands to He monopolised by outsiders. Th* scheme is so fair and just that the natives themselves can see how favourably their interests are affected by it, and many of them are making application to have their lands put through the Court by this company. Dr. Buller, who represents the company at the Court, is kept fully engaged.