WAIRATO DISTRICT NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6966, 15 March 1884, Page 6

WAIRATO DISTRICT NEWS.

[FROM OCR OWN CORRESFONDESTS.]

Hamilton, .Friday. ~ The .new railway .tariff; is the topic of the : day,, and .the remarks generally made; upon it are not complimentary to the business .capacity of the would-be reformers; For the "first year since our farmers took to grain growiiig, -Waikato has grown sufficient wheat . and other grain to have more than enough : for local requirements arid to e'xport. Where, Under the old ; tariff; grain was charged 9s 9d railway freight between Hamilton and Auck- . land, it is charged )/?3 Id under the new. The same alteration; is made in the freight ;on potatoes. .Even in the carriage' of pigfs, ; nine, shillings per truck load more than was ■.Charged, under the old' tariff bc- ■ tween Hamilton and Auckland is now charged ' under the new, arid the: consequence is that tho Waikato chcese Company have raised" the prioo of pork per lb. It. is really as unjust as it is impolitic to handicap the. gre:at producing power of the. colony—tho agricultural classes —and, instead of. lessening the distance between up-country sottlera and the civilisation of the great centres, by decreasing the cost, of travelling, to isolate them still further bv raising the expense of railway tares by 2s in the £1. The Waikato: public are. not likley to receive the new tariff with ■■ quiet resignation, but will.let their voice be unmistakeably heard upon tho matter. The apple crop in this district, and, indeed, tnroughout Waikato, is one of the beat that has been grown for years. Yesterday afternoon a brutal assault.wag committed by a man; named John Wright, a carpenter, on his wife. : .Wriglit was under the influence of liquor, and on his wife—a ..genial, hard-working woman—entreating lilm to go home, he struck her a savage blow under tho ear with his clenched fist, felling her to the ground. . He was brought before tho Mayor this morning,- in the absence of' the Resident Magistrate; and after the evidence of several who were preaeiit having been heard, was fined os for baing drunk, £2 aud costs for u breach ,of the peace, and ordered to find sureties to keep the peace for six. months. Cambridge, Friday. Mr. Carter took down yesterday to Hamilton to take rail to Auckland,. a party Pf tourists consisting of a Sydney:. gentleman and' bis: wife and two daughters,: wtipj sooner than: travel.by the Tan ran a route; actually ■ forfeited their ,pai»Bage« already paid, and underwent the cost of journey twice over to take the Waikato. routein preferisnCe. Very many settlers, I am sorry to say, have suffered again this year as. numbers did ! last ssasun;. froui the rain catchinc thfem with their corn in the stack but untbatched, The concert in aid of the organ fund of Trinity Presbyterian Church was a great ' success. .'I The work; of enlarging the Public Library will very soon be proceeded with. To all appearances trade seems to lie as i' brisk-as ever'in G*imbridc«. New buildings ; continue to go up, and our local, tradesmen's, ; workshops setm busily engaged in supplying the orders of their country customers. Ohadpo, Friday; Tho business at the. monthly meeting of thq Wai.pi.County Council, was chiefly of a . routine character. I: was, however, arranged that the roads from Hamilton to Ngsriiawahia aud from Te Awamuta to Alexandra should be gazetted main roads after the 31st : in'st. [BV telegraph. —own CORRESPONDENT.J Cambridge, Friday evening. At tbe monthly .meeting of the Pukekura : Highway Board there were present Messrs. : J. Fisher, Gane, Fleming, and Reynolds. 411 the business was of a purely routine na- ! tare, except the balloting to determine which two members, of the Board, should resign. The lot fell on Messrs. Fisher arid Reynolds; . Major Green arrived here yesterday, having arrived from VVhatawhata. To-day ■ he went, out to the Piik'etura Block, to remove obstructing natives and give official possession. There was no quorum of the Fiako County Council, aud the meeting stands adjourned to Wednesday next.