COUNTRY NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9105, 13 July 1888, Page 3

COUNTRY NEWS.

[from our own correspondents.] Hamilton, Thursday. The new public library committee held its first meeting yesterday. Mr. George Edgecumbe was elected treasurer, and Mr. Pannel! secretary. It was resolved to hold monthly meetings on the first Tuesday of the month, in the Borough Council Chambers, five to form a quorum, and any member of committee to be disqualified missing three consecutive meetings. A balance of £2 Is was taken over from the previous committee of management. Mr. Pannell, as secretary of the late private committee, and the Town Clerk, as representing the Borough, were appointed to go over inventory of books, furniture, etc. The names of Mr. W. Dey and Mr.D. Salmon were proposed as members of committee- to be submitted for election by the Borough Council," under whose control the committee acts. At the adjourned meeting of the Licensing Committee to-day an application from the publicans to forego the lighting of the usual lamps was refused. Constable Wild leaves for Waiorongomai and le Aroha on Saturday, where he will be permanently stationed. At a meeting of the volunteers, the quesbonlof'the proposed Public and Volunteer Hall Bui, a private measure to allow the trustees to . mortgage the hall and site, was freely discussed. The site of the hall was given by Government to the volunteers, and the hall was built with money raised by a church bazaar, held on pay day, when the late volunteer cavalry spent largely. >■ The balance—the larger portionwas advanced on the personal security of two', of the trustees. The church, on behalf of its Sundayschool, invested £150 in the building. Since the advertising of the private Bill aforesaid, the officers of St. Peter's Church have obtained a guarantee of the return of £100 of their -money from the money to be raised by mortgage if the Bill passes. The volunteers look for some similar guarantee to conserve their interest, and threaten if this is not given they will oppose-the passing of . the Bill. Another meeting of the volunteers 'is to be held to-night. • • " ' * 5 . - , , Cambridge, Thursday. The Pakuranga hounds are expected in Waikato on Monday next for a short season, and will throw-off in this district on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after arrival. . •*. i v - •

Te Awamutu", Thursday. i As Mill be seen in , another, column, an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders in the To Awamutu Cheese, and . Bacon Factory Company (Limited), will be held on Saturday, the 21st instant, at three o'clock, at Te Awamutu, to confirm or decline to confirm the proposal to voluntarily wind-up the company, and dispose of the property and business. .

Ohacto, Thursday. • There has been the usual cry out against the small birds this winter, but it is to be hoped the local bodies will not lend them* selves to the assistance of unthinking persons in the wholesale poisoning of these, the farmers' true friends. As a result of this course in past years W&ikato suffered severely, more in some places than others-" from the ravages of caterpillars, especially in the case" of the oat crop. On Williamson's farm at Rukuhia fully 10 bushels of oatu to the acre 'were left upon the ground* In the Waitoa district the profit of the oat crop has in very several instances been taken by the caterpillar, and in the Rangiaohia the wheat suffered in many cases. Ifc is quite true that small patches of grain, two or three acres in extent, suffer severely when ripening and in the sheaf from small birds, but a thirty-acre paddock of wheat will suffer no more than one of three acres, and the loss is not felt. After all, it is only an insurance upon the far greater danger of a caterpillar pest, and if a narrow headland of a large wheatfield round the fences be sown with oats, the birds will not touch the wheat while a pickle of oats is left standing. .1"