COUNTRY NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9141, 24 August 1888, Page 6

COUNTRY NEWS.

[from our own CORRESPONDENTS.J

Hamilton, Thursday. Waikato people have been somewhat amused at the letter of " Old Colonist" in Monday's Herald with reference to Vaile's railway scheme, saying:—" Extraordinary and wonderful is the fact that here in Auckland, where the solution of the question is one of such vital importance to its prosperity and the profitable occupation of the country, no Borough or County Councils, no Chamber of Commerce, or any associated body of men of business have ever met, and expressed their approval or disapproval." Extraordinary and wonderful is the above, considering that so long ago as 1884 the then Tamahere Farmers' Club established a Railway Reform League in Waikato for the advocacy of Mr. aile's railway system, that the following year the Waikato County Council called a public meeting, at which a plan of campaign was laid down and a paid secretory appointed to organise an agitation from the North Cape to the Bluff. This was done, and Parliament was flooded with petitions emanating from the league, and signed by the chairman and members of more than half the county councils, borough and highway boards in both islands. This was done every session until the Parliamentary Commission was granted. The Chambers of Commerce of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurchj and Dunedin refused assistance of any kind to the movement. The writer can produce their letters to prove this, and nearly the whole cost of working the movement from first to last has fallen upon the Waikato local bodies and Waikato general public. They have done their duty, and if Auckland and other parts of this provincial district, awakened to a more lively sense of their d uty, are willing to come into the harvest field at the eleventh hour, they who have borne the heat and burden of the day will willingly stand aside and leave to the new labourers the gathering of the harvest.

Private telegrams of yesterday's date, received here from Coromandel by friends of Mr. William Gumming, state that no intelligence has been received of that gentleman. The worst is now beginning to be feared, as if he had worked out of the bush to any settle ment, he must have heard of his supposed loss, and would at once have wired to his family and friends. Alexandra, Thursday Mr. Robinson, drawing instructor to the Board of Education, was here giving lessons to teachers and pupil teachers of the district. On Mr. Robinsons return to Hamilton on Saturday he will give lessons in drawing, free to others than school teachers who may attend at Hamilton on that day. His visit to the Waikato schools will be made periodically, about every sixth week.

Whatawhata, Thursday. The state of the Hamilton-Whatawhata swamp road calls for the immediate attention of both the County and the local Highway Board, as we are altogether cut off from carrying our local produce to our proper market, Hamilton. A Whatawhata settler, having potatoes to deliver to a Hamilton dealer last week, instead of carting them in with his own team, had to send them by water to Hamilton round by Ngaruawahia, at a cost of 9a per ton. The portion of the road between {landers' Bridge and the four-teen-chain swamp is in a terrible state, and that from the main swamp to McCutcheou's nearly as bad. The Raglan mail has to be put through by pack-horse. In such extraordinary cases as this, it is the duty of local bodies to make extraordinary exertions and keep a country district open with funds that are shamelessly expended on water tables and footpaths in more favoured localities.

Ohaopo, Thursday. The same mild showery weather with warm nights continues, and evidently spring has set in in our, of late years, worst winter month. Old settlers will recollect just such a season in 1859. The grass has fairly started with a perceptible growth. Early plums and peaches are tweaking out in blossom, and the leaves of quinces and even of apples in sheltered positions are bursting forth. The country wears a green and spring-like appearance. Unfortunately the continuous showers interfere with the spring cropping of the land, and evidently the farmer has no time to lose. ' Spring this year is as forward as it usually is in Waikato in the first week in October. In fact of late years we have had little more than a month of spring, jumping out of winter into summer almost at once.