COUNTRY NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9324, 29 March 1889, Page 3

COUNTRY NEWS.

——* [from our own correspondents.] _ Hamilton, Thursday. Dr. McGregor paid an official visit to the Hospital, and expressed himself well pleased with its general conduct. Saturday is the last day for receiving ten-, dors for the supply _of rations, stores, etc., for the Waikato Hospital for the year ending March 31st, ]S9O, as advertised in the Herald.

. iSiGARUAWAHiA, Thursday. The river trade is not to be allowed to fall through because the company is in liquidation. A steamer is to be built and placed under the command of Captain Lindsay, and run upon the Waikato River.

~ Otorohanga, Thursday. the rabbit skins for the month of March have been received here by the rabbit 'inspector instead of at Kihikihi as usual. Owing to this fact, and that the natives had been busy with getting in their crops and threshing, a very small number were brought in—only 1774 skins altogether, for which £2*2 3s Gil was paid. The fact is, moreover, that rabbits, owing to their having been killed off a 1", the rate of seven and eight thousand a month for the Government bounty, have become much scarcer. The same is the case in the settled districts in Waikato, and as a consequence rabbits are worth more in the Auckland market, a firm actually advertising for a regular supply of them. Owing to the action of the inspectors, rabbits are ceasing to become the nuisance they were in some parts of Waikato; nor, as your Paterangi correspondent suggests, does it come hard on those who live by shooting them for the market that they should have been thus thinned down, for where a man needed to kill a small cartload to make a day's wages, lie can do so out of half-a-dozen couple at present prices. I mentioned in my letter of Tuesday last that some movement in search of mineral, with reported success, was being carried on in the Kawhia district. .A. well known Auckland analyst has a man prospecting there, and other parties are out. An Alexandra settler, who has a section of land at Kawhia, for which years ago he gave £200, and which he estimated now as worth as many ponce, has received an offer of £250 from an Auckland firm for it, which, however, he has not accented.

CLEVEDON (WAIROA SOUTH). Threshing operations were commenced here on the'2lst of February last, and completed on the loth instant. Daring that time Mr. Robert Carruth's steam tlireshing machine was at work on seventeen different farms in the district, and over 2;x)0 sacks of wheat and oats threshed by it. Mr. Kemp's horse-power tnrcbiier was also at work here, and upwards of 500 sacks of grain put through it. All the . crops turned out satisfactorily to the farmers w hei e caterpillars did not make their appear- " ance, but on several of the farms two-thirds of the seed wis wasted where the above? mentioned plunderers were about. The Non-Denominationaiists held their annual harvest festival in the Public Hall hereon Friday, the loth March. Tea was partaken of at three p.m., and at eight p.m. addresses were delivered by the chairman (Mr. k. B. Shalders), Messrs. Burgoyne, senior and junior, J. S. Wilson, J. Knott' etc. here was a fair attendance at the afternoon and evening meetings. Several parties here are turning their attention to the timber industry since the timber syndicate have had a monopoly of the trade. Messrs. Creighton Bros, have a steam sawmill, and are delivering boards and scantling, second-class, tit 8s per 100 feet, and firstclass timoer at 1 '2s per 100. Recently Messrs. Walsh and Wilson sent a raft of 'junk, or baulk, timber, to the mills in Auckland, and the price given is about 6s per 100 feet. There arc- several pairs of sawyers at work in the district cutting timber at from Ss to 9s t»er 101) feet. y

Mr. James Bell is getting a beautiful new house built, consisting of eight rooms, and, when finished, will cost about £400. Mr. i.Langly, of Kyber Pass, Auckland, is the contractor for the erection of the building. Wairoa can now boast of having a flour mill. When threshing operations were going on here recently, in the course of conversation Mr. Charles Elliott, one of the farmers here, ■ and who some years ago was a mill-owner in England, suggested to Mr. Joseph Hpye that lie should m a small flour mill and drive it with his caaff-cutter engine. -Mr. Hoy© at once entered into tne matter, and commissioned Mr. Elliott to purchase a mill for him. Mr. Elliott immediately called 'on Messrs. E Porter ai\d Co., and bought one of Duckering s Lincoln Mills, which can grind and dress two and a-half to three bushels an hour. This mill has been in full swing here for the last two weeks, sopiefimes working from eight o'clock in the morning to ten at night. he trade to the district is increasing so much lately that in a short time one steamer will not be sufficient. On March the 25th the s.s. Planet was chartered by Mr. J. S. • Wilson, to take a cargo to Wairoa of bonedust, &c., and on the return trip was loaded with sacks of oats, &c. Tin? favourite s.s. Waitoa. is kept constantly employed twice a week to this place, leaving Auckland op : Mondays and Wednesdays, and Wairoa on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On March '26th the steamer was loaded to the belt with settlers' produce, wheat, oats, cheese, butter, &c. This favourite district has been visited by 1 Miss Georgie Smitiison, who on the night of March '25 gave one of her popular entertainments ip the Public Hall here entitled " The Artist's Studio." Owing, to the inclemency of the weather there was only a small atten- • dance, but those present were quite delighted with Miss Smithson's acting. Her quick versatility kept the audience in the best of humour for over two hours. At the close of' the evening's entertainment Miss Smithsou intimated her intention of visiting Clevedon next full moon ; ;\lso that the change to the country was a pleasure to her after being in Auckland for IS months.-[Own : Correspon- ■ dent, March 26]. ,