COUNTRY NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10126, 8 May 1896, Page 6

COUNTRY NEWS.

[FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.]

Hamilton, Thursday. It is understood that in all probability Messrs. Jagger and Parker, of Onehunga., will start a boiling-down establishment in the neighbourhood of Hamilton at an early date.

The weather for the last two or three dayi has been very wet, indeed so much so as to hinder the travelling of the threshing machines through bad country and fast breaking up roads, but is on the other hand good for the turnip crops, which at the present time are one of the chief mainstays of Waikato farmers, and judging by appearance* both beef and mutton are coming into brisfe demand. There is a prospect that these whs have good fields of swedes for fattening stock on them will do well. As regards the oat crop there is likely to be less threshed for grain than cut for chaff, th 6 latter paying beat even with the present price, which will still further advance as the season progresses, and with the demand at the local goldfields, which is on the increase.

Te AwAMuru, Thursday. Mr. VV. H. Mandeno, who presided at the Road Board meeting on Saturday afternoon last, drew attention to the way by which the Board was crippled by the iictinn of many of the ratepayers in being behind baud with the payment of their rates till late in the season, There was a sum of £87 Is 3d outstanding of rates unpaid, and about this he would tell them that owing to this the Board was seriously handicapped. They had to have an overdraft, and, more serious still, they ran the risk of losing the Government subsidy, for, if those rates were not paid by the 30th June next it meant a loss to the Board of 5s in every £ of rate then outstanding. The Government paid them a subsidy of onefourth of the total rates collected in the year and this being the case the ratepayers should do their best to make the subsidy as large as possible. Ohaupo, Thursday. The Waipa County Council have notified that all rates due to the Council not paid within fourteen days will be sued for without further notice. The Council informs ratepayers that on the 31st of March last there was a sum of £1200 outstanding, which, if noi paid by the 30th June next, will mean a very considerable loss ih subsidy. • This, in face of the large overdraft, the Council cannot allow, | The creamery closed for the receptioc of milk for the season ou Thursday last. Owing to the dry summer, the milk had fallen off considerably; indeed, but for discontinuing to supply up to the end of the term, they would have been liable for a serious penalty, they would, many of them, have Been glad to have ceased sending milk earlier, as the quantity supplied for the last tew weeks did not pay for the trouble entailed. What with the dry season and low prices, milk suppliers have had far from a rosy time of it, and it is quite necessary, and high time, thai they banded together for putting the industry on a sound and profitable footing.

[UV TELEGRAPH.—OWN' CORRESPONDENT,]

Paeroa, Thursday. Confirmation was received here this evening of the death, at the Thames Hospital, of Mr. David Henry, and when the news became known regret was expressed, the deceased being well known and highly respected on all sides. The cause of death was typhoid fever, and the wonder is that more deaths have not occurred, the sanitary condition of the place being most imperfect. Quite a number of typhoid cases have becu reported lately.