CARTERTON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1106, 12 May 1893, Page 21

CARTERTON.

The warm rains of the past three weeks have forced on the grass and the country looks as if a second spring had set in. The feed is rank and watery and stock generally is getting poor on it. The sales are pretty well over for the season, is for store sheep and cattle, and the price has declined all round to a point at which it is better for the owners to hold on at.

There is some talk amongst some of the small farmers of procuring some pure bred Ayshire stud cattle, to improve the dairy stock. You can quite understand that raising cattle for beef was the best policy in the early times, when there was no sale for dairy produce, and most families kept a cow. Times are altered now and dairy farming has become an established industry. The chief drawback in the Wairarapa to its present success is the breed of cattle. The cows are not the best milk-producing breed procurable, people will not breed from Jerseys and Alderneys because they are so small and the calves do not fetch such a good price. The butter export trade, however, has proved up to the present so satisfactory that the practice of raising cattle which combine the qualities of beef and milk suppliers is being abandoned and some more advanced dairy-farmers are arranging for replacing their present dairy stock with Alderney and other breeds noted for their milking qualities. Carterton used to run at one time between 20 and 30 sawmills, now there are only three or four here. The land, however, is left and there is no town in New Zealand, probably, surrounded as this is with small farms. It was the sawmilling industry that enabled people to settle on the land, for most of the mill hands took up sections and gradually cleared them during their spare hours. These men now have their own freeholds, and although the majority were heavily handicapped in having to pay big interest on their investments, they have struggled on until now, and, thanks greatly to the improvement in the dairy export trade, they have most of them got their holdings clear. Most of the mills have gone into the Forty-mile Bush and their original owners are now flourishing sheep farmers hero. There are the Booth's, Price's, Stevens', Udy's, Fairbrother's, Hooker's, and many others.

The building trade is fully employed in Carterton just now and has been for months. Several buildings have been recently erected, whilst others are in the course of construction? The largest job at present in hand is the Wairarapa Farmers' Co-operative Association's new store. The association has just opened up here, having bought out the business that formerly was Allen's and they are spending £IOOO in enlarging the present structure and it has so far progressed that it is plain to be seen it will be the largest building as a store in the town. Another large building drawing on to completion is a two-story dwelling of ten rooms, for Mr John Buckeridge, to replace the one recently destroyed by fire. Mr E. W. Dorset, whose compact little sheep farm adjoins Mr P. F. Tancred's stud farm, has just had built for himself a somewhat superior farmhouse. It is all on one floor and contains twelve rooms, with all modern conveniences and lofty inside. The walls are rusticated, the roof of corrugated iron, and a pretty greenhouse is attached to the house. Another contract for extensive additions to a building has just been let privately. The Royal Oak Hotel, at South Carterton, is to_ be considerably added to and generally improved, It is a favourite house with travellers and is noted for a goqd glass of ale,

At the annual meeting of the Taratahir Carterton Road Board last Saturday, Mr H. R. Bunny was again elected chairman. The first advantage he took of his position was to propose that a vote of condolence be sent to the widow of the late Hon John Ballance with the loss she and the country has sustained by his untimely death. It was, needless to say, carried unanimously. It was further resolved to record on the minutes the board's appreciation of the many services rendered to the country by the late Premier. The Wairarapa Hounds met at Greytown last week and the members rolled up in goodly numbers. Mr C. F. Vallance, master of the hounds, was in charge. Eighteen started and only two came to grief in the run, notwithstanding the ground was pretty slippery after the rains. The deputy-master, Mr C. R. Bidwill, was also present with a fair number from the Lower Valley. A general meeting of the club was afterwards held, at which it was resolved that a steeplechase

meeting be held at Tauherenikau, providing the course can be secured, on 20th July, and that £235 be given in prizes. Hunt Club sports will also be held on Queen's Birthday at Masterton, and the hunting season will be closed with a ball on a large scale. Inspector Lee has examined the minor schools in this district during the past week. His next place will be Masterton.