TAIERI FERRY. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Otago Witness, Issue 1605, 26 August 1882, Page 13

TAIERI FERRY. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

August 18th.

The farmers in this district have been taking advantage of the last few days of tine weather to sow grain, and a considerable acie-jre ia now under crop. The weather has once more ch'-tuged, and as I write rain is again fa ling, acconip-u.ied with heavy gusts of wind from tho south-west. Yo teniay I was fondly imagining the winter, which ha-< been so long, dreary, and wet, was a thine of the pn-t, but tho weather tonight has dispelled yesterday'B illusion. On the 28th ult. Sirah Matene, a little Maori girl, joined the vast majority. She wai interied in the burial ground of tho Maori Kaik, Taieri r erry, on the 30th ult. In the absence of a clergyman, Mr Morgan read the burial service A fevero cold was the immediate cause of death. The Maoris are fast disappearing from amongst us, and to those who know the wi etched hovels in which they exist the cause can be easily traced. The hut of the Matene family is as full of holes as a sieve, and so rotten that whenever a gale from tho south-west is blowing the family— from tear that the whare will be blown down— take their blankets and camp outside. A very interesting and graphic lecture on " Palestine " was delivered by the Key. Mr Hall, of Waihola, in the Ferry schoolroom a few evenings ago. It was in aid of the Sunday-school library fund> The room was well filled. August 22nd# A blacksmith's shop wai opened to-day at Henley by aMr Blyth. Judging from tho medals shown me, which have been presented to that gentleman by the Canterbury Agricultural Association, I think there can he no doubt about his skill as a mechanic. Ho will Bunply a want which has been long felt in the Taieri Ferry and Henley districts.