OUR NORTHERN LETTER. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Waverley, January 27.

Otago Witness, Issue 2241, 11 February 1897, Page 21

OUR NORTHERN LETTER. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Waverley, January 27.

THE FOLK OF WAVERLEY. Jack's as good as his master in Waverley : the red river in the human bed is tho one of all consequence, aud the blue blood of the patrician is not O.K. at all, at all. Every landlord of Waverley is ft king, and does not, so far as birth and social status go, give the snnff of a candle. Everyone iB perfectly independent of his neighbour, and yet they are all friendly, and genial and jolly, equable and evon one toward the other. They doff hats at all and sundry meetieg* and passiogs-by, aud are m nharibab'e as a Dr Birnardo and as religious «s Quakers. Although they bave neither rivers nor ruins, factories vov ships, trophias nor bemples, palaces nor ru«\isolr>uir\g, city squares nor commercial m»rt#, lighthoiwfs. toweri, mosques, gay kiosks, or gymossia, royal gardens nor peasants' graves, yeb th«y have' the faces of man, women, and children lighted up by intelligence, independence, and moral worth under the disos of the start when the twinklers come out aud laugh. They have all money in the bank, and they know how to keep it there toa till needed. TIKE HILT.. IF you turn off the miin st'eeb of Waverley tiwnnhip, h»rd by the cemetery, and hold on s*;raigtit as nn »rr«.w past the Waverley railway station and on over a mile of good clay road, hard as half-baked brick*, you come to » pioturesque sandhill and a cutting through it. Straight before a ribbon of blue eca peeps up at you ; above the sandhills gently rolling »w«y to the right rises ag*in«t the sky lofty Egaont, and betwetm it and!then«*rsa«4 sloping away from your fest rent* a beautiful blue lake of fra»h water. Immediately opposite thest fairy landscapes, fiurm««mting a gc»?s? hill, st»nds Pine Hill, model home of Mr George Johnston. Tbe genial farmer is »t hone ; he ext*ndi a hearty welcome and eagerly nhows me everything. Ineido his we'i-funuhed home are evidences of taste, culture, a*id intelligence. Gracing the walls are the picture* of a cavalryman in full uniform — himself during tbe Maeri w»r, — "General 'Stewart" of tho ill-manajr^d Nile expedition, " The L&«t of Noble Fred Burnaby at the Battle of Abn-kleft," and other famous 6C?nes. In tbe wcll-tillftd fields, slock horers and cattle, prime sheep and fat pig* stand about, well contented, headless of thi«ir nexb msal, for food in in abundance everywhere. The stockyard, bhe byres, the horseyarde, tie stables &c , are all clean and neit, strong, and paved with cement ; the milkhouees, tho lavatory, and bathhouses are all the same, and waber (»t a considerable pr? ssara from the hydraulic ram far below) is laid on everywhere. Away down a elope stands the fcllmongery, but wo won't go there just y*t because — becnuse of the— he*t end ! Hold on a bit. Jutt come and see it. Open water-tables and flushes every where. The tanks, the washing tubs, and the woolscouring channels ere all open-air cement basins — inventions of Mr Johnston's — no smell, no filth, nothing nauseous hereabout. He turns on the water, and immediately all the«e receptacles fill nith clean, rmhing water. They are models of cleanliness and a credit to the owner who designed all, who has worked here for 26 years, and before that was all through the Maori war as an active m»n in the KaiIwi troops under the Hon. Jobn Bcyce. fi«hting at the battle of NukuKie.ru, K«i-Iwi, Maxwelltown, and obher sanguinary conflicts. THE PURITY HFMP MI.L. A mile and a-hslf nearer to the ocean beach Mr James Gleeson still carries on tho flixdreseingindusbry, u*ing the very best apparatus, and under th« power of an 8-h.p. overshot waterwheel and 15 men succeeds in turning out a very superior arfciele from the raw material, for which he now gets from £9 to £10 pnr ton at Wellington. He ha^ had no ordinary r.trug^le, but tnantul!y fought all through the flax depression whilst many other flax mills ceased operations. A« fUx is rising in value again Mr Gleeson will doubtless do well ab last. SEAFIELD. Add now you t»ke a serpentine swpep along a grossed lane — hedgerows on one side, sandhills on 'tother — until you come to Ssafield, well-appointed patrimony of Mr Foy, of Hawera. He had jusb finished his season's clip from the backs of 1700 Lincolns, and from som* wethers wore rare big fleeces — one 24-lb, two 181b, and several 171b each. He si»ys the 24-pounder was bred from Mr William Wilson's rams, and looked like a little fat bullock before the wool robbery. January 30. ■RURAL PICTUBES. As the evening gold of the autumnal sun played all along the rural lane jusb above the sweet valley of the Kohi, a piece of white and pink under a snowy sunbonnet Came skipping along, lefctim: off pistol sbo%6 from the lash of a tiny stockwhip, and which re-echoing reports begot considerable respect from oyer a score of sleek dairies moving byrewavds to the milking litne, and on before the jaunty, symmetrical sbockwoman. Suddenly discerning "me and B." the little creature brought up a moment in evidenb surprise, and then wibh heighbened colour and lowered eyelids she trailed the stockwbip behind her, and resumed her ta«k apparently obliviouß of all else save the kine, for shortly, when taking across the fields, came her sv»ent voice upon the evening breeza : The kye, the kye, are homeward lowing Further up the lane and across another field of golden grain — some waving and ripening, some in sheaves, some in atooks — by the ridge of a lovely terrace fringed with ripe cocksfoot, peas, and velches, a sturdy farmer weilds his flail under admiring glances of the great couchant collie dog, the bleating of the lambs in the field below, the lowing of the oxen in the nexb yard, the clanking of bhe cow-bells bo the chewing of the cud, to the snatch-song singing of the milkmaids, to the "liberty, liberty le-e-o" of the evening lurk, to the buzzing of the bee, the whir-r-r of the horsestiuger, and the solitary neigh of a distant horse far afield. Then, as the night closes in, the sturdy farmer puts away his reaper, and sings • Sing, ho ! for the merry harvest time 1 Sing ho 1 When the grains are in and the barns are full I Sing ho 1 And the halls are cleared for the harvest home, And each lad has his lass in the fields to rojim, And the music Bounds and the dances go ; Sing ho ! right merrily sing ho 1 LISMORE, home of the Messrs Murphy, is well situated upon gently rising ground on the northern town belt, and about one mile from the main street of Waverley. The grounds all around are nicely planted, and beside an orchard a cool stream finds its way' down a miniature valley. Out in the fields are 30 acres of ripe wheat which is now being garnered in, and estimated to yield over 40 bushels to the acre. In other parts of the pasture lands 600 primely-bred Lincolns and 70 bead of cattle are finding good profit.

SEAVIEW. Up above the head of the Kohi Gorge, some nine miles to the north-east of Waverley, Seaview spreads out to the pleasure and profit oE ihg hearty owner, Mi* James Walker, ils btoad 400 acres of hardly-won rich soil. Out of the forest during tha last 12 years has their hardy lord carved them ; 50 acren are now under the cammand of the plough, and the balance — some 800 Lincolns and 100 wt-11-bred shorthorns — are finding rich livings amongst rich pastures. MOUNT VIBW. Some 800 ft above sea-level, well situated on the sunniest knob of Mount Pleaianb, stands Mount View, homo and pasture lands of Lit Tom Wilkins. Below, west and nor Mi, spread all the rich losver lands of the Wave.rlie?, the Moinohakas, and the X >bii, the lakes, the fitreamt, and tha artificial water stretches thereof ; the villages of M»xwelltoirn, Waverley, and P&toa, peep up ab you through the clumps of blue and red guns and tha fir plantations ; beyond all thete sleep cheak by jowl the sea and the mere remote horizon. Mount View grazes some 400 purebred Lincolns, besides cattle, aud tihe owners thereof are thriving. THE TRAIL OF THE CATERPILLAR. Sometimes the c*b9rpillarfl of the W»itob»r&B are very bad aud go for tfee young corn in a ho»rb-breaking fa&Lian. Nob mwiy seasons back a mighty army, three chains wide and many miles long, m»rohed acrom the country, eating everything green is their lino. They came frota the direotion of H*wke'« Bay and steered for the " opeu tea" of the Wetf; Canst. When they came to the ditching by tha North I«l«.nd mftin trunk road they found they c»uW not g«b all across, co millions of the foremost ranks fall hi uutil these pitfalls wei'O, filled, wUen the following billious passed over the quivering span. The next barrier, the lima rook road, made martyrs of millions more, and for days throe chains ot it were piled inches thick with, caterpillars, live one* passing over layers of mashed ones, bo the line of the Waoganui to New Plymouth railway, and when the train came up the caterpillars were so thiok ai to effectually check for some time its progress, &nd the ra'ls had to be cleared and sanded before the engine was enabled to do further work. NATURAL CURIOSITIES AND STRAKOE TIIENOMENA. . On the tops ot the higbesb mountains all around Waverley, NnWumaru, and Wnlfcotara. layers of «e»sbells lie firmly embedded between ■br&ta of RchUfc and pop* rocks, amonjsb them many qnaint fossils of odd-looking fish, reptiles, and other fauna and flora. On tha faces of rocki, evidently undisturbed for ages, distinct traceries of fern trees, ship*, and human flkeletons hare beon discovered. Oa a wild, tortuous ti-aok far up the Waitofcara River (t, profoundly curious oave exist*, the water of which, dripping from the overhanging roof iuto a fathomless basin, turns everything to *tone. Nob long after its discovery a nude figure of stone was found within in a sitting posture. It was the remains of a native lad plactul there by order of the sacred tohunga of the hapu many years back. On the Maori* hearing of. tho defilement of this oraculun by the entrance thereto of the pakeha they wenb by stealth ia the night and removed tha little stone imt ge, which was never more eetiu. The story told concerning fie "little stone boy" is generally believed by the natives, anil as such I give it to yon : — Ages ago the Wanganuis aenk by th« hand of trusted guides friendly salutations and rare gifts to TuUnskai and Hioemo* on their nuptials, with express orders that on their return they were to fetch buck the st»ry of the birth and life of the Maori godde*s, the sami to be fiecotapfmied by a collection of bhe natural curiosities of that wonderland bo be gathered by her band. Upon the arrivsil of tho messenger Hinomoa and her husband were holding their honeymoon in some remotelr beautiful spot of tb/e enchanted land and cou'd nob be found, and so after waibing many weeks by the quivering f hoi en of the hot lakes one of the messengers fell into a boiling spring and gob scalded to death, whereupon the other in terror leffc the spot and sought hi« own people on the West Coast. Now, "or old New Zealand Maori law, when an accident ocuars whereby life i« loot somebody has to b« punished, so when (be touunga and the rangatiran listened to the tale of the returned messenger the latter put on the paint inches thick, and armed with tomahawk and mcre-mer* they placed the mesienger in their midnt, *nd retiring 10 paces they ran full spued ab him for times, and shaking their hatchets and flourishing their znere-merP3 in his face, they roared furiously : " A pretty messenger, a pretty messenger you are to go and allow the red taniwha to cook your friend in his boiling pot ! What is the good of your head for a drinking cup ? Your fkull will only be a white bone to frighten away tha wek*s and tut* pukakis; your spirit wi.l be an evil spirib to trouble the mana of your people ; and your dusi will rob the kumera." After the»« gentlem«iu had so vented their fury and got tired of rmhiug backwards and forward*, th« tohunga cun« and muttered a malignant inoantation over the cowering messenger, and then the priest wenb to the whare of his favourita wahino and took away the eldest boy, who was se-jn no more. Bub it was known that he pub him into this cnv« and made him sib there all alone in the dark till he grew into stone. And this was the "little stone boy" found there by the pakeh-* so many ages later. One day last midsummer, while the heat wai intense, a weird atmonpherlc change came into the sky all about the sun at mid-day, something like a gigantic magnifying glass spread over him, suddenly concentrating all his rays into one point. On Mr Jones's farm several valuable sheep in the field fell down dead, and one, a 25-guinea ram, gob sunsbruck and died before nighb. Patches of green*sb grass burned quite brown inside half an hour, and in some places the heated, comparatively dry earth steamed and suddenly parted in great rents. Tben the phenomenon departed as quicky as it had come, leaving the afternoon delightfully cool.