DISTRICT NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 July 1924, Page 6

DISTRICT NEWS.

RIVERLEA. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Unsettled weather still prevails, and things are in general somewhat unpleasant. Grazing is being keenly enquir’d for as a result of the swede crops rotting after the salt spray storm of March, and farmers, for the most part, are finding it hard to get good grazing. However, now that the shortest days are over, a few more weeks at the most should see the clouds lift and th?, worst of the winter over. Stock are losing condition, and this is especially noticeable with late calvers as these cows are still being milked once a day, and with the scarcity of grass and bad weather they are having a hard time. Already some settlers are having losses, and some good cows have “gone West.” For the most part the cows have come from better country and a warmer climate, and consequently seem unable to withstand the cold and wet of this mountain land. The remarks made by a visitor to New Plymouth regarding some of the houses which are tenanted by the poorer classes might be readily applied to farm houses in many farming districts. Former owners of some of the farms have evidently been so intent on saving every sixpence to retire on that the home and farm buildings have been left to fate, and the weather, and those unfortunate tenants and owners who purchased in recent years have to live in anything but comfortable, much less convenient houses. Of course, it may be said that they need not have leased or bought a farm with poor buildings, but many have been forced through various circumstances to take anything that offered. “Get on the land” has been the height of ambition of not a few who believed that there was a fortune in farming, and that gold would pout into their purses as easily as the milk flows into the pail. These people hoped to pull down their houses and barns and erect better buildings in a very short time. However, a few years on a farm soon disillusions, and to appeal to lessees or mortgagees seems to meet with little result. Consequently. many farm-houses on farms for which big rentals are paid are dilapidated and weather-beaten and are fast I growing less habitable. 'Another of our young men has recently joined the ranks the benedicts, Mr. J. Gibson, of Lower Mangawhero Road, having been recently married to Miss O’Neill, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. O’Neill. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. C. Solomon at St. Mark’s Church, Kaponga. Mr. Wm. O'Neill, sent., representing the Kaponga Dairy Company, attended the annual conference of the National Dairy Association at Auckland last week. Mrs. Henderson, of Hawera, has been visiting her daughter, Mrs. T. Howarth, of Stratford-Opunake Road. Awatuna. Airs. Duckett, who has been on a holiday jn New Plymouth, has returned home. Mr. and Mrs. McDougall, of the Rowan dairy factory, are spending their annual holidays in the South Island.