STRATFORD.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13757, 21 September 1908, Page 5

STRATFORD.

(From Our Resident Agent,) Sept. 19. — The town was full of people to-day although on^- one of the dairy factories was paying- ouk There seems to be no question but ihat the number of farmers who' tise Stratford as a market town is steadily increasing, and the increase is mainly from the south' and west — Kaponga, Riyerlea, Kowan. Whether or no this accounts for it, the erstwhile empty cottages have all filled up, and town properties are comparitively easy of sale.| Broadway shops readily find tenants. It is not easy to aeeoutft altogether fpr the change that has taken place in a few months. . • j The County Engineer suggests using Mount Egmont metal for the roads in the East ftiding, but if a few truck loads of stuff that passed through the railway station a day or two ago con-j stitute a fair sample, it is too soft for roads although probably good ballast for the line.

At last the Engineer** estimates for the different railways to Opunake are published/. The Te Roti route is by far the cheapest, but the Engineer significantly refers to the matter of the shortest mileage to the principal port of the district. When the time is ripe for the construction of the line it may be economically necessary to ignore the matter of first cost- so as to secure; the most direct access to New Ply-i mouth.

At the School Committee meeting on Friday, the chairman was authorised to confer with the Education Board on the matter of increased accommodation for the secondary' department of the school. The Inspector^ report on the school technical classes was read and was quite monotonous with its "good," "good," "very good." It is strange, however, that it should be so difficult to fill the adult classes at the Techni- . cal School. One or two, notably millinery and dressmaking, fill fairly well, but taken as a whole /the school has not found the public hungry tfor instruction. Our population is perhaps too shifting, possibly too shiftless, to value the facilities that are offered.

Extraordinarily good as are the prospects of the butter market, cheesemaking promises to be the more profitable industry this season. At any rate the Cardiff factory directors, who intended to make butter until the end of November, are changing 'at once to cheese.