RATA NOTES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 12204, 7 May 1904, Page 2

RATA NOTES.

(From Our Own Corespondent). There is very little to chronicle this ■week in the shape of news, and what little there is, not of a very exciting nature.

Life in these small places is of a very quiet nature, and it is difficult to find items to write about, but that when written about shall be worth reading.

The Railway carpenters are very busy with the erection of a house for the ganger of this length. A good-sized cottage has been brought down in sectons from Mangaonoho, and will very soon be ready for occupation. I notice also that an extra line of telegraph poles is in course of erection, and 1 am given to understand this is to meet the increased requirements of the Ralway Department. This speaks well for the amount ■of business done by the Department on this line; in fact, we are getting quite used to special trains by day and night. The shooting season having opened, our local sports took full advantage of the first of May, falling on an idle day. Without being a very strict' Sabbattarian. I cannot help thinking they would have shown better taste to have waited until Monday before commencing th© slaughter of the few head of game about here. Shootists tell me that game is very scarce. I have noticed for the last few yeans that birds seem to be getting few and far between in this district. In connection with this subject, I cannot help thinking that the license is too high. It would surely be better to greatly reduce the fee and to take more .active steps to enforce it; in fact, if th© fee was lower I am snire there would be fewer evasions, and the result would be larger revenue and a -cessation of that irritation which tho holder of a license feels when he sees or hears unlicensed shooting. Rabbits are getting plentiful across the river from tihe Houston, and I saw some very nica bunnies the other day that fell before the gun of Mr. A. Ross, who is one of the smartest shots in this part of the country. Messrs. Abraham and Williams' representative was along here not many days ago, and shipped off a good number of pigs, the consequence of which is that some of our dairy farmers have been scouring the country for young porkers to fatten, and I hear with only partial success. 1 often wonder that our folks here do not go in more systematically for poultry raising, in connection with their dairying. Our land is good and a very small plot would raise enough grain, while curdled milk is a very good food for poultry, and with a proportion of isteamer wheat would prove a very cheap and nourishing diet for the birds. The railway is handy, the milk carts running every day, so the cost and trouble of transport would be reduced to a mnimum.

I understand Mr. Carter is leaVng The Ridges, and removing to Silverhope, i where he proposes milking a large number of cowsI—more1 —more tihan he had grass for down here. No match last Saturday. No match on Wednesday. What is the matter with out Football Club? Come, boys, wake up ! We want to see a reversal of last season's records, and this desirable end will not be obtained without more go and energy. Writing of "ends," reminds me that the compositor nearly caused my end when I saw n my last notes that he had set up "tail 7 instead of "tale." Surely the old quotation is too well known for such a blunder to be accredited to my erractic writing. A tail is the end of all things, but the tale I unfold is never ending, but to be continued in our next. •