WAIRERE NOTES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8277, 19 October 1905, Page 3

WAIRERE NOTES.

(Special to Daily Times.)

Bush-felling as an industry, though nearly, is not yet quite extinct in this district, but it has little to recommend it in the opinion of the workers, for the weather conditions have been in the past much against them, as if Nature herself were protesting against the further demolition of our native bush — always such a conspicuous and pleasing feature in any landscape. Unfortunately, we can substitute nothing, in the way of artificial planting, which can replace the old and picturesque silvan scenery, as once we knew it, or as the majority of the old settlers can well remember it.

It is a pleasing feature in our social life that when any one is about to leave the district who has more or less been an acceptable member of the community he is seldom allowed to take his departure without a demonstration of some kind, as evidence of his popularity. This seems to hold good from one end of the Colony to the other, and has much to recommend it. It is the reward of a good life, and acts as a passport in the new field where he purposes taking up his habitation. It was not likely, therefore, that the settlers of the Ihuraua would allow Mr Shirley and family, who had been so long in their midst, to leave the Valley without some evidence of their appreciation, which took the form of a social and dance and a presentation.