CORRESPONDENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1323, 21 December 1880, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

[Our correspondence columns arc inipartialy open to 'ill, but we Jo not in any way identity ourselves with opinions expressed therein.]

TO THE EDITOR. Sik, — Referring to the local in your issue of Tuesday, whoever may bo at fault, none will regret the non-payment of the contractors more than the Whatawhata &etfclers». The legal contest", through which the contractors have suffered so much, is, so far as Whatawhata is concerned, simply a struggle for indepondencp, and however it may be received by out. aiders, to those acquainted with the history of the Newcastle district, the present deadlock is not at all surprising. In former years the Te Kowhai portion of the district mijrht very well claim to hold thereius, but by Time, the fjivat agent, has become more thickly settled, and with its increasing numerical strength, a desire for independence has «prung up. To satisfy this, it was at one time proposed to havp the district divided, but this the settlers were aware would only weaken it. Yet, every annual election has found the Whatawhata people as far as ever from the desired end. Through inferior generalship and the judicious use of proxies, few ratepayers have outvoted more than double their number of residents. At last it was thought that the Local Elections Act, whila leaving the district intact, would put an end to all disputes, yet here again, through the bungling of a few, the ratepayers are involved in further troubles; but, though anxious to end the civil war which is crippling the energies of the district, I am confident that, even if defeated in the present contest, the Whatawhata settlers will never rest content nntil proxy-voting is done away with and the Highway trustees elected by ratepayers recording their votes within the district. — lam, &c, W.W.

Not a bad sort of landlord ! The American papers give an instance of one Irish landlord, drawing £190,000 per annum, who is 92 years of ajje, and has never set his foot on Irish soil — not once. In staking peaa place pairs of stout, straight sticks (one on each side) firmly down the rows at intervals of five or nix feet, and then run common twine from, one to the other, twisting ie round the sticks for support ; the first thrpe or four rows of twine should be only a few inches apart, when the distance between them may be increased. Of course, the height of the sticks must be regulated by the i description of pea.