Maraetaha Notes

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 596, 18 April 1891, Page 2

Maraetaha Notes

A CORRESPONDENT'S WAIL. Mahaetaha, April 14. That “he is not dead but sleepeth ’’ is probably the stereotyped answer you have given to the crowds who daily throng your office with anxious inquiries rd your " Hesperian correspondent a good word, for which I am indebted to my Ormond confrere. Nor would it be wholly incorrect. I have been waiting—with exemplary patience, too—for something to happen, and nothing has. You can scarcely" - form an adequate idea of the utter selfishness of tbe inhabitants of this locality in their total inability to perceive the beauty of sacrificing themselves for the public good. Though much given to equestrianism they never break their necks; though sportsmen are numerous among us they always come home with full—no, I mean whole, skins, if with empty bags; though boating is a favorite pursuit, they never seem to get drowned: though—but why particularise further ?— the subject is for me fraught with melancholy. I myself, with a noble disinterestedness, recently offered a man the use of a horse that I knew could not jump, to rile over a four railed fence; but, alas for human egotism, he declined the offer I The natives of Whakatau held a race meeting to-day, the sport, in the opinion of the spectators, being of tbe moat interesting description. A mob of bulloaks left here yesterday morning from Mr Johnson’s station, to enjoy the, to them, startling novelty of frost. It is to be regretted that one of them, doubtless deeming himself undeserving of so great a luxury, or perhaps thinklug the final consummation inadequate to tbe antecedent toil, yielded up the ghost before the completion of the journey. Since the first of this month the ducks have been having a bad time, largo numbers having fallen victims to the superior strategic manoeuvres and unerring aim of our aboriginal neighbors, whose favorite time for enjoying their fascinating pursuits is between tha setting of tbe diurnal and nocturnal luminaries. The aquatic denizens of the I lagoon have now become more shy, and in consequence the'! bags ” have proportionately diminished. Pipping has lately begn engaging the attention of flockmaaiers, and the savory psrfume of carbolic, borne on the gentle zephyrs, greets the nostrils of ths passers by. The supineness of the County Council in the matter of road formation in this district is greatly to be deplored. In their case performance is by no means a necessary sequence to promises, and our hopeful outlook for the coming winter is »ltl I,