Maraetaha Notes.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 615, 2 June 1891, Page 3

Maraetaha Notes.

(from our own corespondent.) May 27. A large number of intending land purchasers have passed here recently on their way to view the Nnhaka block, and it is curious to note that notwithstanding a great diversity of opinion with regard to the suitability of the land for settlement, there is one subject upon which all seem to agree, viz , that the road requires a great deal of making. One visitor, whose life for the last twenty-six years has been passed on the plains of New South Wales, had what to him was a most unique experience—snow, to wit. It might have been the elevation he attained, or it might have been the lowness of the temperature, that caused him to remark with just a touch of pathos that he had never been so near heaven before. To judge by his tone you would think he did not yearn after greater proximity.

The frosty nights, followed by bright sunny days, that we have enjoyed lately, have done much to ripen the crops of maize in the Maori cultivations, and the picking thereof is proceeding, I will not say with vigor, for that is too energetic a term to apply to the leisurely proceeding of our darkskinned neighbors, but with a steadiness which bids fair to bring it to a completion at any rate before it is time to plant the next crop. It is p’eising to note that their potato crops are unusually large, as that succulent tuber forms the stap'e of their food.

There is nothing to chronic’e in the way of sport. Pheasants—cocks especially — have betaken themselves to the bush and the hills till the season is over, when they will probably congregate on the roads in suoh numbers as to form an obstruction to travel,

This district did not manage to raise any excitement over School Committee elections. Proceedings may be briefly summarised as follows .‘—Nomination of members for Committee, nil; attendance at meeting of householders, nil; Committee elected, nil. The position of Commissioner has been offered to Mr Image, late chairman, Not being one of those superior beings whose proudest boast is that they are rate* it is useless for me to draw the atten. tion of the County Council to those wandering steeds that carelessly parade our roads, but I am looking forward to the time when one of them will kick out the brains—no, I wouldn’t say that—but will break the neck of one of the members of that august body. I reckon they’d consider the matter in that case.