OPOTIKI.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1791, 22 January 1885, Page 4

OPOTIKI.

fpROMOITR OWN CORRESPONDENT. I iMFOTTNDINa ACT. t Jan. 14. I am informed that the Impounding Actr df Nov. Bth, 1884, has been in force; since January Ist, and yet go anywhere you may in the town or outside of it you will see mobs of cattle and horses running on the public highway. >I do not know who is to blame for this, but now that the County Council have erected a Pound here, I trust that they will see that the Impounding Act is rigidly enforce^. ' MAIL CONTRACT. The following arrangement, I believe, has been made between the Northern Steamship Company and the Government for carrying the mails. The Staffa is to leave here on Monday, arrive in Tauranga on Tuesday, to leave Tauranga on Friday, and arrive in Opotiki on Saturday. This contract, if properly carried out, will tend greatly to improve our communication with the outer world, and be a great boon to business men and others in the. district. ! COUNTY KATE. A great deal of grumbling has been caused through the County Council collecting the County rate of threein the pound. This rate was struok nearly twelve months ago, but owing to thefact of some of the resi- .- dents preparing a petition to present .to the Governor jpraying him to suspend the Counties Act, the rate was not collected until now. It is a matter to be greatly regretted that there are aievr among us who are so very short sighted as to protest against this rate being collected. That at the present time there is a scarcity of money I am persuaded, but it is only a temporary depression, and the small amount that the rate comes to individually is not enough to affect them seriously, and the large amount of good this money will do the County if judiciously spent (which I feel certain our County Council axe quite competent to do) will doubly repay anybody who has had to j>inch to pay his ,rates. At the present -—-time there is very little land available for settlement on the Opotiki flat, but , from Opotiki to Ohiwa there are some large blocks unoccupied, and in fact there, is good land all round us, and , we can only have this land settled by making roads to it. It is needless for me to point out that increased settlement must -eventually benefit everybody in Opotiki, and to gain that object you must hold out some inducement for settlers to purchase land in the district. I know of no greater inducement, combined with good quality, than having roads to the land. These roads can only be obtained by levying . rates and subsidies from the Govern-

ment. The Council, in my opinion, ~ are acting very wisely in collecting this rate, -and my only regret is that they ctfnnot raise three times the total amount that they -will raise from this rate. "There are some very large and imporIfcjant works for the Council to do, and only the want of- money will prevent their completion.

BENEFIT. A benefit was tendered to Mr J. Foley by the Amateurs of Opotiki on Friday last. There was a fair house, and everyone of the performers acquitted themselves creditably.