LAKE COLERIDGE NOTES.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14562, 13 January 1913, Page 2

LAKE COLERIDGE NOTES.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Tho holidays being over a number of men have returned to work, but many of the old hands have gone grass seeding and harvesting, and will not return till the wintor sets in, and other work is scarce.

During the holidays all the men who stayed here worked all days except Christmas Day and New Year's Day at tho excavation for the power-house foundation, and tho. tram lino to the shingle pit.

Th? line is now completed from the hill top to tho power-house block, and in a few days a double track will be laid to the riverbed. The engine for hauling up the shingle is ready for use, and some of the pines for tho pipe lino havo arrived. The pillars to carry the pipes is now a double lino for two-thirds of tho way un the hill, and in the distance the riverbed looks liko a lot of crave stones in a couple of rows on the hillside. The huts for the married men havo been built on a terrace above tho power-house block, and most of them aro occupied, as several families have arrived from Cheviot.

It is now time we had a school opened here, as there are twenty children,' and they are doing no good* running about all day, and only hearing tho talk of the men. It is strange that near town the same narents would bo prosecuted if their children were away from school. At the tunnel contract things are nearly at a standstill. Work at tho middle shaft was stopped on Wednesday for want of coal for the enaino and timber for the tunnel. At the intake shaft tho roacbino drills have been discarded for want of steam to drive them, and small shifts are working with hammer and drill, so as to say that work is being carried on. At the outlet end only two-men shifts aro working, as they dare not drive further till more timber arrives.

The new contractor has begun to run the mail coach, and tho old one is being run in opposition.