OTARIA.

Clutha Leader, Volume V, Issue 216, 30 August 1878, Page 5

OTARIA.

[fbom our owjst correspondent.]

The residents in this district have ex> perienced one of the most severe winters that has ever been witnessed here or at Home. I beHeve it wiU be a long time before they can efface the dire recoUection of the past season from their memory. . It Iqoks very much Hke as if the small township of Clinton had a prophet in its midst. I heard one of its residents declare in January last that he believed the coming winter would be one so- severe that the rising generation would remember it during their lifetime. This prophecy, I beHeve, wiH prove quite correct. Nearly every stock, owner here has lost more or less through the storm. Since the snow disappeared they- have had- a busy' time securing the skins, and releasing- those7 sheep that were imprisoned in drifts/where they were often- found in heaps.' TA' considerable number of -yearling- calves also perished. I Thaye; heard; of A half-a-dozen horses ; haying succumbed. One : owner (who from theAEmerald Tßle), 7 7whq lost ; two, ; declares quite in 7 earnest that Ait isn't, died'they didy but. its smothered they was."., I supposeit makes HUle, differenceto the

The question is often asked in this district as to when we are to have a good's shed at Pukerau Railway Station. I suppose if the settlers do not take steps to have it done the Railway Department wiH not trouble about it. But 1 believe if they only knew the amount of produce, <&c, to be taken from this station so soon as good weather sets in they would lose no time in erecting the necessary buildings. At present it is a great loss, besides a perfect nuisance, to have goods thrown out of the train on the open ground exposed to all weathers. There is another matter concerning this district, relating to the railway, which requires altering, otherwise it wiU cause no end of annoyance before long, that is to have the name of the Otaria Railway Station altered. What right has it to that name ? Otaria Post Office and Township is ten miles distant from the above station, and this district lias no interest whatever with the station. Pukerau is our most direct place. I hope this will be rectified before long. Tne name of Otaria should be taken from the station and some other substituted.