CATLINS RIVER.

Clutha Leader, Volume IV, Issue 283, 31 January 1879, Page 5

CATLINS RIVER.

[from oue. own correspondent.] Although I take great interest in this, district, I am averse to sending you a column of everlasting Committee meetings, and postponed public works schemes, for I am sure the reading of the same is to be compared to nothing else- than to eating a very dry biscuit when you are thirsty. A Home Parliamentary report, in detail, is enjoyable, as the versatility of subject. and opinion is always productive of interest, but save me from a detailed report of a County Council or district Committee. 1 would sooner read the proceedings of the Presbyteriau Synod, or the Education Act (and that is saying very much) than a report of -a County Council or district Committee. I trust no Clutha Councillor may feel the least offended at my declaration of depravity of taste, for of course the Clutha Council are excepted. Few townships possess such astute Councillors, such gifted orators, and such, brilliant wits as does Balclutha. It is always (sometimes) interesting to read the reports of their Councils. Indeed nothing could be more interesting except being present at the same. _ Although we are but embryo local politicians here, some of us have already learned, when assembled for the common weal, to be as grave in deportment as a tombstone, and as uninteresting in speech as a Town crier (two absolutely necessary attributes of a district wiseacre and politi--1 cian). _ A stranger being suddenly admitted into the Catlina parliament would imagine the assembled senators v-jere discussing the most momentous affairs of state, .and that they had on this occasion dispensed with their wigs on account of the heat, instead of which,, perhaps they are discussing the drainage of a road, or the Utopian idea of a Catlins Railway. But then we can by great effort rise equal . 1 to any emergency, and there it is that we shine. Quozritur. Mosquitos are a plague, and your article must be written. Captain Marryatt boasted he could write a chapter out of nothing. I wish I had the ability. Some say I have acquired that ability, and perhaps they are correct. However that may be, under existing circumstanc s I must find fault with something or somebody. All newspaper correspondents do, and I must not be an exception, therefore why not with the proverbial scapegoats, Committee men ? I have it ,pleno jure that the final survey of the Catlins Railway will take place this 1 week. Your last week's correspondent " Puerua," in re Catlins Railway, wrote a very sensible letter, and the above reliable information will answer the vexed question asked by him " when is the Catlins! Railway to commence ?" " Rome was not built in a day " is a stereotyped and paradoxical proverb I am. heartily sick of, and is as hackneyed as its repitition is tedious ; but so sure as Rome was not built in a day, so sure is it that . Catlins (0 sacrilegious juxtaposition, Rome and Catlins .!) will not be built in a day, nor its railway either. But all in good time. When it is started there will be some indefinate hope of its completion within tlie - next two or three hundred years. - On the Clutha Council being entrusted :

-*•—-"*»** *^ J^ l^** g wt*woMfa^ iCT avaw M^ JaMJßm> . . with the grant of LSOO, for tho store and jetty at Owake landing, I eenaiuiy did con-cjinplate tiie speedy erection of "thoso wor.ss. I now learn t) at somebodv lias just discovered that th-s w.irk below* to u he Marine Department. Somebody •hould have « tnld thai- to the marine *" before tins. For two mortal yean- nave we waited, and urged, and prayed, and (out never mind), that this might ba ptib in hand (and indeed it is most urgeJtlv wanled), the result being tlio m:\--mds lmve seized it ! Tlie Lord only knows (I speak not irreverently) when the marinewill do anything in the matter I sunpose we shall have to wait mud nil' a bkis. Well, we can but wait. The new mail arrangement commenced v ast luuday. Owing to souib mistake w, have not (as I writ.) yet received onr olutha mails. Some affirm they havo gone bouth, otheis say to Denmark ' \ cynical observer remarked, on .heanw* tins last, t lwt if 80 , there w«s " something rotten m the State of Denmark," a statement as ungenerous as it was unjust Tim mistake is pardonable enough, bein<. the first day of the altered arrangements, the mail contractor, Duncan M'Kenzie was in no way to blame for this, nor do f think; he will incur blame whilst he has the contract. Our best thanks are due to Mr Archibald Barr, Postmaster, Dnnedin, for thKindness and courtesy he has always extended to us, throughout our endeavours to accomplish a direct mail service. I have much pleasure in publicly notifying this, as I know all who have 'been con" nected with the movement are of tha same opinion. As the tenders are in for Telegraph poles to Catlins, this will be immediately put m hand. A general meeting was held on Monday mght in the Hall, Owake "Flat, for the election of a School Committee for the ensuing year. The meeting was largely attended, and Mr J. D. Moore was voted to the chair. The Secretary of the Committee, functus officio, read a report of proceedings of their late tenure of office, find other details were gone into. Later ou m the evening, the Chairman read the result of the ballot, which was as follows (and which was received with applause) : — Captain Andrew, and Messrs J. M'lntyre John Eslcr, Robert Millar, James Miliar' U. Falconer, ana Flowers. Cap bain Andrew, m moving a vote of thanks, spoke m high terms of the late Secretary, Mr J. Millar, who has thoroughly deserved the praise. The vote was accorded him with acclamation. A vote of thanks to the Chair terminated the proceedings. The annual children's picnic' will -be held on Thursday next, the Uth proximo, and'a soiree is to follow in the evening. Everything that can be done will be done to make this a thorough success. I trust to see friends from Puerua, Warepa, and surrounding districts visit us on the occasion.