OWAKA.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1036, 1 June 1894, Page 6

OWAKA.

+ j fpnoir our, own correspondent.] (Unavoidably held over from last issue.) Some excitement was aroused in Owaka last Saturday when it was currently reported that the well-known trader to Owaka, the s.s. Napier had gone to pieces on the bar in a heavy jrale which was blowing off the port. Fortunately the rumours were worse than what really happened, as the steamer managed to get safely back to port, though considerably knocked about by the heavy seas. The bulwarks were damaged, the deck-house was swamped, and the captain and crew lost clothes and tucker, and two, tons of coal which was in bags on the deck slipped overboard, but I hear that was about, the amount of damage done, and she waa able to proceed on her way to Dunedin on Monday. After all the talk about putting men on the railway 12 men from the district have been put on, which will certainly bring it on at lightning speed. The rest are sent to "glory knows where," to cut down and make a botch of the bush I suppose as before, and the prices offered are so tempting that even single men cannot make tucker at them, and what is gaing to keep up married- men's families 1 Echo answers the storekeepers. If the Government are determined to put people on the land at such a distance from railway and markets, and such bad roads to put up with, how in the name of wonder are the people who settle on the land to get any good from it. The road round the lake to Ratanui is now in an almost impassable state, and the council have not the money to improve it and who ia to ? People who take up land in these outlandish spots, cut off from civilization aud everything, deserve the land for nothing and a pension into the bargain, considering the time they must wait before they can get any return from the land, and the amount of labour and cost of getting it unler cultivation. The meeting held the other night to consider the question of bringing a doctor into the district was attended by about half-a-dozen. Certainly the residents seem to be in a state of apathy over it. Mr Geo. Ford was elected secretary to write to the different lndgeß, and to oall a meeting in a month's time to see what will be dons. ' Owaka, May 23.