THE BLACKBALL FERRY

Grey River Argus, Issue 10520, 6 October 1902, Page 3

THE BLACKBALL FERRY

♦ On Friday last we published some notes from our Blackball correspondent. They dealt with the ferry, the appliances for ferrying passengers and goods Hcross, and also the toll. The notes' were intended to be humorous aad were pitched ia a jocular key, though" some of the exaggerations

mighb fairly be described as absolutely grotesque and un ikely to d'/c ive anybody. No" doubt many enjoyed the quaintly erratic humor of the writer. Bub ie was not so with a gosd many others, who looked only at the distortions, failing to see the joke. Consequently a small army of aggrieved persons have besiege 1 us over the alleged sins of our correspondent As one way out of the difficulty, a member of che staff, who knows tbmething of punts and ferries, volunteered to visit the locality and furnish us with a deadly cold report chat might be relied upon in all respects. The result we append: The ferry is most decidedly iut a eh erful looking spot, from a ferryman's poinbof view; but lather the very revevse. Tno main Grey stream has »n inconvenient addicion of forming little inlands and throwing out awkward spits that often upset the ferry u-rangemen s; and when this happens i fresh site Ins to be found for the ferry, either above or below the existing site. Standing at the landing, looking up »nd down one can see the iripod standards that have ha I to be jrectt-d as ihe feny was changed ; and erecting these entails heavy expend:iure—that is as compared with any possible revenue to te derived from 'err age. Below the pre-ent County pxintJiesonem-.de by Mr. O'Brien; Dub it is quite too smali for 4 tiv> present) iraffic. AboveGhe pu.b, somewbrre-iu ihe river, lies the rema ns of Harry Wick's punt The County putic is ex;ellently des'gned and h-.s been constructed as well as Mr McLisky could Bina^e to do it. It is the largest cmnt that ires ever been on the river, md is as easily worked -as any punt :ould be expected to be. It is neither \ man-ot-war n .<r a nlave dhow, nor loes it draw as much water as the Wainui or Dingadee; bub it can easily iccommodateU waggon and four-hoises, he draft at no time being more than 18 inches It did not cost the ha fof L4OO, and the wings are easily lifted by one man at the windlass. There is ao double-purchase winch and three men tv work it. The punt is steered by means of a small windlass working the guide ropes instead of, as formerly, by a hu^e steer oar, such as are used in ra ting timber. The so-called " coffin" is a flat-bottomed scow that can ea-ily accommodate five or six, though nob with tie comfort of a captain's gig. Ib is pure imagination to siy that the punt is embayed in a natural dock until an *all-wise flood removes some 10,000 tons of gravel; and bhe Council musb build a new river to suit the'punt. Thisis funny, do doubt, but it does not happen to bj true. The punt, certainly, lies outside of a spit in the river, but it was easily dropped

down the river to the end of the sp.t. which it rounded and was token to its , proper position A tolUga-te is regarded as fur game fur every one satirically inclined, and no doubt a good many regard a ferry in much the same light, and would metaphorically flay the author's alive. But in this instance the jokists are widely astray. The GreyCouufcy Council have, gone to a great deal of fxpendito meet the wants of the public. If no puub were provide I there w^uld be a prolonged howl, and when a punt is provided the owners of vehicles refrain from using it until circumstances absolutely compel ihein to do so. The

con equ^nceis that the Council is considerably oat of pocket in maintaining the punt, which costs ever L 7 a week to keep ib ready for the use of the public, though there is practically no revenue from it. But the Council seems to be fair game. Even the General Government managed to extract about LBO out of them for giving their permis ion to cross the Government railway in order to make a branch road to the feny. Patrotic Government ! Tuat shows t how de"ply they feel for the people. The County Co-moil really deserve credit instead of abuse, whether it is jocular or vitriolic, for wht they hxve done for the convenience of the Blackball miners. What is wanted is a railway bridge. The Council hns an unpleasant and expeusive task in keeping a ferry going at the Blackball crossing at all.