PAHIATUA.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7620, 18 December 1886, Page 3

PAHIATUA.

(BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) December 16, 1886. . I told you in f&y Last that the main road through the township was laid off three chains wide. The Town Board, before ascertaining whether the road was vested in them, started to log-up and ,burn the whole width. Consequently for a mile you see stalwart men sawing and rolling and leveling as if their lives depended on it. The south end is all burning, the road covered with dense smoke, while a snorting gale rapidly converts each stump into a white-hot furnace. In a day or two, a' the work' proceeds, there will be bad times for some unless the wind abates. At night the effect is peculiarly weird. Last evening the moon swam up over the bush with the curious lopsided look of a football when it hangs over the goal post, and the two sides strain >their eyes to see whether a goal is won. The air was absolutely still, and. the crackling fires seemed not to break the • silence. They seemed like live centres' of activity apart from the surrounding dewy quiet of night. A poet might have been inspired by the, scene, but to interpret nature you must write of what your readers have seen, and you reach their hearts by detecting hidden beauties in what is familiar, rather than by telling them stories of matters they have not witnessed. This may bo seen in many of Shakespeare's most perfect lines. Hence the most delicately conceived poetical allusions fo these fires would miss their mark, for as few have watched them at ni»ht tho poet would have few sympathisers. Had Black the novelist accepted the chair of English Literature at the Otago University, his next novel might well have done for New Zealand what his earlier ones did for some aspects of Scotch scenery, for in prose these things are possible, though only to men who, like lilack, have special gifts developed by long practiced. * The Hon. Mr llicliardson passed through on the 13th, and a fantastic friend drew me a wonderful picture of his approach; Tho Minister he described ns a great lion driven in a spare circus wagon. When ho drew near all ihe other carnivora growled, and soon the roaring became awful. My friend thought the boasts were to bo fed, for they banqueted Mr Hallance. and ho hastened, growling savagely, to the scene. One great shaggy fellow was scratching in the garden ; when lie perceived the Minister ho ran inside to comb his mane out, and was over the fence and up the road in a twinkling^ All of them were on to him ; tho Minister roared loudest of all, and a stranger would have thought a terrible fight imminent. But it was all friendship ; there was a momentary mingling of fierce carnivorous breath, ana the Minister was hurried off to Woodville. What did he say ? everyone asked. AVell, all one could hear was a terrible roaring, but the l'tthiatua Star says Mr Richardson "rather astonished his listeners by informing them that no other surveys had been made for the railway line than the one now laid out, and it wus intended to have located it there without ascertaining whether a bettor route existed." I wouldn't lileo to he a Minister. Ilorrld to be beset by all your brother bcasje wherever you go. The loenl politicians havo a sixth sciipc a they scent a Minjstci miles off, and all pester him about some local trifle. And what a third-rate Minister-! Not a ljo)j at all— only sovu other animal in a lion's skin. What other animal ? lam no zoologist, but he roared like ten thousand saws all belnc sharpened at once, An for tho loeni

vf people I stoutly maintain that the; c were real lions, every one, and very noble 3. But fancy the Minister confessing tha r- £150,000 was going to be spent withou a proper official report showing the bes it route ! I forgot to add that he promisee j. to be " good 1 ! in future, and have 'icare ful" surveys of various routes made a s once. Hum ! Various routes ! That i s- spelt wrong. Various roots is what h< c meant, and I know the root— or at leasi k the flower of it— dear to Caledonia'! f heart, which I think he would like t( a, survey first. However, tlie Pahiatu Stai c may have misinterpreted his roaring, 0 Had he said he knew what he was doing c and did not wane to be taught how tc 1 locate a line, I should haye called that a a roar worthy of a lion. Sir George Grey i. is the man to talk to deputations. He s never " lets his fool out." ■ . 3 I hear most gloomy accounts^ of de--1 pression everywhere. A friend- in Engl land writes he can get splendid ale in 1 bottles at 2s 6d a dozen [delivered. Thai t is rough on brewers and bottlers. Sinii- , .larlyin New Zealand everyone is saying 1 there is no money anywhere. As for us, ' strangers keep coming in and new buildi ings "going up. We are wonderfully 3 ohimneyed for so small a place, and there is a lot of "expensive painting done. Mr > Hutchen, barrister and solicitor, has i nearly finished his new offices, arid will move into them in a week or so. Another > Makaretu settler has come down, full of 5 courage, .and has ordered a house as freely J as your humble servant would call for a t long beer. The fact is. that we are insulated from the general depression by . the expenditure of money at Eketahuna and Woodville due to the operations of : the big contractors. The works in pro- ] gress amount to something like £200,000, and so men north and south of us get big ! cheques and meet . them and pass on smaller ones here, and we accept them gratefully. ■ As I predicted, grass seed is likely to be our great export. One grower says be will have 300 sacks for certain, and may have 500. I hear that young stock are greatly in demand, and am positively assured that at their last sales Messrs Briggs and Gibbs could have sold 150 head had any been offered.