DUNSTAN PRESYTERY AT BLACKS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume 36, Issue 9439, 30 September 1904, Page 4

DUNSTAN PRESYTERY AT BLACKS.

' The minister and the, elder, duly commissioned by the Kirk Session, were bound for the Dunstan Presbytery, one day last week. The day previous,.being radiant with sunshine, showed anticipations of a fine day jvith -a-pleasant journey. The journey for the firßt time in the experience of the district Ws'td be'mainly by rail; The'day for the Start, Wednesday, was in. no way like its predecessor. It broke not badly but by 11 o'clock had come, it was easily seen, lo stay. Nothing daunted, the elder appeared at the appointed time, wearing, as he asserted, a great'doafc that would turn any sbowef. The horse was got in, rain or no rain, and a buggy with three occupants made their way j&o Ranfurly., It rained,, it poured, yet no ibotice was taken oE it. On the party went chatting cheerfully, Ranfurly was reached in duo time." It seemed by accident that the miiuaternnd eldergotintoa smoking carriage. First the daily paper had to be read. It was not long_ before the minister had some qualms Of conscience about missing what, had" never been his privilege,before,-to see the country from the railway. Ho windows went down; and the one and (ho other could have been Men looking put as upon country they had never seen before. It seemed all new, actually much of it was new. la nearing the Weddurburn 1 , the parts of the line that had (jtiven the railway much trouble were passed, ugly pieces these were. Passed Wedderburn Sow and winding round and over Hough Hidgo. The old road, used so many years on horseback) and in bugsry seemed an eld familiar friend now discarded, giving place to an easier and' pleasanter mode of conveyance. Passed Rough Ridge Btation we

few passengers; xvn,again,..and now it is Ida Valley station, and here the interest increased. But to make (he time seem, short, the elder produced from tbe capacious poclctt of his great coat oranges and tbc minister found ajcignr for the elder, where it came from nothing need be.snid. Passed Ida Valley, both minister -and elder were busy at the windows, sometimes at the one side, then at the other. The railway banks the elder d'clared showed signs of good land, he making strict inquiries where fie L&titour's swamp was. All' the low level lands seemed covered with water. At. last the gorge and the viaduct were reached, with patches of the line looking not at all so stable as might be det-ired. Passed the viadnct, now maiking tbe gorge, wondering how such a deep gorge could be cut by water evidently .through the rocky ridge; through two tunnels, and we are out and into tbe valley of tbe Mnnuherikia, with much'-flat land on the near bank of the river; tbe river now crossed on a bridge thrown across where tb« rockbonnd banks nearly meet ; now out on the Lauder flat, across level lands ; now Lander siding where a new hotel also stands, on.and on now slowly.asif particular caution is needed. The fields showing spring fairly advanced, with sheep, ewes and lambs in good condition, lower lands about than Maniototo and spring more advanced certainly ; on and on and now we are in the Nation at Ophir; no, it was meant to be Ophir certainly as the name is printed all about and yet it is not Ophir. It is, as we were.assured, Omakau, a name two days old. needed it was in connection with postal arrangements. Now at Omakau, what is to be done ? Mud everywhere, houses also all scattered itbout. hotels surely ample in number yet no accommodation for our purpose to be found. So over to old Blacks we go. arid arc soon settled for tbe night in Donnelly's hotel. Not a moment could be lost; the Presbytery was immediately opened in tbe church and the members sat down to about three houjs of work, tbe work having been carefully prepared beforehand, else twice three hours would not have seen it through. At the close of the meeting the clerk held .rip n bundle of papers declaring that it would take him n week to write the minutes out in full. What shall we say of the business,? In-March last the Presbytery previously consisting, of five members and two missionaries, was reduced to two ministers. Still tha work had gone forward, missionaries settled at Wanaka and Bough Ridge ; Roxburgh, Cromwell and Lauder had all but been regularly supplied. Mr Ilarkness settled at Rough Ridge, doing good work. Mt Dyer at Wanaka, also doing good work, the people there seemingly about to build a church, Roxl nrgh in a fair way to be settled, and Cromwell and Lauder in good hopes, each of them having a student settled for the summer, and many other things connected with the congregations were seen to by the Presbytery, commissioners appointed for the general assembly, tbe Presbytery giving brarty approval to the Evangelistic deputies promised to be sent through Otago Central. At last the Presbytery closed its meeting and made for the fire at Donnelly's comfortable hotel, the clerk of the Presbytery, reason or none, determined to drive tbe same night back to his manse at Alexandra, the other two glad they had nothing more to do than to end tbe day and pass the night where they were. Next morning the minister was up first and caught the elder snoozing, but while the minister was at breakfast, the elder walked in and shared breakfast with him. When finished, and had a look about old Blacks and a talk with some old friends, we made our way to the station. It is said to be 2i miles l»y the bridge from Blacks to Omakau. We hardly thought it was so much. At first whin looking round Blacks we thought that many of the inhabitants had betaken themselvps *o fields new. Up<n closer investigation, things were found not bad at all. A bridge to allow passage directly across would place Blacks more on a level with Omakau, and some day Blacks may waken up with the cry upon its lips—- '' Where is 0-ma-kau ? " The coaches seem very vigorous ; one coach driven by our old friend Mr Sutherland, who has seen Otago Central in all its stages, goes to Alexandra every night, reaching there at 7.16 p.m. returning in the morning to Omakau by 9.15 am. Similarly a coach goes to Cromi well on the arrival of the trains and returns again next morning in time for the starting of the train for Dunedin. I rather think Alexandra and Cromwell were never so near Dunedin as they are just now, 15s 9d taking an Alexandra passenger to Dunedin, and a not much larger sum takes a Cromwell passenger the same distance. We reach the station in good time, w armed and nothing the worse of our trip across. When taking out tbe tickets I aske.l if a stationmaster was settled here and had for answer that he, the person answering, had tbe honour of filling tbit post, and he lookrda man as handsome as tie station buildings, which the Public Works Department bad made somehow very handfome. We entrained at 9.45 a.m. and reached Wedderburn at 11.30 a.m. and Naseby at 1 p.m. It was with difficulty that we could persuade ourselves that we bad Actually come from Blacks in hours. It wa«t" really so as our watches did testify. The drive from Wedderburn was bitteily cold and here in the manse we had a comfortable fire, and something to eat to the bargain. After being warmed we parted, having taken our first trip up country upon the Otago.Central railway and pretty well pleased with ourselves in having done the trip so easily and so expeditiously. The Presbytery also nominated the Rev D. Borne for the modiratorskipof the General Assembly for 1.905,