WOODVILLE IN 1875.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 261, 8 October 1883, Page 2

WOODVILLE IN 1875.

L4s-DBSCBiB_ai by a; _i&v____b.] 1^ >rffy,',W told by, a gentleman passing 'through J Woodviltv and'is-jrepeatedl 'as/ nearly as possible inhis own words :— 1 was m > hiring . Gross rßaUway Station m 1875, and just s;astjng for New Zealand. Seeing a Npw ; Zpalan*Goide: lboughtyt, 1 _nd J onepf the ; names that 'struck me as , being; suggestive of forest 1 and *ip.b*r I™ oprintedo printed m large letters. . I .concluded Woodville ' vfaa a x ratherimpor|anc city to Ibe-lewt^ j»»d was the. more curious when I'M-' iaately arrived m tbe Waipawa district under orders to go through, to Pajmerstpn on business m connect. uwitVth., .Survey. Department. On starting from the old Tiikapau hote^ we jTushed' • along what struck me as the, most melancholy; road 'on this earth). lmtiiwe^ got nearer 'ami nearer to' the -great' \sfpqd ? ille. and I suggested" to my. frj^nd who was with me, that we^ should ftpd tbe horses, etc., and so we pushed, .on until we .reaebed the eras , r ads.' winch Aad standing bush! .on all sides,* llffi^/^fJS 11 * ° f any human habitatibn ! a pmall tent, wtich was piy_ed ! jus^where the Bank of =New Zealand' now stands.. ..Upon askicgthe man m which road led to the reply; Vas', « Why this e _s Wobd- , Visions of citjes in* .large eapiiari^tiers^ horse-fe ds,' and.^perhaps las but not least, of a whiskey, 1 ' a^ vanished m, a secontj.; r Neyer mind it .pann J 6i'^p] !J beihg , ' , a^big p a'-e- some ' day. In pa"s r ng thrcgh here to^iay, I"-glg_ced- around at- thrfine^ pastures, numbers ;of .stock and other improvements that'now talcV the place of what was then dense forest, I couldn't help saying to mysalf, " I'm of the same opinions Ml.'!;