OUR OTAGO LETTER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1832, 17 April 1907, Page 25

OUR OTAGO LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) THE CLYDE VALE ESTATE. The above estate, recently offered and declined by the Government for the purposes of closer settlement, has been acquired by a Canterbury syndicate, which pin poses subdividing the property into suitable areas for settlement. The estate in question, situate in South Otago, 15 or 20 miles up the Molyneux River from Baiclutha, comprises some 8i),9')0 acres of unrivalled agricultural land, and indeed it has been said one of the members of the purchasing syndicate gave it as his opinion that no finer land had come under Iris notice in the colony. Now the press is inquiring and people are asking if this property is all that it is claimed to be, why the Minister of Lands, the Purchase Board, or whoever was concerned in declining to acquire the property, allowed such an opportunity to secure a valuable tract ot country eminently suited to the purposes of close settlement to pass into the hands of a private combine. The purchasers intend, I understand, to lay off the property into areas ranging from 150 to 1150 acres, and to offer the freehokl-rto, settlers as may be desired. But the fact remains that someone lias apparently blundered. WANTED—A CITY WITHOUT SLUMS. Thanks to the Trades and Labour Conference, Dunedin has earned a rather unenviable reputation concerning the existence of slums. To one who knows anything of the conditions existing in other cities of the colony, it is a little amusing to learn from a certain northern trades unionist that “the rabbit hutches to be found in the slums of Dunedin are ton times worse than the quarters occupied by the poorer classes in another city.” it is not my intention to institute comparisons (which after all can be readily done), nor will I endeavour to show that the statements, although exaggerated are totally without foundation in fact. It is perfectly true that the houses tenanted by the Chinese, Syrians, and the poorer classes of our own people in the residential area in the vicinity of Stafford and Walker streets are small, far from being modern in any sense, and in a few instances insanitary; but the sweeping statements made by Mr Cooper have certainly not been borne out by an independent pressmen nor by Mr Arnold, A1.11.R., who visited the locality the other day. ihe latter gentleman rather effectively hit off the situation when he suggested that it would be better for the members of the Trades Councils to try to suggest a remedy.u’atlier than make exaggerated and disrespectful statements —statements that can only discount their influence in this matter, and also the jvliole work of the conference in the cause of Labour. The member for Dunedin South has long cherished a scheme for the erection of suitable homes for the poor, and intends in the future to keep the matter prominently before the Government. GENERAL. A fire this week, which started in the premises of Messrs Bremner and Moir, jewellers, and which at one time imperilled the safety of the Criterion Hotel, showed once again the urgent necessity for the provision of fire police, as the crowd which congregated hampered the firemen very "materially—almost alarmingly, So far only four or five of the available fourteen workers' homes in the Win die settlement have been tenanted, and it looks as though the familiar “to let” ticket will attach to the residue for an indefinite term. I make bold to say that the purchasing clause in the conditions will have to be considerably modified, or a more accessible site fixed upon, before the experiment can be claimed to be successful. Something more than a “breeze” occurred at the last meeting of the City Council over the amount of commission to be allowed Messrs Noyes Bros, on the Waiporr electric power works. Heated councillors hurled epithets the reverse of gentlemanly at each other across the council table, and it should be instructive to note the effect of the same on the approaching elections, which promise to prove of unusual interest. An evil-looking denizen of the deep—a ~ ground shark, Bft in length and 3ft 6in

in girth—was caught on a groper line by a fishing smack off the harbour entrance the other day. It “cut up rough” cm reaching the surface, and in a final struggle knocked one of the boat's crew prostrate on the deck. The famous (alleged) Watteau and Turner paintings are at present on view in a shop window in the city, and have at! i acted no small amount of curiosity.