GREYTOWN.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5556, 18 January 1879, Page 3

GREYTOWN.

(prom our own correspondent). January 16,

The contractor for the construction of the ■ railway from Featherston to Masterton has received much needed pressure from the Government to uso greater expedition with the work. I believe it was intimated to him that if he did not put on a greater number of men, the Public Works Department would do so at his expense. This has had a salutary effect. I understand as many men as can be obtained are now being employed along the line. I saw it stated a short time ago that thirty thousand tons of earth would have to be removed at the cutting at Woodside, which approaches on to the Waiohine bridge. A contractor on the line has assured me that, at the lowest calculation, there will be as much as one hundred and fifty thousand tons for removal at that particular spot. It will therefore be seen that activity is much needed if the works are to be completed within contract time. Allowing for everything, the line ought to be in working order as far as Woodside within six months, together with the Greytown branch. I am pleased to bear testimony to the evident improvement now apparent in the management of the line from Featherston to Wellington. The unnecessarily lengthy stoppages on the road have been curtailed ; the promptness with which the traffic is passed through, and the changes of engines made at the incline and summit, prove that a thoroughly practical hand controls the road. Some timid people have been expressing alarm at the supposed terrible rate at which the trains go down the Wellington, side of the hill. For my part, I feel it is only like railway travelling ; and I have no doubt that with increased acquaintance even old women will get accustomed to the rate, as, we are assured, eels do to skinning. The announcement that the Hon. John Martin has in view the cutting up into small farms the Huangaroa run, which he recently purchased from the Hon. Mr. Waterhouse, has been a topic of talk during the last week, Mr. Martin is said to be willing to buy up all the runs in the Lower Valley for the same purpose. It Mr. Martin carries out his plan on a broad and liberal basis, with the object of really encouraging the settlement of an agricultural class, that is, by making the various holdings sufficiently extensive to enable farmers to derive therefrom ample support for themselves and families, he will be an undoubted benefactor. The greatest desideratum of the Wairarapa, after.the railway, is the partition of the runs ; and whether Mr. Martin buys them out or not the example he will set must ere long be followed by the other big squatters. Moffatt, the pakeha-Maori, who is residing with the natives at Papawai, is endeavoring to induce the Maoris to work their flour mill again, and to cultivate the splendid land they possess, but which they have hitherto been too indolent to turn to any good account. They appear to have recently imbibed the idea that a sort of millenium is about to dawn upon them and their worldly belongings. They say that according to promises, whence derived Heaven only knows, they are to have a bran new township all to themselves, adjoining Greytown, embellished with their own shops, hotels, schools, churches, and everything else besides. What childlike simplicity and credulity, poor things ! However, if Moffatt stirs them up to cultivate their lands he will at least do them a vast amount of good. The last of our municipal elections passed off to-day with the selection of auditors under the new Borough Council. The result of the poll was that Messrs. Webster and Wyett were elected, the voting being Webster 28, Wyett 20, Skeet 9, and Scott 6. The Council will now be in full fling, and as his Worship the Mayor, atitsfirst meeting, announced his policy as one of progress, I hope soon to see some signs of regeneration in the township. The state of the main street is not a fascinating one; on the contrary, with its abundant growth of grass, weeds, and thistles, it has a most forlorn appearance. To speak metaphorically, it is the neglected child of the old Local Board who wants a clean shirt and his face washed.

Dr. Taylor, from Wellington, who bought a tidy little farm here, has taken up his residence there with his family, and as an old settler is a welcome addition to our small society. The County Council of Wairarapa West should turn its intention to the present state of the high road, which is being much cut up, and is exceedingly rough, with the large amount of heavy traffic that is continually passing over it to and from the Featherston railway station. Coach travelling has always its drawbacks, but when we find ourselves, owing to ruts and holes, on what sailors term a “ chopped sea,” and the crowded passengers jerked and tossed about each other promiscuously, it is, to speak mildly, mighty uncomfortable, and decidedly unpleasant for old bones.