WAIROA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6542, 5 April 1882, Page 3

WAIROA.

(from an occasional correspondent.) ' ' March 28. Now is the winter of our discontent (about to be) made glorious summer by the. promise of a coach-road being soon an'accomplished fact between Wairoa and Gisborne—that is to say if the surveyors can find a practicable route for dray traffic. As they are actually out looking for it at the present time we have something to be truly grateful for. The good people in Napier are very much exercised in mind and spirit just now to carry out Mr Goodall’s scheme for a breakwater at the Bluff. No less a sum than L 326.000 would be required, while harbor works at the Kidnappers would only cost L 230,000, including the branch line of railway, the purchase of the property, breakwater at Clifton, Tuki-Tuki bridge and all. Now seeing that Napier town is simply one huge fever bed, that the business portion of the “ city ” is built upon a sickening mass of putrid swamp and shingle soaked to repletion with the drainage from cesspits, would it not be as well to admit that Napier town, as. well as harbor, is a failure, and to make a fresh start at the Kidnappers ? Of what use is all this tinkering up of drains that lead nowhere, and patching up of harbor work that will never constitute a harbor if Napier is to become, some very hot autumn, one vast charnel-house. After a very close escape from the main portion of the township being laid in ashes, we are to make an attempt to 01 ganise a fire brigade. I believe, after a few more fires have taken place, something will be achieved, but not till then. The trustees of the Mechanics’ Institute and Public Library, having obtained a very central site next to the Post and Telegraph Office, are about to build. This will supply a want long felt, It.seems to me a very strange thing that when both the lessors and the_ lessees of Native lands are anxious and willing to subdivide their holdings, the Native Land Court has no power to allow such subdivision, unless the lease is previously cancelled 1 Such a proviso seems to mo utterly ridiculous, and quite uncalled for. It also practically locks up much land, and stops many improvements that would otherwise be made. Yet such is the law, as administered here. No wonder, then, the settlers sf the Bast Coast call for remedial legislation in the laws relating to Native lands. It is also a strange thing that under the new Licensing Act landlords holding a 10 o’clock license cannot obtain an hour’s extension for; any particular occasion. Perhaps this is a premeditated oversight. March SI. Hawke’s Bay will 'not shine verv exaltedly this next Parliamentary session. Of the Hawke’s Bay “ party ” that was to have been, and is not, only the member, for Napier Borough takes his seat. Mr Ormond (Waipawa), Captain Russell (Hawke’s Bay), Mr Buchanan (Napier), together with Mr Locke (East Coast), would have been the quartette to represent Hawke’s Bay interests in the forthcoming scramble had the quid nuncs prophecied correctly. As it is, people do not expect that Messrs Sutton and Buchanan will pull together very amicably, and the member for the Bast Coast, Mr Allan McDonald (of athletic renown), naturally gravitates towards Auok-; land as his political centre. We shall soon boast of no less than three places’of worship here—Anglican, Presbyterian, and Homan Catholic—the framework: of the later building is now up, and good progress being made, I am happy to stare that both the former-named churches are entirely free from debt—thanks to bazaars, gift auctions, and fancy fairs. Visitors who look remarkably like possible purchasers of land have been looking up our “ Sleepy Hollow ” lately. There is a quiet subdued air about moneyed men impossible to mistake; the rattling, noisy, braggadocio sort of article is invariably hard-up, or else working on someone else’s capital—never his own. There is some cheap 5s an acre land (Crown land) still to be picked up in this locality. The City Council has struck a ninepenny rate this year —medio tutissimus ibis. Some people believe in a general rate of Is in the £, others again in a sixpenny; the middle course is, perhaps, the safestjto pursue. A tax of 5s a-head on all dogs (sporting, shepherd, and fancy) has also been imposed.