WAIKOUAITI.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 832, 13 December 1878, Page 2

WAIKOUAITI.

[prom oub owsr correspondent.] December 11. I am glad to see the Oamaru Mail a>t> Agbicdxtobist finding its way down here, and expect before long to see it all along the line of railway to Dunedin, and tQ find it even more freely circulated in the dwellings of our farmers. Since the railway has been finished our township has not gone back so much as people out-

side us have imagined. Two or three large buildings have been added to it, and there is a probability of the admission of the northern suburbs into the Municipality of Hawksbury—at any rate there is a petition under way in that direction signed by some "ixty residents. There is a commonage reserve of 300 acres of splendid land lying on the side of the hill to the westward of Matanaka, which was formerly surveyed into 1100 sections for the purpose of- extending the town to the eastward. If this reserve could be placed in the market it would be of great benefit to the town, as it would induce persons from Dunedin and other places to purchase these lands to build residences upon. There are, however, other opinions on the subject. Of course those interested in free pasturage wish to retain the commonage, but for my own part I think it would be very much better for the town to sell it. Then there is the lagoon reserve pf 100 acres, the greater portion of which is under water ; still it would not take a very large outlay of money to redeem the whole of it, and lay it down in grass, the rental of which would more than repay the cost of outlay and would give us something nice to look at.

Waikouaiti is perhaps the only old town in Otago that can boast of no local newspaper, no lawyer, and no doctor. So healthy is this place, that the latter of these can endure no lengthened stay, and for our newspaper we have, like Esau, sold our birthright for a mess of pottage. We have a capital railway station, the fine ballast obtainable here giving it a cleanly and wholesome appearance. Near the station, Mr. Samuel Woolley has put up an exceedingly comfortable public house, which will hereafter be known as the Railway Station Hotel.