A Holiday Tour to Southland and Queenstown.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXI, Issue 6531, 15 April 1896, Page 4

A Holiday Tour to Southland and Queenstown.

A correspondent sends us the follow- ' ing : 1 Having a few days to spare at the beginning of the month, I took advantage of 1 the cheap railway fares to avail myself of a trip to the south, and a few notes of the trip may be of Interest to some of your • readers. I was glad to have with me, part of the way, a practical farmer of 1 North Otago who had spent some years 1 in Southland, and who gave me a lot of ! information regarding the quality of the 1 land in the south. But I may say at the : outset of this letter that he was of the P opinionJLhat no part of Southland would compare favorably with North Otago. 5 We stayed a night in Dunedin, and } were present at the reception given to the delegates to the Prohibition Conference in the Choral Hall, during the Easter holidays. Ihe hall was well filled and we spent a very pleasant evening. * The principal speakers were Messrs Jago 1 (Dunedin), Tsitt (Christchurch), and 5 Greenwood (Oamaru). It was a pleasure 3 to visit the Museum, and no visitor should leave Dunedin without seeing this I public institution. It greatly assists, to e my mind, in expanding our views of 3 things in general. e As our time was limited we had to ' move along, and as we left Dunedin the 3 carriages were crowded with excursionists, tt some having to stand for a considerable e time. Surely trains leaving a place like a Dunedin should have plenty of accommo- ® dation for the passengers. The train ,l stopped at Waihola to allow of refreshs ments. It is a pretty spot and I should Q think well suited for holiday makers. The * lake that bears that name looks very pretty and seems to invite you to go and spend a while on its placid waters. I s noticed a small steamer which I underfc stand is available for excursionists any a time. e We noticed that a good deal of the crops were in the stook all along the line south, but they have had excellent weather for 0 the last four or five weeks and the bulk " of the grain has been safely gathered in, and fair yields are the rule. ° Balclutha. —The beginning of the pron hibition district—is situated on the river e Clutha, the largest of our New Zealand " rivers, and which drains the country from lakes Wanaka and Wakatipu, s Gore.—The most important town between Invercargill and Dunedin—is 100 miles from Dunedin and 39 from Invercargill. You change here for Kingston " via the Waimea line. The town is lit ,fc with the electric light, but my staydid II not allow me to go through it. I noticed s that the J. G. Ward Company, the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, the National Mortgage, and others were represented here. It has, I believe,, a busy future before it. An old l- Oamaru business man now in the south e told me that he was sorry he had not started in Gore. Large quantities of if grain are brought down the Waimea line, r I noticed some 30 trucks on one train. Mataura, an old established place, 7 i- miles south of Gore. It has a cheese r factory, paper mill, and meat preserving 3 works. I understand that the paper mill finds employment for some 25 hands and h turns out an excellent quality of paper. 0 Leaving Mataura the train soon passes .- through the well-known estates of Edendale and Morton Mains, both large estates. 1 Ido not know the extent of the Edens dale, but Morton Mains originally cone tained 16,000 acres. 1 Invercargill is a well laid off town, has a larger population than Oamaru, and certainly wil- always hold its own. Talking to a passenger from Invercargill he said "we can beat Oamaru Deople in one thing." What is that?'l inquired. He replied, " Our band." ' But I contended that if that was the only ' thing, they had not. much to boast of in 3 that direction. They are certainly behind Oamaru with their public gardens. * The Post Office is a fine building and blasts of a clock and chimes. I obtained ' a fine view of the town and surrounding j country from the water tower, where the -r town obtains its water supply, and which 3 cost some L 50,000 altogether. The water is not good and does not give satisfac--2 tion. 3 Having a day to spare, I took a run out J to Waimanawa and Wright's Bush districts T where I met some old friends from North 3 Otago. I called at Dr Levinge's, formerly ■ of Herbert, but I was sorry the Doctor ~ was away from home. I spent a pleasant \ evening, however, at Mr R. C. Lindsay's, ' one of old Oamaru's well-known business , men. He is at present engaged in farmr ing, but I think he will soon have to turn r all his energies to the milk preserving ' busiuess. He has already secured patent ! rights for his invention, and is turning I out an excellent article and cheaper than • the imported. There certainly exists an 3 opening for this industry, as some L 20.000 I woith is annually imported into New Zea- ' land. Mr Lindsay kindly drove us to the ] Messrs M'Kenzie's farms, formerly of AllDay Bay, Kakanui. Those settlers have , obtained good farms and are pushing, j energetic farmers, and are well pleased [ with their new homes. I l As my ticket took me to Kingston. I > left Invercargill for that place, 87 miles > due north. Winton, 20 miles from Invercargill, is the most important place on 1 this line. Lumsden, the junction of the j Waimea line, is surrounded with large stations—Oastle Rock, the Five Rivers , Estate, and the Waimea Company. This ' district, in my opinion, requires land for [ closer settlement. We were disappointed with Kingston. : It has nothing attractive looking, and you • are glad to board the steamer which takes l you up Lake Wakatipu to Queenstown — ! a distance of 25 miles—which takes a little over two hours steaming. As we steamed up the beautiful waters a boat ' came along with some fine trout, which are netted during the open season, and which find a ready market. Queenstown is a beautiful spot—grand [ scenery, splendid accommodation at a very reasonable price, and is an exceedL ingly healthy place. One has to see the I place to appreciate its beauty. The lake has three steamers trading on its waters, I the largest one being of about 70 tons ■ burthen. The water is exceedingly ; cold, and is of a great depth. The lake has an average breadth of three miles, and a length of about 60 miles. ' To anyone who can afford the time and [ money I would say go to Queenstown to spend your holiday, and you will not be . disappointed. The scenery is magnificent ! and is attracting large numbers of tourists : every season.

The Hon. Mr .Halt-Jones on Labor Legislation. Addressing the Trades Council delegates at Invercargill, the Hon W. HallJones said : Some said the Government had gone too far in this labor legislation, others that they had not gone far enough. He believed the Trades Councils were among the latter number, and he was somewhat with them. He was sorry he had not got the Labor Bills intended for the coming session with him. Had it not been for the Brunnerton disaster the bills could have been before the conference, but the Premier, who was Minister for Labor, had been detained at the West Coast. However, the bills were now in the hands of the Crown law officers, and he would see that the Trades Councils got copies as soon as possible. The bills were four or five in number. There was the Master and Apprentices Bill to regulate the proportion of apprentices to journeymen ; an Asiatic Bill, which would be a short measure similar to last year's, but include Syrians and Japanese, and would provide for LIOO poll tax; a measure to provide for local bodies carrying on work on the co-operative principle and dealing with tenders. The Private Benefit Societies Bill would be on somewhat similar lines to that introduced last year ; amendments to the Truck Act to prevent employers from protecting themselves from liability by compulsory insurance, and there would be proposals which were formerly included in the Undesirable Immigrants Bill to prevent persons suffering from consumption and other contagious diseases from coming to the colony. Personally he would like to see something of the system now being adopted in America by which shipping companies were made responsible for the expense to the Government of any persons who become a charge on the colony as hospital patients or paupers within a certain time of their arrival. He should take the earliest opportunity of circulating the Bills alluded to as widely as possible, as he was sure the Ministry did not want to do anything underhand, but rather to give every publicity to their intentions. (Hear, hear.). Closely allied with the question of labor was that of the unemployed, and he believed that the Minister, with the best intentions, had his actions the most misconstrued. A statement that he made 1 in Wellington that he would go to i the Caritable Aid Board if his wife and » family were starving had been reported r that he advised the unemployed to go to the Charitable Aid Board. The co-opera- » tive works had been a good thing for the s colony.—(Hear, hear.) It was only a , form of piecework, but it was better than > earning the money for an employer. He s would like at some future time an expres- ■ sion of opinion from them as to whether i it was better co classify the work or to - put the men on to work in a group for the I same wages. During the Government's 5 te?m of office they had purchased r 1,500,000 acres of native lands, and 86,000 > acres of land for settlement. Some oi - this land was near Christchurch and was • being let in sections of four to five acres. ' This°class of settlement he looked to as a factor in the solution of the unemployed 3 problem, as when men were only par- , tially employed they could in spare time l' help to earn a living from these sections. : It was hard to get suitable land near the , towns and railway lines, but when thej did the Government intended promoting ■ this class of settlement by running [■ workmen's trains to and from the towns. I The Government had also done gooc i work in settling 533 selectors on 51,225 acres on the improved farm settlemenl - system, and 1487 selectors on 24,721 ) acres on the village settlement system. - There were thus over 2000 persons put or i 75,948 acres, or less than Mr Moore's t Glenmark estate in Canterbury. In the I year previous to their taking office L 58.996 I was expended on roads. During theii r first year of office the present Govern 7 ment spent L 99.450 on roads, in 1892-c I L 115,848, in 1893 4 L 167.291, in 1894-c [ L 219,129, and the present year would I give about L 250.000 as road expenditure. i The Cheviot estate had been a boon tc t the country, yet in all these land prof posals they had to fight all the way, re- . ceiving opposition even from some whe were thought to be friends. However, r they had gone on and intended to go on. 3 He asked the delegates to see that as fai as possible these matters were put beI fore the people. On the question of an I eight-hour system, which he believed the conference had been discussing, he felt s very strongly indeed. In Timaru thej - had fine flour mills, and men in these mills . worked from 6in the morning till 6 at ■ night, and some of them had to get theii • meals as best they could while attending to their work. Such men scarcely had > time to get to know their own families. I He intended to make an effort to get an • Eight Hours Bill introduced during the I coming session.—(Applause). They could i not get a bill for an absolute eight hours l all round. He favoured the adoption oi ' what was called the option system, by ' which each trade decided its own hours. — i (Hear, hear). In answer to Mr Fawcus, the Minister said he was decidedly of opinion that the 1 Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration I Act compelled all employers, whether r , registered or unregistered, to come before i the court in case of a dispute. i