TOKOMAIRIRO.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 186, 20 June 1862, Page 5

TOKOMAIRIRO.

A subscription list has been opened in this district, for the purpise of increasing the length of the Clarendon Jetty so as to enable the s.s. -Planet to discharge her .cargo alongside of it. The cost of doing this will be about £101), and I believe that the contract for the work has been already let. One or two of the merchants interested in-. Clarendon mid its shipping,' having given a guarantee for the money on the chance of raising it by subscription. 1 do not think that they are likely to experience much difficulty in doing- this, as it must be to the great advantage of all who either ship or receive goods by this route, (probably the only available one during ttii-i winter.) to avoid tbe delay nml expense of lighterage, not to mention the damage which goods frequently sustain in the transhipment.

A s'Cond steamer, the Undine, is I believe about to ba placed upon thh line by the same firm who have been running the Planet, and who were also the con-tr-;cttrj for removing the bar at the mouth -of the Ink-. A most necessary work, which, after years of talking about, and no end of surveys, has at length bsen quietly and' satisfactorily accomplished. The Government are also about to expend a considerable sum on improving the road from the main line to the jetty. This will be a much needed improvement.

The Government Township ot Waihola already boiisfcs of a large hotel and several stores, butchers' shops, &c, although it is not more than six months s;inco it was first opened for sale. A good jetty has been erected there, and runs, I believe, into deep water. The site of the township is a most beautiful one, and appears to have been formed by nature for that purpose, but alas, tfte r.ide hand of man has played havoc with one of its chief beauties. About four acres of the flat was a busli of stately pine trees a couple of years ago ; and as they.stoad upon a kind of promontory, visible from all paries of the lake, they added not a little to the tout ensemble of the whole. Now there are are but four trees and a little stunted brushwood remaining. In a country which is so thinly wooded as Otago, it is much to be regretted that where there happens to 'be a little ornamental timber it should be ruthlessly destroyed,* especially when, as in. the present case, necessity cannot be pleaded in mitigation, as there, is a large bush within a short distance of the township. Under the Waste Lands Act the Board possessespower to appoint conservators of bush. Why have they never done so ?

Under the same Act it is required of all paities cutting timber that they should take out a license for so doing ; yet I am certain that not one in a dozen of the sawyers who are felling and sawing the finest timber in the country, and making ltttle fortunes by doing so, ever thought of such a thing as a license! A few individuals, certainly, did take out licenses at first, but as they saw that others around them possessed exactly the same privileges without a license, of course they would not again throw away their L 5. However, it is the fashion in this Province to make laws and not to enforce them ; vide the dog tax, the depasturing license within hundreds, &c. Perhaps a better example could not be found than the last: for, although every person who depastures cattle should have a license, there are not thirty license holders in the Province, and in only two of the hundreds arethere any Wardens. In one of these highly favored districts, |.he Wardens -themselves are the only license holders, and are therefore self-elected. The reason of all this is that people have got tired of paying the license fees, when they do not obtain in return that protection to which the license entitles them, —when they see their neighbors depasturing larger mobs of cattle than theirs, and yet paying no license fee; The Wardens, it is true, have power to make bye-lawa for the management cf the hundred, but before these bye-laws can be enforced, they must be sanctioned by the Waste Land Board, and this Board won't sanction any bye-laws. Two or three years ago, the Wardens of this hundred sent a code of laws to the Board for approval, and to this day they have never been even acknowledged. Where is all the money collected heretofore for licenses t It should be devoted to the improvement of the run, erection of pounds, &c. ; but not a furthing of it has ever been so spent here,.and the question is frequently asked, "Who has it V