OUR WEST COAST LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10240, 24 December 1894, Page 7

OUR WEST COAST LETTER.

(From Ouk Own Correspondent.) Hokitika, December 13. A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Santa Claus is at our doors —is with our expectant children. In every full-leafed tree, goldtinted fern, and rich-blown bloom the music of the midnight chimes is tuning; the majestic mountains and the lonely gorge are reawakening to everlasting {memories; the fauna acd the ilora are quivering to add their chorus to the old, old song of peace; all Zealandia greets the Advent with her Christmas bells I All hail to the Prince of Peace I This is His birthday^-an old yet ever new-bom glorious day! .Hail to ourselves in goodwill only! Hail to the faith pictures of the future ; veil sad memories of the past! Revere the memories of our blessed dead! Roll out another merry peel, ye bells—ten thousand peans ; let your gladsome tongues resound the tale of joy throughout'all corners of onr seagirt isle! Are all hearts tuned and swelling to that mystic, mightiest annual anthem ? The sadder notes touch long-forgotten chords, melt sterile stony places, refresh with drops that sparkle as the diamond morning dew the dry-blown, arid, lifeless desert; rekindle withered hearts seared, awearied, and forlorn of Life's hard battle, and flash them back that glimpse of an everlasting lost gay mom of sprightly youth ! Another symphony, ye silent bells ;.the post's soul bathes iv the Elysium of thy melody, and every breeze that blows bears on its Boreau wings the sweetest cadence of thine i /Kolian lay, and lightens up the darkest places of I the earth!' King on, blest Evangel of a nobler, j truer life beyond the grave! 'Twm always so! j 'Twill always be so till the end of Time! Ring on ! i Ring on I Earth's cities, ships, and nations in thy gladsome melody, moved by many strange emotions, reciprocate thy greetings ! VICISSITUDES OP THE SKA. North-east by north, slightly listed towards New Zealand's alpine chain, her gilt-topped, arrowy masts nodding to Mount lleta, lies high and dry upon the sands of the Arahura the schooner Heroine. One hundred feet long, with 25ft beam, and clipper-built only nine mouths back, she looks a perfect model. Last Friday, at the invitation of her courteous captain (Mr Mason), I visited her, and from the lips of the mate (Mr Orentanr) learnt the following tale:— "Yesterday night three weeks ago we were anchored in the roada off Greymouth, and as it came on to blow great guns right on to the shore, and our anchors began to drag, we were obliged to slip them and wear out seawards. The night was as dark a? pitch and the storm increased momentarily, and after struggling along the southern shores for about 14 miles, we found ourselves among the breakers and fast drifting landwards. So the skipper about ship and set straight for the land, the sea making clean breaches over our craft. Just then a heavy sea struck the main boom, breakingitawayfronnts lashings and swept it across the poop, it striking Captain Mason a stunning blow on the bask of the head, and knocking him down. He was up again in an instant, and shouted hi.-i orders through the roaring tempest, until the Heroine's nose ran right up on the sands, and when he found the tide ebbing and we fast he said, 'Tell the men they can safely turn in now; I can't see,' and then he reeled and would have fallen, but I caught him and carried him below to his bunk, where j he lay unconscious. Next morning he remembered nothing of the blow till I reminded him. The Heroine lies very snugly in a little bay, j and as she has not started a plank, is brand new, I and her contractor for launching appears to be a man who knows what he is about, the New Year should see the graceful beauty in her natural element. A NKW INDUSTRY. Nestling well under the lea of a low, pine-clad, crosent-shnpei mountain, the horns or points of which stretch out almost to meet the waters of the TasmanSea, and a mile or so south of the Mikouui river, is the charming home of Mr Charles Shearer, cattle-grazer, scientific agriculturist, and bce-farmur,tlie last being a specialty. Going there hist week as your representative I found this intelligent settler »t work, and he not only made me welcome, but uliidly showed me his numerous agricultural implements, one of which, the new hoe just out from Philadelphia, is a per- i feet treasure; his latest methods of beehive I frame-making, wax surfaces, and honey-strainer, ami his bee farm, from which last year he exj ported two tons of pure honey. Ho told me it is the best paying industry he knows of, and that lie anticipated" selling three tons this year. Mr Shearer, who has most of the bee annuals published and who seems to hold the interesting art j at his fingers' ends, gave me quite an objetc lesion, j lie has been located there 29 years, and a visit to j his farm is one of the coveted pleasures of South j Wratlamlers. £