ELTHAM ROAD.

Opunake Times, Volume I, Issue 13, 14 August 1894, Page 3

ELTHAM ROAD.

(Our Own Correspondent.)

The Opunake Times having inaugurated (that’s a good word) its career by coming boldly forward as the champion of the much rated though often roadless bosh settler, it behoves the latter, if alive to his own interest, to reciprocate the kindly interest thus sljpwn for his welfare, and loyally support this local paper. In this manner, by both pulling together side by side and shoulder to shoulder, by their united efforts both town and district may in time be transformed into (what with no port, J|ad roads, worse bridges or none at all, it certainly has nßt been up to the present) a fairly decent place to live in. As the Eltbam Road is the centre of a large and thickly settled bush district, hitherto unrepresented in your paper (save by your Awatuna correspondent) I think it may well aspire to the dignity of having a correspondent all its own, aifd with your permission Mr Editor I propose to fill the bill in this respect. Having disposed of this matter then, you will want to know 7 \vhat are our troubles aud difficulties in-this part. As under this heading I must include everything that retards our progress by restricting the output of our produce, which mostly consists of milk, butter and cheese (I nearly forgot the fungus), I can confidently answer that the two greatest barriers to our progress are bad roads and bachelors. You may smile, but I can assure you

that in a dairy producing country like this the bachelor, who is a non-pro-ductive individual in more senses than one, is a decided superfluity, and when he gets too numerous, as he is here, is a serious bar to our progress. As becomes a hardened benedict I will only treat this question from a monetary point of view. From Opunake to Kaponga, including a few miles on either side of the Eltham Eoad, there are at a low estimate GO or 70 bachelors holding sections averaging over 100 acres each, or a total of, say, 5500 acres, mostly cleared. With the exception of one or two none of them go in for dairying. Now, it is admitted by everyone who knows anything of the subject, that the return per acre from supplying a dairy factory is nearly twice as much as that gained by running dry stock on the land, so it is clearly to be seen that we are yearly losing thousands of pounds from this cause alone. This is only taking into account this small district, but anyone who travels around the mountain can see that the bachelor’s whare is dotted all over the other bush districts as thickly as here, so that our loss is only a fraction of that sustained by the province as a whole. Then again the bachelor, if married, would make his living off the land, and so relieve the over-erdwded labor market. Most of those bachelors are willing, and even anxious to marry, I think; but the local supply of marriageable girls is restricted, and as a consequence diffi-/ cult to please, so the bachelors say.\ How to solve this problem is altogether beyond me; but I think the want of social intercourse, such as dances, socials, picnics, &c M which would bring the young people of both sexes together, is one cause of the low marriage rate in the bus’’ districts. But, anyhow, the local supply of marriageable girls wouldn’t go round, not by half, so it is evident that if we want to rid ourselves of this bachelor problem by marrying them (and we don’t want to lose them in any other way), the outside market must be called into requisition. I am afraid, Mr Editor, I have already exceeded my legitimate allowance of space, but I would like to mention that a big dance is coming off in the Awatuna Hall, also a concert and supper, some time towards the end of this week, and I hope the young ladies will muster strong and help to thin out ..those surplus bachelors. Their society is the best antidote to bachelorhood that I know of, and I ought to know something of the subject, having once been a bachelor myself.