MANAIA.

Opunake Times, Volume I, Issue 20, 7 September 1894, Page 3

MANAIA.

(Our Own Correspondent.)

I fell foul of a vicious microbe and had to give in, hence the omission of my usual contribution. Manaia is still en avant. A fourroomed cottage is going up for Mr W. Lewis, and an eight-roomed house is about to be erected on Mr Mcßae's bush, on the Manaia, for a new purchaser.

Active preparations are being made for the social to come off on the 12th September in aid of the funds of the Church of the Sacred Heart, and it is to be hoped that Providence and the people will both unite to accord it the success it deserves.

Mr M. Franklin, the popular and genial host of the Waimate Hotel, has parted with his heritage, and give 3 up possession to two Wanganui gentlemen on the Ist October.

Last Sunday we had a fall 3®f|c%? as I believe did most other districts oh the coast. Now that the bush is coming down and the climate getting bleaker, in a few years* time this will probably not be the novelty that it is at present.

Our Mutual is improving splendidly. A continual cannonade of sarcasm, wit and ructions at last meeting, and yet after it was all over everyone was smiling. lam afraid " Your Own " was responsible for the best part of it. A fair lady journalist of local celebrity lately criticised one of our clergyman's sermons, and congratulated him on his " nationalism." Evidently this sweet scribe does not know that whilst "rational" means sensible and reasonable in ordinary talk, yet when speaking of sects or religious opinions "Rationalism" becomes a proper noun, as applied distinctively to a class of thinkers, who, whilst they thus style themselves Rational or Reasonable, are considered by believers in Christianity as Atheists, and therefore irrational. Hence the parson's ire. I don't know, but I've got a notion that at first opportunity the pot's going to boilj which means that the fire beneath is pretty " red hot." The Trotting Club has been formed. Mr R E. Mcßae is President, with Mr J. Matheson Secretary, and a large and well-known lot of sports on the committee, so that a successful meeting may be anticipated. The programme contains about six events, with a total prize money of £75. < I have just come across the following m one of Cook's Tourists' Guides, which may be useful to those who do not-know the full importance of Manaia :—Manaia is an important rising township in N.Z.,- County Hawera, situate 39 degrees 30 S. latitude, 174 degrees 10 E. longtitude, and is the centre of the football enterprise of the North Island—owing to the strength of the Waimate team which twice carried off the banner of the strongest union in the colony. The new goal posts in the Domain will repay a visit from the farthermost corners of the earth. Opunake, a few inches farther north, is a suburb of Manaia.