AWATUNA.

Opunake Times, Volume II, Issue 73, 15 March 1895, Page 3

AWATUNA.

(Our Own Correspondent.) Mr McGuire held a very successful meeting here recently and left a very good impression behind. He complimented the district on the progress it had made since his last visit, saying that he was perfectly astonished at the signs of progress all around as he drove through the place. He referred to the great loss that Opunake and the district had suffered in the destruction of the jetty, for which loss he held Government responsible. In fact, from the opening of Mr McGuire’s speech to its close, the unfortunate Government came in for some bad buffeting, for the speaker smote them bip and thigh and headpiece. After a few questions had been asked and answered a hearty vote of thanks to Mr McGuire and the Chairman (Mr Watson) closed the meeting. Several meetings of the Committee of ladies and gentlemen appointed by the Hall Committee with the getting up of a gift auction for the 10th of April next have been held, and the affair promises to be a big success. The lists as handed in for inspection show a large number of elegant and useful articles contributed, such as sheep, boots, pigs, hinges, dressing cases, fowls, ducks, &c. The lists are still open as a great deal of canvassing yet remains to be done and a big financial success should be the result.

A large party from the district round is going up to view the festivities at Parihaka next Sunday. It is reported that the natives are massing in great numbers up there this year, and large bodies of them have been going through the district lately. The lower end of the Upper Auroa Road is now metalled, bat owing to the unstable soft nature of the foundation it, is just a query whether the metal will stand the winter. Seeing that the foundation is so bad I don’t think nine or tea inches of broken stone would have been too much.