POVERTY BAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1159, 14 February 1874, Page 4

POVERTY BAY.

(PROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Christmas and New Year festivities had scarcely subsided when the pleasure-seeking people of Gisborne were looking forward, With longing eyes, towards the races, which came off last; week, and were most successful and pleasant; They extended over two days, attracted some good horses, and about 500 or 600 people -many people riding 50 1 and 60 miles to be pfesent. In speaking of | 50 miles here, you mUst not compare it with the same distance iv Otago. Here there: are many difficulties to contend with in travelling which do not now exist iv Otago. Here we do not find a comfortable hotel every ten miles, nor a good metal road, nor what is better still, an Otago bush track. The race meeting is like the gathering of the clans, a kind of annual reunion of all the squatters, cockatoos, and settlers in the district. For two days business was entirely suspended, with the exception of the second day, when the two Banks were the only business establishments open in the town. Well, all this pleasure-seeking shows that the place is not so dreadful and. barbarous as Southerners generally imagine ; and when I tell the ladies that the whole concluded with a race ball, where over 30 couple met, and enjoyed themselves thoroughly with quadrille, waltz, and galop, besides being refreshed with a really excellent and artistic supper, which gave anything but an idea of a cannibalistic country, where, a few years ago, it was problematical whether "cold missionary " would not form one of the chief dishes.

A Club ? Yes, positively, a Club in Gisborne ! We are beginning to be a go-ahead people here, I guess. All we want is to ' ' strike ile, " and to have about ten times the population we have at present. For instance, market gardeners (especially Chinamen) would do splendidly here. Vegetables, except potatoes and onions, are not to be had ; flowers, though nearly every kind would grow well here, are a rarity ; and fish, though it abounds at the Ariel Reef, about five or six miles down the Bay, is scarcely ever seen unless brought in occasionally by the Maoris, who ask exorbitant prices. Tradesmen of all kinds, and domestic servants, are in constant demand ; in fact it is quite a favour to get any kind of work done, and not an uncommon thing for a workman to leave a job to go and do a day's work, now and again, for someone else for peace sake. As to binding them down to time, that is out of the question ; and if you complain, you stand a chance of being told, "T)o it yourself." I am glad to hear that another steamer, the Pretty Jane, from your poit, is to be placed on the l'ne between Auckland, Poverty Bay, and Napier twice a month, so that, with the Rangatira once a week between Napier and here, we shall not be quite so much out in the cold as we have been.

Talking of cold, 92 in the shade can scarcely be said to be very cold — the thermometer at the time I am writing is standing at that in the true shade— namely, in a thick briar bush— not under a corrugated iron verandah, which many call "shade." A District Court was to have been held here on Wednesday next, but owing to the bungling of the Government in not having taken the necessary precautions to have a jury list framed, and not having provided the Clerk with a Seal of the Court, nor with any of the many forms, &c, &c., we shall not have the pleasure of His Honour's presence in the Bay for two months. Of course the Government blame and bully the local officials, but from what 1 know of the circumstances, the blame proceeds from another department entirely. Everyone here is anxious for rain, none having fallen for over two months. No special prayers have yet been offered up, I suppose, because the wind continues in the adverse quarter.