BALCLUTHA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1340, 4 August 1877, Page 6

BALCLUTHA.

Mr Thomson, our member, has left for Wellington. He. met the Town .Council' and other bodies a week or two ago, with- the view of consulting about the needs of the district and so on. Mr Thomson hibernates from session to cession on a small farm somewhere beyond Clinton. His habits are particularly quiet, and his ways are particularly inexpensive. Year after year he comes into the busy haunts of men more and more conservative, less and le3s capable of moving out of the beaten track. What ] polish and address are imparted to him through rubbing shoulders with men of the world (a Bynonym with sinners to Mr Thomson, by the way) in Wellington, departamong his bucolic surroundings for the remainder of the year. But he is a decent, honest man withal ; only above his level as. anM.H.R. Still hia constituents do not; appear to see it. They have a certain' amount of pride in him ; in fact, they boastof him on occasions as a sterling man. A political railway, they tell you, is a thing he sets hia face against ; he would never agitate for a line that was not a dire necessity They only forget to tell you that the only time, probably, he ever tried to influence the direction of a railway, he'waa quite unabla to carry his point. The Minister of Works stood upon a hill, took in the necessities of the traffic at a glance, and decided, against Mr Thomson and the settlers, that the railway should not go by Waitapeka. J. C. Brown would possibly have managed the affair as his constituents needed it without the Minister leaving Wellington,' while Mr Thomson could do nothing with him on the ground. And it is the same story in everything else, as in the railway. He is unable to point to a building, or a work, or an endowment, or anything else that is a result of his influence, or his efforts. Whether he will succeed any better this session— get U3 even a post office or a court house, or any such small mercy— is a question that is beginning toforce itself upon the attention of some of his constituents. Mr Thomson ought to try bis hand at a little log-rolling j

he has never been r able - to effectanyihing by fairer means. ;- , .. 1; ; Let me give Mr Thomson Ms'dutjyiowever. I see Messrs Macandrew and*. Stont have been blamed for not directing attention to the fact that the Government - : were neglecting to carry out the; promise' about the Balclutha-Clinton railway. ' : It 1 is oijly fair to Mr Thomson to Bay, that, .be did write to Wellington, asking for 'ah Explanation of the, delay, and / published ' his' letter and its answer. It is just as fair to say that his action advanced the .matter noil one jot, apparently. •• .- ■■ „ , , ,-v*\ „Q The Bachelors' ball to take place onlFriday evening divides honours with, if it- does not put in r the shade, the Mayoral election in the matter of excitement; The'faireflsex use* it exclusively as a topic of talk', and 1 the sterner do not altogether despise ' it. ' The members of the invitation Committee are a great; deal more anxious than! the .rival candidates. Half the gossip .one hears about ,it ( w,ould'fill a "supplement." One of the tit-bits is, that all the parsons of the country, round about were invited; half of them admired the impudence of the Committee before referred to, and- felt insuHed, one fourth would like ? to accept, but were too .dubious" of how* their constituents might ,take' it, and"^'^ remainder, braving all things,, .intend 'to!! go. "'Tis.a poor , heart that never rejoiceS*" A large crowd, is expected, /So L tliat,",mr Dunne's new hall will have* its cramming capabilities tested. The Chicago ' Minstrels had fair' houses in jit on' two evenings last week, and * :' "' ME FISH'S FRIENDS; The Georgias, are sure of a crowded" house on the electipn ! night.. Th*en,Mr M'Neil, who is captain of the, local Volunteers, .is 'to give a Volunteer ball during August, and the Keogh troupe are to • pay us a visit on their way from Invercargill, so that ' the winter nights are not to .pass "over without amusement. , -'* Talking of the Volunteers, the services of the Clutha yeomaury.have been accepted by the Governor, and all. men, young, and bid, who fancy their horsemanship, begin, >to dream of drawing the sword for vanity's sake. The expense of outfit is reckoned/ at ■£10 a member, but will likely reach £15 ; and how many of the countrymen 1 are prepared to go this length remains' to be 'seen. It may almost Bafely be i conjectured^ that many will stick at4t when the first uniform begins to .grow, faded, and the neect;;pf a second, in order to keep up the gorgeous Appearance of the ,- troop,, is talked of.. ...^Vanity likes to be cheaply fed.. ;, \ . , " t i Port Molyneux waila over the departure of the last remnant of faded glories in the shape of its Harbour Master. This official, "as a result of the deputation ■rthicli' waited'" s on Mr M'Lean, was granted two months' longer lease of office j but, although great ,thhiga were prophesied of the grain traded noitiing occurred to show that he, was likely sto haT« anything, to do. ,The railway,, appears; to have completely strangled moat of the little coasting trade there used to.be. A small steamer, making occasional trips to and from Dunedin, overtakes all the trade. ' -A dinner was givon to Mr Burn, the Harbour Master, when he left ; and he seems to have'.beeu highly respected'^ throughput the district, which regretted his departure quite as much for social and. ,private v reasons as for, 'those commercial and .public. "' "V .^'<\,'.j Kaitangata wails over the refusal of '£he ■Government •to buy. the railway line iby which her coal is brought; td market."' -It is mainly a -' question of time; however, for if 'the Gdyernment continue 1 to holcP.ahdwjbrk the main lines' they are bound /to* fake Control of a jline likgthe Katragataone'inljhe interests 'of the public,: who 'are placed at a disadvantage through having to jcomplyjiwith auch. demands as, a private company chooses to make hi Ihe shape, of charges. . Perhaps also, it is slightly a question of influence, and Mr Murray, to when* -the -refusal wag made, admittedly does ' not possess much* This" gentleman Winds up 'a rambling incoherent epistle in ' the local paper; 'about railway " matters generally, by' skying' lihat there are other public, matters .jtp^hicH he might refer, but that it is, nptj" constitutional "—rather a favourite word> of .his— for Opposition members 'to find :a policy for the Government, who, hesays, give no eign that they are able to find one for themselves. The idea' of Mr Murray,being able to -find a policy for ' the Government is 'extremely absurd, and the' conceit of' T his thinking so is pitiable. , He,iried io impress them yiith ,the policy of changing the haine of ,'one"of 'tho up-country, townships a short time ago, bub had no influence even ,in that direction. It seems that there .is every probability of the County Council at am early date'adopting the whole Act. The 'fact is, I suppose, the Councillors are beginning to wondflr whjc on earth they were elected," for they'havip not yet been able to discover anything to^dci Business is "brisker just now .than' intthe earlier part of the winter. The .Town Council .are making ,improvementg in some of the streets leading, to the railway station that is to be,' and tins creates a certain stir ( The' starting of the railway contract between 'here und the bridge, and of the line to Clinton, continue to give' trade a fillip. • Talking ' of dull times, a trading transac tion by which one speculator made a profit of £30, arid another, £60, each upon Half an hour's possession of the property, iwhije a third expects to be some hundreds: richer •over the transaction, would almost .'.dispel the idta of their existence. - It appears; the sheriff's officer— the genial- Brown— had levied at the suit pf-«a ■Duhedin-firm upon a hotel and store property, in ,the Waipahi district. Having placed a man in possession, he came to Balcliitha'to arrange , about ' advertising ttie, sale! ' Here he received orders from Dunedin to sell at once, a step, it Beems, rendered ,neceHsary by .the, intention of the debtor to file. <He found a customer — Speculator No. I—to1 — to whom he sold the whole concern (the lease of the premises, furniture, stock, including half a dozen horses, and pigs to the number of a century, etc., etc.) for £110. Speculator No. 2 heard of the bargain, and within half an hour had tempted and vanquished No. 1 with an offer of £140 ; then No. 3 appeared upon the scene, and £200 down did the business for him. Within an hour or bo, the last named was off to view and secure his possessions, and the result appears to be that while No. 1 is half inclined to call ;the -affair by ugly names,' and No. 2 professes 1 to' be.'satiafied on the "small profits and quick returns "rjrin-

clple, No. 3 is not backward to declare that the concern improves so much upon acquaintance, that he is undecided whether he would aell the swine fer the meney, and that the whole .thing is nearly as good as a new hall. Hdwthe debtor feels upon the subject enters into nobody's calculations ; only rumour talks of law. *