RIVERTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2252, 29 April 1897, Page 25

RIVERTON.

April 24. — At last mieting of the county council a monster petition signed by ratepayers was presented requesting that the council take no further steps in the direction of moving the offices to Otautau. Discussion was deferred until next meeting. One of the " noble five" remarked on seeing ths petition that "if the ratepayeis imagined that the council was going to take any notice of thai petition they were a lump off " Such was the refined and elegant diction of th° would-be refoinier ! If the ratepayers want to have any voice in ths expenditure of their money thoy are "a lump off"! With such men in the council one need be surprised at nothing. Train Service —Rome time aso a petition was forwarded to the Minister for Railways asking for an accelerated service, morning and evening, between Invereargill and the Western distiict After grave deliberation this official h*s arrived at the conclusion that no alteration on th« pteseut time-table can be made. There are three trains in and three out each d*y, and it was not deemed a very big tbing to ask that one of them should be run at the rave of 20 miles an hour for the convenience of travellers, but the hon. Minister with his wonted sagacity has decided that 12 miles an hour is fast enough for W»ll-»ce. I say J2 miles, but such is the strain on the engine caused by this bre*k- neck pace that the train is usually about half an hour latp, and sometimes more So that 10 miles would be nearer the mark. We don't expect wonders but surely a district thai produces enough traffic to load six trains a day is entitled to .something better than that. However, there is cerjain to be further agitation in the ?imter.

Tin: Luscious Bivalve —An ex'ensive bed of oystei- ins just been discovered in the straits off How.')/"-. Point The bed is repotted to be 10 miles long, an i if so the rind is an extremely valuable one.

The Holidays.— Contrary to our u<ual luck, we ha" 1 glorious weither for the holidays. The lace incting on Easter Monday was a b g success, there b ing a large number of people in attendance On Tv scUy the athletic society's sports Jook pi ice. Besides these events, numeious shooting acd picnic parties visited the town and district. ;-ome fairly good bags of game are reported.