ROUND OTERAMIKA GORGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2456, 10 April 1901, Page 29

ROUND OTERAMIKA GORGE.

(By Oub Travelling Correspondent.)

"When road and rail were looked upon as belonging to the slow and distant future, there settled between Morton Mams and the sea coast a party of new arrivals, who called their new abode Oteramika Gorge. This part of the district had long been the home of a Maori tribe, and a kaika was established by them on the banks of the Mataura at this juncture; and a swooping fire lit by them having divided the dense bush and left the semblance of a goige about it, the designation was placed upon it hy the first pakeha arnva-Is. Numerous settlers have carved out abodes where the Maori "was wont to romp and roam, but it is hard to convince the young iniquity that the gorge •owe 3 the origin of its settlement to the, perhaps unintentional, act of the coloured race. Although a long day's journey from anywhere in particular, the settlers seem to have contented themselves with awaiting the fortune that the future is always supposed to bring, ■when more easy means of ingress and egress might happen to bless the courageous pioneers, but over a quarter of a century passed by before roads of a passable nature brought the Gorge into communication with the outer lines of civilisation. The Oteramika Road Board laboured very persistently, and, although (handicapped by a small rate roll, it pursued a really progressive policy of road-making in these distant parts, while the Southland County Council carried out several works at its own cost. It was a God-send to these primitive people that the Seaward Bush railway ran through the end of the Gorge, for the section opened just a few years ago to the Mataura Hiver suits the residents admirably. Besides, the railway has made the heavily-timbered "bush accessible, and this gave an impetus to saw-milling enterprise, with the result that several mills have been dumped down m this part of the Seaward Bush, and about half a dozen are at present in full swing, most of the output going to Dunedin and North Otago. As a consequence several hitherto wild and desolate tracts of apparently useless country are now studded with the cosy cots and happy habitations of many a working man. Kapuka has its school, also Waituna and Moiotua, where the educational interests of the young are apparently well looked after. Mr Charles M'Kin'ion is master ot the Gorge School, and the settlement bids fair to leceive a gradual increase in the attendance. Every little cluster of dwellings haa its post office, ■while the train, running almost daily, brings the outside world's tidings for good or evil. The largest, longest, and most expensive "bridge on the Seaward Bush railway is over the Mataura River, at the mouth of the Gorge. It is a gorgeojs structure, took over a year to make, and cost £4600. Owing to a low flat Bearing the river the embankment is over a mile in length, and to enable any surplus ■water in flood time to make good its escape several spans have been constructed in the embankment. One local resident alone supplied over 20,000 yards of formation to this "work, which was formally opened for traffic qn March 6, 1895. The flat has been proved to be gold-bearing, and a dredge is being put on to ■work it.