CLYNE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2623, 22 June 1904, Page 35

CLYNE.

June IS.— How delightfully refreshing the expression of the Mount Ida Licensing Comimttee when, with truly enviable magnanimity, it was thought fit to advance reasons for granting three publicans' licenses in the township oi Manuherikia. The bench is reported as saying that it " concluded to adopt freetrade principles and grant the three licenses." The committee might have conducted this part of its business and saved itself an expression of principles that lacked application, and made the action of the committee appear more ludicrous to people possessed of common *ense. When it is borne in mind that Manulrcrikia is the township just surveyed at what must be "the terminus of the Otago Central railway for a brief period, this action of the Mount Ida Licensing Committee will appear the more astounding. Three licensed houses in such a quarter appears altogether unnecessary, since there is such small prospect of any great ! demand arising for accommodation. Not with- j standing its "Freetrade principles," the committee might have served the public interests by a lack of generosity where its magnanimity was ludicrous and extremely improper. It would appear that the Mount Ida Licensing Committee lack desire to attempt any regulation of the whisky traffic, and a bench possessed of such "freetrade principles." as applied to the sale of alcoholic liquor is scarcely worthy the confidence of an intelligent people who desire to see the traffic regulated to governing bounds. A bench of "freetraders" •would in ail likelihood bring about a desire for prohibition much sooner than it could possibly arise through the efforts of those zealots who scatter broadcast their views to that end. In either case, the "principles" are to ba avoided, and a healthy moderate tone to be commended as being the most likely to naeet the demands of the people and the country alike. Weather Wote. — A good deal of rain fell throughout the interior during the past week, and as a consequence the Molyneux rose to a level that prevented many dredges operating with, any show of success. Frost has set in now. and the probability is "it will continue for some weeks to come. Manuherikia. — Such is the name given fo the new township that is springing into existence on the west side of the Manuherikia River and adjacent to Ophir. The railway authorities have been happy in the choice of a name : not so tfco one-time chief surveyor, who at the time he was in ofHce practically sought the ridiculous in giving names to various townships on the goldfields. Such titles as Mareburn, Sowburn, Pigburn, and a host of other such nieaninglsss appellations attachced to localities in the interior are sufficient to "shock one's sense of the fitness of things. Our one majestic river is given a name sufficiently hard to wrinkle the maps it 29 printed on. It is time the name Clutha gave place to Matatt or Molyneux upon the official maps— the Maori appellation for choice. It must be noted that writers refrain from mentioning this river by the official name, the intention being, presumably, to pdhere to Molyneux. The word "Manuherikia" means "Bird upon a perch,J' and was applied to the river by a party of North Islanders who sought the iuterior on a plundering expedition. The advance party tied a kaka to a perch at a passable ford in order to serve as a guide to their companions in the rear; hesiee the name. Maoris of the South ' Island will find a difficulty in interpreting the : word Manuherikia.