The Invercargill Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1862.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 9, 9 December 1862, Page 2

The Invercargill Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1862.

Next to good roads, good accommodation houses are of imperative importance, having sufficient accommodation, not merely for man but beast. In this most important requisite for tbe comfort of travellers, we must confess Southland is lamentably deficient. On some roads, where houses are required, they are not built; and, where they are built, they are not only insufficient for the supply of the rapidly increasing demands of the public, but cleanliness and civility are by no means their characteristic feature. They do these things better in Canterbury. There every person having a licensed roadside house of accommodation is stringently bound to have a certain number of bed-rooms, two distinct sitting-rooms, a good stable, a plentiful supply of wholesome fodder, and a paddock for horses ; to conduct the establishment well and with civility, the Govemment reserving to itself the power of determining the lease, on a representation being made and substantiated by three respectable settlers, to the effect that the above conditions have not been complied with. The sooner seme such regulations are introduced here the better for the convenience of travellers and the credit of the Province.

We believe the Government has acted liberally in the extent of ground leased at the Mataura ferry, as also at the Long Ford, where an accommodation house is in course of erection. The former was leased prior to the separation of the Province, and until the expiration of that lease no new regulation can affect it, but all future ones we trast will be drawn more stringently. This, we understand, is the case with the one granted lately to Mr. Morton, at the Long Ford, township of Gore. There the Government grant from 100 to 200 acres of land, adjoining the house, a portion to be cultivated, so that there can be no excuse for a deficiency of oats and hay, the remainder to be fenced in as paddocks, while a stipulation has been made for a certain number of rooms, and a judicious supervision for the proper conduct of the establishment, reserved. This is as it should be.

There is, a great want for such houses on all the main roads leading to the Waikatip Lake. On the main north road, although it is j scarcely open for heavy traffic, yet it is quite practicable for pedestrians and led horses, but after leaving Wallacetown, they are entirely dependant for accommodation on the settlers. At Wai lace town, a house of accommodation is being built, which is sufficiently far from Invercargill for the first day's stage ; the next should be at the north end of Winton's Bush, another at the Elbow, and a third on Mr. Rogers' Run, the limit of our Province.

By the road via Hokanui, there are — M'lntosh's, at the Halfway Bush; M Gibbons, at the old Mataura Ferry ; Morton's, at «« Gore," or the Long Ford j Sydney Bill's, at the OtamHa ;

and one more is required at the turning off on M'Kellar's run, within some seven miles of that gentleman's homestead.

On the Jacob's River road, one is required at the Yellow Bluff, another at Ray's Bush, and one at the northwest end of the Moonlight Ranges : this would give all the accommodation suited to the requirements of the times", place travellers, whether diggers or otherwise, in a position of independence as to the supply of their wants, security as regards comfort, and be a great relief to settlers living along the several lines of road.