NOTES BY THE WAY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3526, 30 August 1880, Page 2

NOTES BY THE WAY.

FROM NEW PLYMOUTH TO HAWERA. The late Public Works Statement, with reference to this district, gives unmistakable evidence on the part of the Government to push on the railway works from Stratford to Normanby and Hawera, bringing about the long-looked for indissoluble union between the Patea and Taranaki Districts. Your correspondent started from New Plymouth on the road to Normauby to see what progress was being made to bear out the Ministerial statement that the line would be "opened to Normanby by the end of the present year.

NEW PLYMOUTH TO THE JUNCTION.

The unearthly hour that points to the departure of the train has a good deal to do with the gloomy, cold, washed-out, sleepy, on-the-spree-the-night-before looks that meet the gaze of the traveller by the early train, he also having the feeling that he has the appearance identical with that of his fellowpassengers.

In a short time the train reaches Elliotstreet station, where the bustle of the incoming passengers and their greetings as they notice friendly faces waken the sleepy senses and soon conversation flows apace between the different knots of travellers as they lean on their knees opposite one another in order to hear the better the interesting comments of their vis-a-vis.

Your correspondent, not being in a conversational mood, jammed his shoulders into the oorner of the carriage, planting his hat firmly over his eyes, and folding his arms across his chest, with the dogged, British look which says, as loudly as inarticulation can be heard, " I care for nobody— no, not I !— And nobody cares for me."

Of course, while in this mood the talk-to-me-if-you-dare passenger is let severely alone. But bye-and-bye your correspondent thought that while maintaining his isolation as an active locutionist, he might beguile the tediousness of the journey by taking mental notes of the countenances, actions, and snatches of conversation that are stereotyped on his brain by the visual and oral organs.

The start of the journey reveals a motley group, in which doctors, contractors, surveyors, engineers, inspectors of the police, merchants, citizens, and settlers are severally represented and to Sentry Hill no change is perceptible. At this future " Claphain Junction" of lines, a separation takes place : some of the passengers, with a " ta-ta," or " so-long, old man," pass into the cars that carry them, to Waitara.

SENTRY HILL TO INGLEWOOD.

After a series of progressive and retrogressive movements, called " shuntings," which to the uninitiated eye looks like so many objectless and senseless movements, and which, bye-the-bye, as a constant traveller by railway I invariably hear commented on with, " I wonder why we are going back," or, "We are going back again ; we are not in the Waitara train, are we ?" in a- dismayed tone of voice that is soon changed by the lucid explanations of the knowing ones, who, with their various explanations and "reasons why," generally leave the thing as clear as 7H,ud to the mind of the listener.

" Manutahi ! Manutahi !" Ah ! now for the changes. A humorist is on the platform watching the departure of the few passengers — bushmen, with their weekly swag of homemade bread, &c, that, as frugal married men, their wives have packed up for them to escape the higher prices that would require to be given. But our humorist — "Holloa, mate, wouldn't they have ye hear any longer? You bean't a goin' to clear out, are ye?" Which questions being satisfactorily answered, nothing remains but for the guard to make his signal, and our facetious friend is left behind. " Waiongona !" More men, with more swags, parcels, bundles, kits, sacks, axes, saws, small plants, such as Norfolk Island pines, fruit trees, &c, &c, for transplanting in some remote clearing that but two or three years since was part of the virgin forest. Away again for a few miles till the small township of Inglewood, or " Engelvodt" as our Danish fellow-settlers call this place, is reached. Here but few passengers leave the cars, but instead a few dozen more passengers crowd into the overcrowded cars, many standing, and the platforms at either end of the carriage filled with men and bundles. It is here that we first encounter the babel of sounds produced by British, Scandinavian, and Teutonic tongues. We have taken in a cargo of German and Danish settlers who are either going up the road with their week's supply of food to fall bush for themselves or others, or pushing on to Stratford are employed on the railway works or in spliting sleepers by contract for the railway. We see those large, grimlooking axes called squaring-axes, reminding your correspondent of those butchers' cleavers shown in the Tower of London, that have severed many a noble and manly head from the body, and have not shrunk from drinking the life-blood of fair and noble ladies, whoso fair throats had never pressed before with anything harder than the pearly necklace or queenly ruff until laid against that horrible | wooden block that would shortly be deluged with their pure innocent blood. The bustle and rusk to the carriages at starting awakens us from our reverie, brought about by the broad squaring axes. We hear a foreign tongue, an octave higher than those around us, and we see in the speaker a buxom Danish woman, with a scarlet shawl over her head, who might be summed up with " three P's " — fat, fair, and forty. It is written and cannot be recalled, although I fear the fair sex would consider it like my impudence to judge their sex's age in that summary manner, instead of using the m*re civilized style adopted by novel-writers, who would have said " a woman of uncertain age, inclined to embonpoint."

[to be continued.]

Throat Affections and Hoarseness. — All suffering from irritation of the throat and hoarseness will be agreeably surprised at the almost immediate relief afforded by the use of " Brown's Bronchial Troches." These famous "lozenges'' are now sold by most respectable chemists in this country at Is. lid. per box. People troubled with a "hacking cough,"' a "slight cold." or bronchial affections, cannot try them too soon, as similar troubles, if allowed to progress, result in serious Pulmonary and Asthmatic affections. See that the words ''Brown's Bronchial Troches" are on the Government stamp around each box. — Manufactured by John I. Brown & Sons, Boston, United States. Deptit, k 493, Oxford-street. London