OPUNAKE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 6984, 6 February 1886, Page 3

OPUNAKE.

[fkom oub own correspondent.] February 5. — Gradually, but it seoms surely, the old relics o£ the stirring times when the colonial forces occupied the coast in strength nre disappearing. The watery elements destroy by slow decay, and what decays and wears out is not replaced; but fire comes into assist in the removal in a more complete and rapid manner. Not many yeais since and thft hotels on tho coast were thriving properties, stores were numerous and well Btocked, and all business flourished happily. Yarns aro told o£ hotels taking from £40 to £50 each day for weeks together; while the quantity of goods arriving necossitatod a company to manage the lightering.^ Not many months since Prosser's Hotel in the town went, and now the Pungarehu Hotel has been wiped out in half an hour. The brewery also fell a victim, besides two or three other houses. It seems a strange sign or the times that when these places are burnt the insurance money is pocketed by someone, but the places are never rebuilt. So one after another the old landmarks of military occupation disappear, and the district recommences its existence in a peaceful way — gradually turning from a district consuming the substance of other parts of the colony, to becoming itself a producer. For some years yet the district will be small and must do without tbe luxuries of a large settled population, but each year which sees the reduction of the military, and the destruction of the buildings which their presence called into being, sees also the advent of, one farmer after another, more fencing, more ploughing, more grass; and on these will a surer prosperity be founded than ever temporarily gladdened the heart of a townsman by tbe passing of a large Government expenditure. But, after all, Driller's will be missed. The house, placed out of the way, apart from all settlement and reason, broke the monotony of the road, and there was always a pleasing excitement of anticipation ns one calculated whether his beer would be sour, or whether his whisky jar bad run out, and whether he had put in too much or too little of the fortifying compounds which enhanced bis profit. For monthß the judicious traveller has dismissed thoughts of other refreshments than these from bis mind. Then, when in a genial mood, tbe old man stood behind tbe counter and enacted scenes of his encounters with Waikato natives, and related how he burnt a prominent New Plymouth magnate in " effergy," one could pass a fair half bour, which helped the journey wonderfully. Well, this fire puts him out of home, and his ca3e pre sents as much claim for public assistance as that of any Stratford nettler. As be lost his all — clothes, tools, drugs, &c. — and has reached an age when recommencement in irksome, Thursday week's work is to him a great injury. The hotel will probably not be rebuilt in its present situation, and years will elapse before anyone will be sanguine enough to erect another between Stony River and Rabotu. It may reasonably be concluded that all now left are wanted, and we trust there will be no further conflagrations.