BOROUGH COUNCILLORS

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVI, Issue 14909, 29 November 1912, Page 5

BOROUGH COUNCILLORS

IS3PECT RAINCLIFF RESERVE.. USEFUL AND EXCITING DAY. CHASED BY A BULL. Members of the Borough Council did a very useful day's work on behalf of the Borough yesterday, when they paid a visit, of inspection to some reserves bs- j longing to the Borough at Raincliff, j about ten mile s beyond Pleasant Point. , Comparatively few people are aware i that the Borough possesses these re- j serves, which aggregate about 2000 acres. They have been let for the past fourteen years at rentals which average | about 3s id per acre, but the leases will j fall in, in May next, and it is the intention of the present Council to then j re-let them, probably by auction, and j they intend to do their best to increase j the revenue from them by £SOO a year. 'J.hey arc confident that this can be done if the reserves are judicially sub-divided, and let on a lease which will be fair both to the lessor and the lessee. The Mayor and some Councillors went up to the reserves yesterday in j three motor cars. They were to have i left town at 8 o'clock, but heavy rain \ was falling at that hour, and they must j have the sense of duty stroruSy- upon j them to go at ,all in such weather. At \ 10.30 a.m. the rain ceased falling, but ! the sky promised more, and enough had j already fallen to thoroughly wet the j roads and paddocks. Still they set off, I and returned home last evening all i thoroughly wet about the feet and legs. ' j The party consisted of His Worship the ; j Mayor (Mr T. Hawkey), the Town Clerk ; (Mr D. Virtue). Councillors Bowie, Ang- j ! land, Senior, Hurdley, Pearson. Green, ; i and Shillito. The run out occupied j I about, an hour and a half, and was ae- ;

c-omplished without mishap. A halt -was j called when the party reached the re- \ serve lield by Mr John Talbot, which is ! situated about ten miles beyond Pleas- j ant Point, past the Raincliff homestead. '< They had taken out a, cold lunch, but ' as business was tlie order of the day ! they spent only twenty minutes over their nl fresco meal, and cut speeches right out of the, programme. \ As soon as lunch was over, the Coun- : cillors sjc out to inspect the land, and ! though this involved a lot of walking, : , calculated to severely try the mettle of ; a city man, there was no shirking, and the reserves were thoroughly inspected. . Councilor Ang'and acted as chief guide, and while his knowledge ci the land : came in useful, he sprang something of . a. surprise on his feliow Councillors by j the agility lie displayed in negotiating i deep gullies and steep hills. Councillor , Hurdler's knowledge of the land was I also a useful asset- to the party. Tt ' should hp said that the reserves are look- \ rug tlicir best just now, covered as they are with a great growth of good, sweet • sheep feed. And the cattle and sheep > depasturing on them were seen to be in ; splendid condition. The land is all • limestone formation and has some clumps J of natural bush about it, which add to I its attractiveness. It has a high cleva- j tion. and from it an excellent view of ; the surrounding country can he obtain- '. eel. The Councillors had always been I given to understand that their Raincliff ; reserves were of vei'y little value, but as a result of their visit they have come : to the conclusion that they possess in i thorn a much better property than they j had previously imagined. None of the land owned by the Council was ploughed, But the visitors saw some land adjoining, which was under the plough, and they satisfied themselves that there ) is a good depth of black soil there, and ; that there _are some fine rich fiats. A, I

big proportion of tho laud, they oon-j eluded, could ho cropped with a certainty of getting at least forty bushels 1 of oats in an average season. And it could rondily be s;cn that it grows good grass and turnips. Its distance from tho railway was considered to be a little against it for grain growing, but as it is essentially pastoral country, and sTieep and cattle walk to market, its grain-growing aspect was not taken a great deal into consideration. Curiously enough the big reserve surrounds a big slice of freehold, this in all probability being the result of "gridironing'' in the early days. At present the whole area is let to four tenants. ! Mr John Talbot holding No. 1 block, Mr i R. Gou'cl No. 2. Mr John Robinson No. i I 3. and Mr P. O'Connell No. 4. Coun- ! cillors considered that when the present i | leases expire they will be able to make : : half a dozen good farms instead of four. ' | Though nothing definite was decided j \ yesterday Councillors seemed to be of' . opinion that the best thing they could, ; do first of al!, would be to send up aj surveyor to make a trial survey of the! whole area with a visw to ascertaining! bow many sub-divisions can be profit- j ably made by working in the rough with i the good country. There are some ] stesr>, rough gullies in parts. . The I block held_ by Mr Talbot was seen to I h* mostly in old grass with a good deal ; of twitch showing. There is also a fair ! amount of gorse grubbing which requires | to ba done, but Councillors considered | that this block, which takes in 1000 f acres, could easily be sub-divided into ] • two, and let at double its present rent, i if not more. The block held bv Mr R. I j Gould was seen to be in passable- order j j (none of the tenants had apparently wanted to make their holdings look too

well), and it was noticeable that it was nearly all ifa young grass, and the fences were in a:f air state of repair. In the block held by Mi- Robinson both young and old grass was seen, as well as a good deal of tussock country. The broken faces, however, on all the blocks, were all seen to carry good sheep feed. On Mr O'Connell's block young and old grass and tussock country were again Keen; the fences were in fair order, but some gorse required to be grubbed. There are very few improvements on any of the blocks, so far as buildings are concerned. The huts and sheds which do exist on two of the holdings are valued at less than £IOO. It was stated by some Councillors that if some of the rich flats on the reserves were near Timaru they would fetch £2O an acre. It was suggested that the new leases should be for a fairly long term, with periodical revaluation, and right of renewal at an arbitrated rent at the end of the term. Councillors divided up, some going one way and some another in <.rder to be able to cover all the groui.l, and when doing this, one rather amusing incident occurred. Councillor A.igiand discovered - a particularly good :>siicli oi l land and he called all [the other Councillors who wore within call over to

inspect it with him. They -.'/ent over, and were sorry for it. To see the land in question they had to approach close to a herd of young cattle, and it was not until they got right up to them that they discovered a full bull there. That would have been all right had the bull not shown'a decided objection to beini* in the same peddock with Borough Councillors. With tail in air and head clown he issued a sfries of warning roars, but did not i;dto any ftiirther action immediately. 7. here was a hurried consultation as to v/bat was best to be done, all being anxious to return home with a whole skin. Some Councillors recalled what they

had read about -the hypnotic stare, ai.'d j its effect on infuriated animals, but at the same rime they preferred that j somebody else should try it. Ono said the best thing to do was to take their coats off and leave these as a solace to j the bull when ho made his charge, the suggestion being that while he was tearing up the coats the owners of them would make good their escape. This proposal found no seconder, and was discarded in favour of another one that they should «,'l take to their heels. Councillor Anglaiid i'ortunately put a stop to such a foolish proceeding as this, pointing out that if they wanted the bull to charge them that was the best way to get him to do it. Another series of wild bellows now rent the air, and something had to be dono hurriedly. There was a steep gully not far off, and while one p( rtly Councillor is said to have scaled a cabbage tree in faster time than a monkey could have do:ie it, another is pictured as hanging "over a steep r.-,rme. while another cleared a five-barred gate as cleverly as a cat might have done. All succeeded eventually in gaining the friendly shelter of a gully, and v-hen well out of sight of the hull they put up a race worth going a long wry to sec. Earlier in the day there had been some talk of a handicap r.'.co. and after the bull chase the handicapper would have, had no difficulty in adjusting the handicaps. There was :.o rhmbt then pv. to who could mn the fn.>te.-'r. Another little break in the day's proceedings occurred when a sheen nas seen cast on the top of a vteep hill. Councillor Angland climbed the heights ri.nd being a member of the \m'.>ulance Brigade hj? quickly rendered fist-'aid. and sent the sheep on its. ■> "ay re oicin:.r.. Some of his fellow Councillors were watching him from across a gully, and when they saw him accomplish his task fwc.issfully they accorded him three hearty cheers wliich made the gullies ring, as did also the response of the chief actor in the heroic scene. But tin's little bit of amusement was by the way. Councillors were never mo"e in earnesf than thev were yesterday, and if they succeed in dealing with these reserves as satisfactorily as they anticipate, they will .be entitled to the best thanks of the ratepayers.