OTAGO.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 730, 24 September 1870, Page 3

OTAGO.

* (From the Daily Times, Sept. 20 to Sept. 22, inclusive.) An Episcopal Church is about to be erected at Lawience. Total abstinence is the order of the day in Lawrence. The Temperance Society lately established there, now numbers 75 members. The skeleton of an unknown man, and apparently about six feet in height, was found in the Molyneux river at Sandy Point, on the 12th inst. No further description can be given of the skeleton, which hasbaen interred. A public dinner will be given to Mr Macandrew on Friday evening, Sept. 23, at Wain's Hotel, in recognition of his services to the province during the late session of the General Assembly. To-night, Sept. 21, a similar compliment will be paid Mr Macandrew at Port Chalmers. Mr Willis, the new lessee of the Theatre, appears determined, in his spirited enterprise, to render that building more comfortable than heretofore, and therefore more worthy of public patronage. He also appears determined to allow no grass to grow under his feet. We hear on good authority that a letter has been received trom a settler at Martin's Bay by his wife in Dunedin, speaking in very good terms of the new settlement. He has established himself there, and has sent for his wife, and states that his mate is about to do likewise. Agricultural operations are being vigourously carried on at Hyde. Several blocks of land are being ploughed up and fenced in, and with favourable weather a large crop is anticipated. The miners in the same locality are steadily at work. Water is abundant, and there is every prospect of a plentiful supply during the summer. A good many additional claims have lately been taken up, and two parties are out prospecting. The Naseby paper understands, on good authority, that Mr Logan, Telegraph Inspector, is at present actively engaged in marking out a new telegraphic route to Naseby, via Palmerston. It is expected that the line will be completed and in working order in two months. Mr Logan is pushing on the work vigourously, and we believe his preliminary survey will be completed to-day. The length of the new route, it is said, will not exceed forty miles. The vendors of deleterious liquors on the goldfields seem to have overshot their mark. The grog sold by them for a length of time past has been of such villanous quality, and has been attended with such injurious and even fatal results, that a strong reaction has set in in favour of total abstinence. At Lawrence and the surrounding districts, as well as at Alexandra and Queenstown, temperance societies have been formed, and Cromwell promises to follow their example. At Naaeby a society of this kind has been in existence for a considerable length of time past. In response to an invitation from Mr Houghton, Consul of the North German ConfedeFation, about 50 Germans met in the European Hotel, George street, yesterday evening, to devise measures for raising funds for the relief of German soldiers wounded in the present war, and of the widows and orphans of those who may be killed. The following resolutions were carried by acclamation : — " That the Germans of Dunedin express their hearty sympathy in the war now being carried on in Europe by the German nation, and which has been forced upon them by the French Emperor." " That the Germans of Dunedin will follow the example of their countrymen in Australia, and assist the sufferers from the war." " That a committee be appointed to collect subscriptions amongst tbe Germans of Dunedin and their English fellow-colonists, to consist of the following gentlemen: — Messrs Houghton (chairman), Hayman, Brebner, Eggers, Hamann, Levien, Meyer, Hirscb, Ziele, Luhning, Reichelt, Steinmetz, and Dr Beaver, with power to add to their number." Mr L. Hayman was appointed Treasurer, and Mr Hamann Secretary to the committee. The meeting seemed very enthusiastic, and £100 was subscribed in the room. It was suggested by a gentleman present that persons should be allowed to pay their subscriptions by instalments, if they desired to do so. The following letter from Martin's Bay, received by a business firm in town, has been placed at our disposal: — "Lake M'Kerrow Township, Sept. 6, 1870. — Dear Sirs — I write these few lines to let you know how we are situated here. It is a shame of the Government to induce people to come to settle down here, where there is no communication with other placet, either by sea or land, although there is a population of at least from 70 to 100 persons — men, women, and children. If no vessel arrives here within 10 days from this date, it will be a case of starvation with us all, or we shall have to try the overland route by Lake Wakatip. I suppose it is the wreck of the Esther Ann that is keeping vessels back, but that is a case that ought to be put aside, as no captain with any knowledge of the place would have attempted to enter the mouth of the river, at almost dead low water, especially where there is a current running at the rate of from seven to nine knots an hour. But to give you some idea of the barbarous West Coast of Otago and Westland, I may mention that on the 16th August, Mr. A. H. Williamson and his mate came in over the bar and up the Hollyford River to the Lake Townahip, and in place of a vessel they had a log of wood about 14 or 15 feet long, though of course it was dug out in the form of a canoe. Mr Williamson also told me that he would do the same journey over again in it without any hesitation whatever. They Btarted from Jackson's Bay, at least 45 miles from here, on the 15th, landed at Broad Bay that night, and, as I said before, came over the bar and up the river next morning, quite safe. They also had about half a ton of luggage in their canoe, or 'dug-out,' as it ia termed. If

we do not get communication with other places, we shall all have to leave. The goods I took with me are all gone, and I cannot get more, on account of there being no conveyance of any kind." Lest persons having friends at the Martin's Bay settlement should feel any anxiety as to the probability of their being starved, we may mention that the s.s. Waipara returned to Hokitika on the 9th inst. (three days after the date of the above letter) from her bi-monthly subsidised trip to the settlements in the south of Westland, and there can be hardly any doubt that, as on previous occasions, she extended her trip as far as Martin's Bay. _____ _______