PUBLIC MEETING AT MOA FLAT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVI, Issue 954, 11 July 1883, Page 3

PUBLIC MEETING AT MOA FLAT.

Our own correspondent writes as follows : — A meeting of settlers and others was held in the Moa Flat schoolhouse on Tuesday evening, 3rd July, to consider the desirability of petitioning Parliament to erect a traffic bridge across the Molyneux at Ettrick. Mr William Honner was voted to the chair. — Messrs Gunn, Kerr, Rickard, Byrne, and others spoke strongly in favor of the movement. —It was mentioned by Mr Nicholson that 233,000 acres of land had been sold in this district, and the expenditure was nil ; that the Colonial Treasurer stuck to all the proceeds of land sales, and gave us back nothing to make roads or bridges. It was also pointed out and endorsed by the meeting that owing to the large increase of settlement on both sides of the river, the time had arrived when a bridge is an absolute necessity. Settlers here are finding out that they must send part of their produce to Dunedin or elsewhere. The punts have done good service in the ! past, I won't deny ; but when a settler starts to go any distance with a load, he must have extra horses or take only half a load, as the approaches to the punts in this district are very steep. It is a wellknown fact that keeping extra horses means more expense to the residents in this district, who are heavily enough handicapped for the want of direct communication with the seaboard. — Messrs Honner, Kerr, Rickard, Richardson, Graham, Shiels, M'Leod, Nicholson, Gunn, and Brazil were appointed a Committee to prepare a petition to be sent to the member for the district for presentation to Parliament, setting forth the great necessity that exists for the erection of a traffic- bridge over the Clutha River at Ettrick.