COAL CREEK FLAT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1213, 13 January 1886, Page 3

COAL CREEK FLAT.

(From our own Correspondent. ) Rain ! rain ! Will it ever rain again, is the general inquiry. Everything is dry and barren except the water courses. This is a very bad season. Captain Edwin sends weather .warnings of bad weather coming, but rain persistently keeps away from our district. The crops are very poor, the straw is thin and short, and some of our farmers are cutting their oat crops. In .the Blacks district the crops are a great deal; worse than they are here. There was a frost on the last night of 1885 which blackened the potatoes nearly everywhere. The crops look well in the Tapanui and Gore districts, but more rain is wanted even there.

The pleasures of our holidays have been blighted by the fire at Roxburgh, w£ich wag a serious loss' to Messrs' Craig and. Co. and to Mr Heron, who has spent a lot of money about the Commercial Hotel since he became the proprietor. "The" email ipsurance ou ' the stable wjll pot

pay a third of the loss sustained by Mr Heron through the fire. — Then there wjib the unfortunate accident to Mr F. Higgs, a young man, esteemed by every one. How careful we should be with horses, , and, indeed, with everything else. Oar school was opened to-day and prizes are to be given to the children this even ing. The Roxburgh school was also opened to-day. I wish both teachers and children a prosperous year. The children must attend school with regularity in order to pass the several standards. I was sorry to see the respected teacher at Moa Flat (Mr Guthrie) defending himself in your paper. If people will not send their children to school, how can they expect them to pass? The compulsory clause should be vigorously put in force without fear or favor. I, with a good many more, would like to see Professor Black give us a lecture ou his next visit to the Otago goldfields. Why Roxburgh has been left out in the cold I don't know. The main road between Lawrence and Roxburgh is in a very bad state ; for miles the gravel has been washed aud worn from the road, and the traffic is tearing and wearing out the pitching. When the rain comes the pitching will be thrown out wholesale by the heavy traffic; then our County Councillors will find the roads should have been prepared in fine weather.

When will the proposed line of railway from Lawrence be surveyed 1 Very soon, we hope, or another session of Parliament will take place.and thus cauaefurther delay. Why your Millers Flat correspondent should decry our traffic contributions to the railway and conflne it to fruit, I don't know, seeing we have a large tield of the best lignite in New Zealand, together with all the interior traffic in grain, wool, and other produop. "United we stand, divided we fall " should be our motto in this railway question. We should like to see our railway extended from Lawrence, but if we cannot get it from there let us have it from JBeriot in preference to no railway at all. I hope all the people here will see the question in that light, and not say, because we cannot get a railway via Lawrence, we will have none. The river is very low, and all the claims that have sluicing-water are at work. 11th January, 1886.