Letters to the editor.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 8, Issue 391, 20 April 1864, Page 3

Letters to the editor.

The Bullock Trap on No 3 Line ! Sir, —A paragraph which appeared recently in your columns, alluding to the above, has happily had an effect —an effect, however, in a retrogressive direction. On either side of the trap in question, a fence has been erected, stopping all traffic along that portion of the roadway, the consequence being that drays heavily laden, in order to reach the ferry, must be driven over a precipitous bank, with wheels locked, to the great risk of a “break-down.” Now, Mr. Editor, all this inconvenience might have been at once disposed of, had our Provincial Sub-Treasurer but expended a similar amount of labour, by having a few pieces of timber laid down to restore the bridge (which constituted the trap ) at a very trifling outlay for the timber necessary more than that incurred in the erection of the present barricade ; how long the road shall remain thus, perhaps you can explain. I suppose the necessary forms and official routine must he submitted to “the powers ” at W ellington, before any amendment can take place. Do, Mr. Editor, give them a touch with your editorial spur, and make them move along just a little quicker. Excuse the present trespass on your columns, and believe me to remain, Yours &e. Simplex. Thistle Flat, April, 1864.

Wanganui, .April 9, 1864. Sir, —It is now upwards of four years passed since the Government sought to induce the settlers to form themselves into Volunteer Companies, and to stimulate them to do so, offered them certain privileges; namely, to choose their own officers ; and made them numerous promises. First, of a yeavly present to each Company, and subsequently of an uniform &e. At a later period they notified their regret at the apparent want of zeal in the Volunteer movement, and their desire to afford every encouragement to the further promoting it. Let us contrast their promises with their performances. By the power given them to choose their own officers, they wore naturally led to believe, tl\ey would be under the control of gentlemen located amongst them and so acquainted with their general avocations as to insure that the performance of their military duties would be attended with as little injury and inconvenience as possible. Has not the spirit of this been completely perverted ? and has not the zeal which officers would have felt had such been carried out in its full integrity been completely smothered by their being reduced to perfect automatons ? A lavish expenditure of money has been incurred in unnecessary appointments of unsuitable persons, the only effect of which could be that which has resulted—a general disgust both on the part of the officers and the members of all companies. 1 would venture to say, had the Government acted in accordance with their overtures, the respective companies of Volunteers would not only he considerably numerically stronger, but woul d by their own zeal ( untrampled on ) have been in a far more' advanced state than they are at the present time—without a tithe of the expense to the country. They would have been volunteers in spirit and in action. They are now militia-men under the fictitious nomenclature of volunteers. The unsought for pecuniary inducements, uniform &c. have been alike violated and disregarded. For promises and pledges unperformed has been substituted a vexations and harassing vacillation, which has reduced the numerical strength of the volunteers" of this district to one half of what three years, ago it consisted I am &c. A Hybrid Militiaman.

Wanganui, April 13 ISC4, Sir, —There is a subject of great interest to this district, which, I trust, the public will not lose sight of. A large portion of the Wanganui block is now open for sale without any steps having been taken to lay off roads to the different lands which may be sold ; and should this go on, it requires no foresight to see what endless quarrelling and litigation will result from it. It is not right for our Provincial Government thus to engender strife and discord amongst us by neglecting this primary duty. It is not entitled to dispose of lands to which no approach is previously given. We have surveyors stationed here ; how is itfthat no instructions have been given to those gentlemen to mark off roads ? Surely our Provincial Government cannot think it is discharging its duty in thus disposing of our lands and appropriating the result without incurring ally outlay in the making of roads or even marking them out. I trust the public 'will attend to the hint. We have already had fsnfficient Quarrels about right of roads &c. without making any more. I am &c. An Observer.

Wartganui, April 14, 1864. Sir, —Last Sabbath as a number of. persons were going to the service at Kaitoki, they were met by three gentlemen of the Defence Force, who passed them at full gallop, heedless of the dust with which they plentifully covered them" To say nothing of the desecration of the Lord’s day, , and the want of common civility in those who are so well paid for our defence, the question maybe asked what are the duties these gentlemen are expected to perform, which allow them not only to absent themselves from their post on the Sabbath, but on the Monday as well, or were they sent to protect the Commercial Hotel from the enemy, where they were observed apparently keeping guard ? I am hfc. . c i'A'N Enquirer.

AWFUL CONFLAGRATION AT SANTIAGO. The following appears in the Al a California , of the 23rd January, as taken from the Valparaiso Mercury. The awfuj occurrence took place during a festival in honor of the Immaculate Conception. . The Bth of December was a great triumph for the clergy the clmvcq of the Jesuits in Santiago. An enthusiastic audience filled every nook. There were hardly any men there but 3000 women comprising the flower of the beauty and fashion of the capital, were at the feet of the ecclesiastics, very many against the will of tlier fathers and husbands—but that of course only showed forth the power and might of the Gospel. Never had such pyi’otechny been seen before—2o,ooo lights mostly camphine, in long festoons of colored globes, blazed the church into a hall of fire. But the performances had not yet begun, when the crescent of fire at the foot of the gigantic image of the Virgin over the high altar overflowed, and climbing up the muslin draperies and pasteboard devices to the wooden roof, rolled forth a torrent of flame. The suddenness of the fire was awful. The dense mass of women, frightened out of their senses—numbers .fainting and all entangled by their long swelling dresses—rushed, as those who knew that death was at their heels, to the one door which soon became cliooked up. Fire was everywhere. Stealing along the wooden ceiling, it flung the para line lamps, hung in rows there, among the struggling women. In a moment the gorgeous church was a sea of flame. Michael Angelo’s fearful pictvre of Hell was there, but far exceeded.

Help was all but impossible. A Hercules might have strained his strength in vain to pull one from the serried mass of frenzied wretches who, piled one above another as they climbed over to reach the air, wildly fastened the gripe of death upon any one escaping, in order that they might be dragged out with them. Those who longed to save them were doomed to bear the most harrowing sight that ever seared human eye-balls ; to see mothers, sisters, tender ana timid women dying that dreadful death that appals the stoutest heart of man—within one yard of salvation—within one yard of men who would have given their lives over and over again for them. It was maddening—the screaming and wringing of hands for help as the remorseless flames came on ; and then, when some already dead with fright, were burned in gliastlv indifference—tlieir horrible agony—some in prayer, some tearing tlieir hair and battering their faces. Women seized in the embrace of the flames were seen to undergo a transformation. as though by optical illusion—first dazzling bright—then horribly lean and shrank up—the black statues rigidly fixed in a writhing attitude. The fire imprisoned by the immense thickness of the walls had devoured everything combustible by ten o’clock. Then defying the sickening stench, the people came to look after lost ones. O, what a sight the fair, placid moon looked down upon ! Cl se packed crowds of calcined, distorted forms, wearing the distorted expression of the last pang, whose smile was once a heaven —the ghastly phalanx of black statues twisted in every variety of agony, stretching out their arms, saifimploringmerey —and then of the heap that bad choked up the door, multitudes with tlie lower parts perfectly untouched, and some all a shapeless mass but with one arm or foot unscathed. The silence after those piercing screams were hushed in death was horrible. It was the silence of the grave unbroken but by the bitter wail or fainting cry. Two thousand souls had passed through that ordeal of fire to the judgement seat of God.