MAURICEVILLE

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 318, 18 November 1879, Page 2

MAURICEVILLE

[MOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

Nov 12,1879. Much gratification is expressed by the settlers hereat theaetion recently taken by County Council West with regard to roads. The satisfaction however, is not altogether unmixed, as many of the prominent settlers, taking into consideration the quantity of labor available in the settlement, consider it unfair to send men from a distance and to employ them by daywork on the North Road, instead of calling for tenders and thereby giving an opportunity to the residents of getting tne work, besides economising the funds at the disposal of the Council. Messrs Beetham and Bunny, our worthy Members of Parliament, have written, stating that they have presented our petition to Parliament; so it is to be hoped that under their good care it will he productive of satisfactory results. I observe that, at the instigation of the settlers of Alfredton, a deputation has waited on the Hon Minister for Public Works, with reference to the proposed line of railway to Woodville. The line of route through this district, already surveyed, has, by the Government engineers, been dearly demonstrated to be the most practicable. It runs through the FortyMile Bush, the Mangaone, and the MakaKia blocks, which are being surveyed and are ready for settlement. In time to come,' a branch line from Eketahuna to Alfredton would, I think, meet all the requirenients of the Alfredton district without interfering with the admirable main route already advocated. It is high time a postmaster was appointed at Mauriceville. At present the mail is left at Messrs Hastwell & Macara's stables at Stoney Creek, from which place all letters or papers have to be fetched by the settlers, some of them living a distance of nearly five miles, There was some grumbling at the non-receipt of the mail on Monday, 10th instant. The l coach came as usual, and several settlers had a journey for nothing, as, for reasons to us unknown, tho mail was left in Masterton, where it k remained until the following Wednesday, much to the inconvenience of a visitor here, who thereby missed the receipt of, to him, important correspondence. As soon as the north road is sufficiently repaired to permit the coach to travel through Mauriceville a petition will be sent in to the PostmasterGejieral for the establishment of a Post Office at one of the stores in the heart of the settlement. Much pleasure has been occasioned to Scandinavians by a recent visit of the Rev George Sass, Lutheran Minister, from Norsewood. That gentleman held divine service in the schoolroom, where he was attended by the largest congregation yet seen in the settlement, who listened with much delight to his earnest eloquence, and are glad to know that arrangements are made to enable him to visit Mauriceville periodically, It is to be regretted that, at the time the land reserves here were made, no portion was set aside for church purposes, for, with the exception of ten acres of hilly land for a cemetery, the whole of the reserves, one hundred and sixty acres, are vested in the Education Board; so there exists no public site for a church. A Lutheran Church committee has been formed for the purpose of raising funds to procure a site and to erect a church thereon. The late rains have been very acceptable, causing the grass to spring well.