The Western Star. (PUBLISHED BI-WEEKLY.) SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1883.

Western Star, Issue 805, 29 December 1883, Page 2

The Western Star. (PUBLISHED 81-WEEKLY.) SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1883.

Before our next issue is in the bands of our readers, one more year will have joined the majority, and the popular and time-honored ceremonies attendant upon “speeding the parting” and “welcoming the coming” year, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, will have passed and gone. It is not our intention to ‘‘improve the occasion” by moralising on the subject; that matter can appropriately be undertaken by those whose more immediate duty it is to warn men that time is fleeting, and to point out the serious consequences, individually, thereby involved. Our duty lies more ia the v vtion of marking the progress of

e district in the practical affairs of tvrr>day life and recalling the leading ikcid'ixs in its career. The latter la-!; on tins occasion is comparatively alight mie, the year almost expire! h i> in.: been cxe ptSerially fruU'ess in alining events, or in, movements suffi. cienily pronounced o warrant special rtlVren :e the>eto. We do nut mean it lobe inferred from this remark, however,that the district has notbeeu making slowbutnone the leasts are progress, cither in the direction of initiating the of new resources »ad

industries or in consolidating those j already commenced. It is only | necessary, in proof of the former assertion, to refer to tlie great boon the introduction of the refrigerating process has proved in enabling our settlers to obtain a profitable price for their surplus stock. At the present experimental stage of the invention, it is difficult to guage its possibilities, but the indications are greatly in favor of its proving a most important factor in the future prosperity of the district. In the same category may also be mentioned the successful floating of a ship-building .company at this port, and although the project has been entered upon in a modest way, it is now sufficiently advanced to warrant the prediction that it will prove not the least potent of the many other agencies at work to push the town and district on to that condition of prosperity to which its natural resources lead us to expect that it will yet attain. The steady development of the Orepuki coal and shale measures, may fairly be referred to as indicative of approaching prosperity; which has been retarded only by the delay in the completion of the Orepuki railway. Our goldfields too have continued to yield steady returns, although nothing like those that experience has proved would result if a little artificial assistance were applied, in the shape of an increased water supply and better fall* for tailings. The Longvvood reefs —that Mecca of Riverton—will also have a fair and legitimate trial shortly, and before another year passes away the railway westward to Orepuki will be completed. No better evidence of the vitalitj r of the town and the faith indulged in as to ! its future could be wished for than the imposing block of new buildings which have, during the last six mouths, been erected on the site of those destroyed by fire in May last. Looking at the prospects of the town and district in general, therefore, it is with hopeful i feelings that we wish one and all a I