KIHIKIHI. TOWN BOARD.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2132, 9 March 1886, Page 3

KIHIKIHI. TOWN BOARD.

At the meeting of the town board on Frid.iy evening business of the usual routine chai actor was transacted, accounts passed for payment, &c. A letter was received from Mrs Corboy, requesting that steps might be taken to prevent her property being flooded by the surface water off the rond. The chairman was requested to forward the letter to the county council. He was alao requested to apply to Mr Hudson for an excursion train on the 17th, when the race meeting will be held. The works on the footpaths, for which arrangements have been made, will be puahed on as rapidly as possible. Gravel is being carted from the Funiu and put on one of the vacant lots to be kept in reserve, and used when and where required. This is being done as it is impossible to procure it in winter. The titles for the lots sold by auction bonie time ago ha\e been received, and arc now in the hands of the board's solicitor. The main drain has been begun, and h being pushed on as fast as possible, so as to be finished before the wet weather fairly sets in. The furze which caused so much tumble and some litigation is being removed by property holders, the few court cases ha\ ing had no doubt a salutaiy effect. Some little time since some money was allocated by the county council for road works in this neighbourhood. I hope they will be put in hand before the winter rains begin. The usual practice with local bodies is to wait until wet weather, and then set about doing work th.it is popularly known by the name of repairing, but which in reality is making more mud. The council should take a new departure in that respect as regards some of these roads. I see tenders have been called for gravelling a portion of the road between here and Te Awamutu; but, if I am informed correctly, there are other roads here for which money ha» been set apart, and if they were attended to this month they would be in a good state before winter.

RETURN OK FATHER LUCK. i The Rev. Father Luck, who has been aw.iy with the Bishop to Wellington and Dunedin, is expected back to-night (Monday).

THE DREAM OK GOLD. Our expectations as regards finding a payable gnldh'eld are .steadily going down. { Thoyaie below freezing point now, and if Rangit<>to pioves to be as barren of gold as the remainder of the country travelled ovei by the prospectors, they will be down to zero. None of the men have as yet found anything better than a few specks, and no indication- of anything payable : even the famed Tuhua is pronounced a "duffer." The geological formation of the country doos not indicate gold ; it is piincipally pumice and limestone. From the first the .surveyors said there was no gold there, but many of us hoped that they were mistaken, owing to the fact that perhaps, they were not experienced in gold mining. The statement of the prospectors, however, beai> out their*. A very experienced digger once told me that the geological formation of a country could not always be relied on as indicating pold or not, for lie h.H frequently seen it in most unlikely - looking places in New Zealand. The prospectors are now gathering in to Rangitoto, and if nothing is found them they are to return home. The prospecting however can only have been very hasty, as the parties could not prospect all tiie gullies and water courses in that large ttact of couutiy in such a short time. I hear, however, that Tuhua has been well tnud, with no favourable results. Moffats minder however, point* towards the inference that gold exists theie. The natives would hardly murder a man who had lived so lmig amongst them unless he knew too much of the matter to please them. It seems hard to give up hope after belie\ ing no long that the means of restoring the prospeiity of the country lay but a comparatively short distance from us. The \ery difficulty, almost impossibility, of getting into the country only inflamed imagination all the more. So it is always, the unknown possesses great attractions. Science and experience, however, have given their fiat and we must give up the splendid >illas and sea-side residences we had, in our mind's eye, erected. There may however be other minerals there which eventually will prove of more solid and lasting value to the country than gold.