OUR OPTIKI LETTER.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume IV, Issue 402, 19 July 1876, Page 3

OUR OPTIKI LETTER.

(tfEOM OTJE OWN COEBESPONDENT.) Opotiki, July 17. A NAUILOW ESCAPE. An accident has occurred on the bar at the mouth of the river, by which several lives were risked, and a considerable amount of property lost. Mr Edward Webb, storekeeper, of Maraenui, was coming down from his settlement with a whaleboat loaded with pigs and manned by five natives. While crossing the bar a heavy sea broke over the boat, capsizing her, and precipitating the occupants into the water; this was some distance from the shore, and in a heavy surf. Fortunately all hands were good swimmers and si^cceeded in reaching the beach in a more or less exhausted state, most of them having divested themselves of their clothing, which was of course lost, along with their cargo of pigs, whose legs were all tied, also various articles of property. The whaleboat they were fortunate enough to find the following day, floating bottom up, minus oars, rowlocks, &c. Some gentlemen have kindly been round and collected some articles of clothing from the public on. behalf of the survivors, who were almost in a state of nudity. A PUBLIC POUND : TO BE OB NOT TO BE ? The Literary and Debating Society have immortalised themselves in a grand debate on the vitally important question of the desirability or otherwise of the establishment of a public pound in Opotiki. The doors of the Town Hall were on this" occasion thrown open to the public, who unanimously availed them- elves of the opportunity; the pi 3e being crowded to excess. The debate was previously arranged in the following order : — The question to have a leader and four assistants on each side, and the Society's ordinary debating rules to be adhered to. The affirmative consisted of Mr W. T. Mason, leader, and Messrs Winstoiie, Highley, Mayhew, and Parkinson as assistants. The negative wore E. King 1 , Esq., leader, and Messrs Litchfield, Wright, Connelly, and Elliott, assistants. MiMason opened proceedings with a very able and convincing argument on the many advantages to be derived from a public pound, pointing out the protection it afforded to crops and the facility with which settlers might extend their cultivations without the, in many cases, insurmountable 'difficulty and expense of legal fences. Mr R. King replied, and argued at considerable length on the disadvantages of a pound in a small agricultural settlement like Opotiki, shewing how such an establishment would become a source of ceaseless litigation and trouble, that it would be simply placing iv the hands of malicious individuals an easy and certain method of gratifying their private malice to the serious loss and detriment of cattle owners ; that it would be depriving the poorer settlers of the liberty of grazing their cattle upon the, at present, very large extent of unused roads and absentees' lands, which in itself would be a calamity to the settlement ; as while every man in Opotild owns a few head of horses and cattle, and many depend chiefly upon them for support, yet an exceedingly small proportion of them had enough land of their own to feed them on, and scarcely any were just now in a position, to purchase more in consequence of the increased value of land in the district. A considerable amount of very warm argument then ensued between the opposition benches, but from the very first it was quite evident that the negative would carry the day, as public feeling has all along been strongly against the "pound with but few exceptions. The debate was however well carried out without any unseemly interruption or disorder, and each side of the question thoroughly ventilated. The chairman, on taking the opinion of the meeting, found the votes almost unanimously against the pound. Mr Litchfield then proposed a vote of thanks to Mr Mason, the leader of the opposition, for his clever and energetic management of the losing side of the question, which was carried. Mr Mason, in thanking the meeting, begged to state that although he had taken up that side of the question, and. had endeavoured to do his duty in the true spirit of debate, he had nevertheless been argtiing entirely against his own convictions. Mr Connelly proposed a vote of thanks to Mr King, which was also carried, and the meeting closed with a vote of thanks to the chairman. This meeting, although without possessing any official authority, has literally given the deathblow to the pound question, which

previous to this was being pushed forward with great energy s.nd perseverance by an interested few, who. were trying their utmost to pervert the public mind to their own private interests.