NOTES ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume IV, Issue 412, 23 August 1876, Page 3

NOTES ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

I MUST commence my noteß by thanking your Opotiki correspondent for having taken the trouble to point out to me the error of my ways in having had the impudence to insinuate that all was not according to Cocker in Opotiki, and recommending me for the future to take the beam out of the Tauranga eye before I dared to take the mote out of the Opotiki eye. However, if my strictures had no other effeot, they were the means of your numerous readers getting an ex» ceedingly lucid and graphic description of the country in which Sub-In9peetor Bennett livps, and keeping his name prominently before a grateful Government. It really made my blood run cold to think of a road only th«*ee feet wide and a thousand feet deep (that is, I presume, if you get off it on the wrong side) ! and the mud ! and the slush ! and the cold! and a river to cross eight times in a mile ! it is really awful ! ! Not having a proper supply of notes of exclamation pleaße put in a few for me where they are forgotten. But if I have offended I bow in meek aub* mission to your Opotiki correspondent, and let him remember "To err is human, but to forgive divine," and that after all one can hut err. Whilst on this subject I mußt not omit to thank your correspondent for Borne more valuable information. He says sawyers have erected a pit in the heart of a Jcahikatea bu?h, and that timber of all descriptions is being supplied by them at 10s per 100 ft. I hear that several orders for mahogany, bird'seye maple, and other descriptions of timber hitherto not available in New Zealand, have been sent to the Bawyers in this Icahikatea bush.

The North Township Highway Board are rather in a mess. Captain Tanks having been ousted of his seat at the instance of Mr Somerville, the chairman of the legal meeting held at the time advertised. I would beg you to notice the difference in these two -meetings ; at the first one the ratepayers were not at all unanimous; at the second they were, and everything went along harmoniously, the meeting only lasted about ten minutes, and declared Mr Rhodes duly elected. The second meeting was none of your paper collar arrangements where the swells have all their own way, but was composed of the bone, sinew, and muscle of the country, sir, determined to stand by their rights or perish in the attempt. If you remember, sir, I told you in giving my tip on the event, when the ratepayers were first called together " that there was nothing like leather," and named that as the winner. How many heartburnings would have been saved had my advice been taken ? How many fees would the two lawyers not have got ? How happily every thing would have gone ? Now, what do we see? Desolation, ruin, no Board, no chain man, no shells for the engineer to play with, no nothin'.

That El Dorado of the East Coast, Kaimai, has not yet I believe been visited by pros' pectors, the Hauhau element not having entirely been crushed, but living so near the place as we do, we are not likely to know, for you must ga from homo to hear news, and I see by the Auckland papers, gold has not only been fonnd there, but has actually been sold to the banks here in large quantities. How can a man who sends such nonsense as this out of the place, still keep a " heart vn 1 tainted." An Intelligent Vagbant.