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Cromwell Argus, Volume 2, Issue 89, 25 July 1871, Page 4

The winter has now fully set in upon us ; and the roads are beginning to show its effects wherever cartage is carried on to any extent. The main line of road is much cut up : traffic is finding out all the weak places, and telling upon them. The •*£ X.a upon wheeled conveyances, horse-flesji and human patience has come in good e- vnest with the season ; and is increasing ftfe the winter advances. In every hollow place in the road, the water is settling, and soaking its way through the surface-earth, rendering locomotion not only toilsome and inconvenient, but perilous. < >ur Road Engineeris doing his best with the means at his control: but these fall far short of what is required; the little that is done is hardly felt because so much has to be left undone. It will be remembered that many a noble animal came to grief on these roads last season, and one poor unfortunate man fell a victim to the same cause. Finding his team drifted itp, his way hampered and hopeless, he lost his reason, and ended his life in his own waggon. And now, as

might be expected, a return of the season has brought with it an increase of delays and difficulties and expenses of travel, and also a much higher rate of freightage ; and yet team owners grumble at the low rates and small profits of the road. In winter, they say, there is no back carriage, and road expenses are very high ; all which we well know to be the case. The line of road from Dunedin to the Lake district was hastened through with a view of keeping all the traffic thither within the boundaries of the Province of Otago. The bridge over the Shot-over, and the cheapened punt charges along the way, were intended to help in the same direction, and to keep the team traffic on the main line. But before the last obstacle had been removed, the traffic to the Lake had taken another turn. Goods that had come through Cromwell to th° Lake were shipped at Dunedin to the Bluff, thence to Winton by rail, and a stretch of sixty miles of level road brought them to the foot of the Lake j whence the Antrim landed them on the jetty at Queens;own. The whole distance is done in less time, and with a saving of at lease one third in cost. Th? passenger traffic is si increased between Winton and Kingston tint a biweekly mail is now running ; and in the goods line, the road is assuming a lively

appearance. And there is another fact that is worth stating here in dealing with this question Freights are much lower coming via Oamaru to Wakefield, Bsndigo, and settlements on the east side of the Clutha river, than to C.omwell by the common route. The farmers in and about Oamaru are turning their attention to the market for their productions at Logantown, and along the line of road loading to it. Tnstead of selling their oats at home for two shillings a bushel, they can now bring them up and get double the pi'ice. These facts will account for the comparative dearness of all articles of consumption in the Cromwell district. Bread even was till lately threepence dearer in Cromwell than in any of the farther inland townships. It is a fact of which no business man in the district is ignorant, that the means of living are more moderate anywhere than in Cromwell ; and this result, so detrimental to the district, is owing to the cause above referred to. And while these two outside lines of traffic are furnishing the whole surrounding district with less cost to the dealer and consumer, our men of business are undersold. The market is supplied with goods on terms on which they cannot treat with their customers. A storekeeper residing not thirty miles from Cromwell was asked the other day why he did not purchase his goods at Cromwell, or of some nearer wholesale house. He said in reply that the freight was less from Oamaru than from the nearest wholesale house to his business plac?. If the railroad go on, as we suppose it will, from Wintou to Kingston, the Lake will be the future depot: our supplies must come downward instead of upward. And we must wait for the "Iron horse to ; help us to lighten our burdens, to cheapen our cost of living. r.