Round the Manawtu.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 2, 27 September 1907, Page 3

Round the Manawtu.

notes from a carriage window; Levin is easily first so far as West Coast (Manawatu) settlement goes. Fifteen years ago tho daring sliopkcepor spent most of his spare time with tho axe clearing a site. Today ho refuses to bo drawn into the street—event to ..hear, a proclamation read.. So.much,for progress and prosperity ; times havo changed somewhat. Anyway, what, wil\ Sir Johcph think oi.. tho rebellious Government ■ settlement after this? What chance for a dairy school? Levin must bo tiring n! Government favours, or would it to foil-somo bush again? Tlio construction of a bridge across*- , tho Manawatu River near will replace tho ferry there,, and willji more permanently connect tho rail-' way township,with tho moro distantFoxton. 'Floods,in tho Manawatu arofrcquont, at which times ■ tho ferry ventures not, so many an anxious traveller prospectively sighs" for tho; day tho piles, now'.being driven by tho water's' edge,' will"warrant his speedy release from tlio task of crossing this turbulent stream by "wire." Moutoa, tho little-known settlement on tho road between Shannon and Foxton, • is. promoted at last. _ Telephono communication , now brings it within call of the length and breadth of the Dominion. ■ .Hitherto the coach brought'tho only news of the outer world. Moutoa is'nbw going to dress flax 'on its own' account, • and a mill is being orccted for. the purpose. Linton, six inilps south of Palmerston, is a.prosperous-looking piece of country', where a seemingly endless number of sheep to the-acre grow fat and fatten. Dcspito.tho rise in the price of mutton-chops, it is a-ques-tion whether sheep or flax aro tho moro profitable kind of thing to suffer upon tho land these days'. ; '■ Palmcrston' is now tho' fifth largest town, in the Doriiinion, and you-, can oasilv understand how tho averago citizen thnre refuses to have his letters addressed Jim Jones, Esq., gentleman, " Manawatu," simply because somewhere down Otago way a fiftieth largest town is threatened with extinction. Palmcrston (North) threatens to form its Squaro into a stockado before it resigns in favour .of • the "burgoo" settlement. Anyway, .the Scandinavians who first .settled tlicro were satisfied to. call it after. "Palmer," the first settlor.. and probably tho southerners called , their, towii after a certain lord—hence, perhaps, the distinction. Paekakariki (which could well afford to alter its name to Sandunc or something easy) is fast becoming a fashionable seaside resort. Many fine summer residences havo gone.up, and the township is now in possession of a telephone bureau, and a moneyorder office is to follow. Otaki, which is nothing if not modest, i 3 still content to vasto its fragrances a mile from tho railway station- and several miles from, tho beach, whilst even the Chinese market gar-donor—who; like tho Maori, was legion a while back—is now seeking [rdsh Ileitis pud past-urea new. Johusonvillo' soldiers look exceedingly brave in their new regimentals, anil* drill like "Japs" on &il:ur;|.-iy 'afternoons. Better than tho '''muddied or.f," when the nail comes, as it must, very noon, accarding to the oldest i::hahita::t, # who is infallible— , soinetiinos. ' Kapiti and Mann seem net to have been moved an" by the rrccut vrstf-rn hnoT.ers breaking iileT; the coast, t'lougii several new recks iv"r>- .".trov.'n along the bi-.--cl; from sn>"-v,hcre.' I