MARTIN'S BAY.

Evening Star, Issue 3317, 7 October 1873, Page 2

MARTIN'S BAY.

We (Wahatip Mail) make the foTowing extracts from a letter placed at our disposal by Mr A. H. Williamson, the Well'known West (.’oast explorer of 1863 4. It is dated from Big Bay : “ The prices everyone charges that comes here (even the last one) are so ridiculous that, except people were really doing well, it would be impossible for them to live. The Waipara, by her prices, has driven, off the population from this side of Bruce Bay, and, oy all appearance, Otago is trying to drive away the few that remain about Martin’s. 1 have therefore concluded to try and get a little vessel for my own use, to go for any necessaries when required. lam confident it would be the means of permanently settling this quarter. There are six mien at work here who are well satisfied with their pro* spects, and, could reasonable supplies be jelled on, there would soon be an increase. Since Martin’s started, I have the names in ray diary of over forty men who have left entirely through the want of supplies. “ With reference to Martin’s, all like the place, and are clearing and cultivating as fast as they can ; but no doubt the people of Otago, after seeing over L 2.000 expended on roads to Martin’s, will be finder the impression that we are well attended on, I have no hesitation in saying that that money is being entirely spent for the benefit of a few Queenstown men, and .Martin’* will never reap a particle of benefit from it, either at the present or in the future. It is so much out of the way, andso'few are able to see it, that they can carry on with impunity anything they please. 1 have been m the Colonies for the last twenty years, and visited many parts, but never saw such a piece of ridiculous humbug carried on at the public expense in my time. Why, the/man (whoever he was) who proposed spending money on a track by Lake Harris, and knowing the Greenstone so close by—being so strongly recommended by no less an authority than Dr Hector - must have been out of bis senses, and, no doubt, may have yet to give an account of what possessed him at the time. I often wonder if the public expenditure is carried on in the same manner through the other parts of the Otago Province. The Otago Government are not to blame ; it is done entirely through misrepresentation. Parties who are able to judge are fully confident that eight men, in three months, eould out a track from the head of Martin’s Lake to where the cattle are running at the Greenstone, te be £ble to ride a horse right through in any season of -the year; whereas, by Lake Harris, it would take Vogel’s last loan, and then, if it was finished, it would be shut up from traffic by snow and ice a great part of the year.”