The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1888. Self Help

Feilding Star, Volume X, Issue 24, 7 August 1888, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1888. Self Help

The settlers on that part of the Manchester Block known as Taonui, have determined to inaugurate a policy of strict self-help and self-reliance. They hare been unable to get a traffic bridge erected over the Oroua river at Aorangi, by which they might send across their cattle and sheep to the Feilding sale yards or the members of their families to do their shoping, and have in consequence been forced to cast about for the best means of overcoming these difficulties, which, in our opinion, ought not to exist. Overtures have been made to the railway authorities with the view of making Taonui station a regular stopping place for trains. As an inducement for this the settlers have undertaken to put up cattle and sheep yards for loading stock to be forwarded to Welor Wauganui. A blacksmith shop, a butchery, a bakery, and a general store are also to be started in order that the new station may have the benefit of the whole of the carrying trade for that district, so that the amount of freight collected may justify the extra expenditure by the railway authorities. The road from Taonui to Bunnythorpe and Palmerston is to be made good for all kinds of traffic, and stock, when necessary, will be driven to the sale yards at Palmerston. Taking these facts in their nakedness, they show clearly enough that a big blow will be aimed at the business now done by Feilding storekeepers and tradesmen. If they go on at the present rate their sphere of usefulness and profit will be bounded by the Makmo and Kiwitea Btreams, and the Oroua river, while trade which legitimately belongs to Feilding will be either smothered altogether, or what is left alive directed towards Taonui and Palmerston, whose residents have a better " eye" to the main chance. We say without fear of contradiction that the settlers in Kiwitea and Taonui owe no gratitude to Feilding for any assistance given in their efforts to open up the country. The bridge over the Kiwitea on the Kimbolton road, is a standing disgrace to the borough, and it is well known that had the burgesses of Feilding showed any inclination in that direction a bridge would have been erected over the Oroua river at Aorangi several years ago. When the timber trade was brisk and plenty of money from that Sourca in circulation, we could understand the shortsighted indifference to the wants of the country settlers which obtained, but now that the country settlers have virtually taken the place of the sawmillers it is their turn to be the objects of consideration, and the sooner our local tradesmen show they are becoming alive to the fact the better it will be for all parties.