Lakes.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 30 January 1914, Page 2

Lakes.

_—♦ f With Special to Lake Horowhenua. (Written i"»ir I'ke Chronicle). -Nearly everyone who matters at all reckon that lakes are liaiidy ihings to have about the precincts "1 ;i iown. Some regard tkeni as handy places to draw water Iroin for various uses (the chief of which they say is brewing beer) and misuses; its addition to whisky, and its free use in baths being amun»- the latter. With others a quiet corner of a lake just at dusk is a lirst-rate place for the tragedy in which Carlo, or T;'bby, and a brick figure promin(Mifly. (jthei's who have the imaginative faculty highly developed seem to get nearly as much inspiration out of a large sheet of water as other folk get out of two gallons of beer. Some of the best legends and romances have been woven around the lakes of various countries, and to such tales the Scottish and English lakes owe their fame: and the Maori lore about our own lakes would shame even Ananias. This strange incentive to fiction is probably the reason why young men, when strolling with "the girl" along the waters edge, make those wild, transparent promises about being true to death, etc. Plenty <;l such promises are made in other quiet places, but in these < ases the young man does not exnect always to be believed. Probably the girl does not believe him in any case. ?So one knows. Sometimes the young man believes it himself: and when the girl does not, he jumps into the lake— a shallow place for preference. Occasionally he is mistaken, and the water is deep, and then the police spend much time with urappling irons dragging for the remains. In the first instance he crawls out, dries himself on the bank, and sneaks home by the ' ■■ 7 - wav: in the second he is

'" perlu: ;;.■■ < vapornted in a place said to In , specially arranged for drying. People who have visited Lake Horowhemia lately are to wonder which fate is in store 11 for the corporate body, individuals or individual who has brought about the lowering of the waters '• of the above lake; some fervently hope it will be the second'. No doubt those directly concerned in v the matter know by whose authority and on what authority the 11 work was done, bul the general ' public, does not appear to know s much. It knows that one of the a talcs told was that the lowering " of the water would make leasable L " UK , formation of a tine road right (V jiHind the lake, enabling motorists 1 and other fortunate folk to do the 1 grand circuit. So far, the "first sod turning ceremony" has not even taken place, while tlie motor s pulls up about I(JU yards from the '. »vatx i r, gives a few disgusted snorts, and scuttles back to town, j Anyway, the cost of such a road 1 could only be faced by a large I community, and before this disIrict is populous enough to undertake the job the lake wuTbe—if I ilie present policy be persisted in practically empty, and someone ( will be growing winter feed for sheep in its bed. The public j also know that it was asserted that the lowering of the water would bring about a decrease in the quantity of the vegetation growing in the water, and that 1 part of the public winch visits the ■ lake know by sight and smell that ' exactly the ' contrary has taken 1 place; that at present the water near the boating shed is like pea soup in appearance, and like a solution of polecats in smell. So far this is the only result of low--1 cring the water.