33 YEARS AGO.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5490, 21 October 1929, Page 1

33 YEARS AGO.

(From the “Ohinemuri Gazette” of October 21, 1896.) LOCALS. There will be no Cinderella dance this week on Thursday evening, on account of the Fire Brigade’s moonlight excursion. The Paeroa' Volunteer Fire Brigade is getting up a moonlight excursion for to-morrow evening on the river in the p.s. Patiki, starting from the railway wharf at 7 o’clock. The small compassionate allowance recommended by the Goldfields Committee to be paid to Mr S. Alexander for gold discovery at the Thames, has taken the form of a vote of £5O on the Supplementary Estimates. • The Godfrey Vaudeville Company gave a very successful entertainment last night at the Criterion Theatre. A most attractive part of the programme was the exhibition of the kinematograph, Edison’s latest and most wonderful invention. This instrument depicted several scenes on a screen in a very lifelike manner, and excited the greatest enthusiasm among the audience. WHANGAMATA NOTES. The latest development in mining matters is the arrival of Mr E. R. Edwards from the Thames with the object of starting the Marco Polo. It is quite refreshing to see the veteran Edwards in these wild regions with the weight of 75 summers upon his shoulders. His visit, however, has had a significance which will bear fruit at a future date. He is highly pleased with the general aspect of the country and the future prospects of the field. I was delighted to receive two copies of the “Gazette” early last week. Among other items of interesting news I learned that the county engineer is gradually pushing his way towards this coast through the Waitekauri track. This track will, I believe, be of considerable value to prospectors who want to obtain their supplies from Waitekauri, but as a thoroughfare for journeying from coast to coast it will not be used for a considerable time.

I was informed upon unimpeachable authority that some stone of extraordinary richness was recently found at Wharekeraupunga. The track goes through this place with the unpronouncable and unspellable name. It is therefore reasonable that proper means of communication between this place and Paeroa should be provided.

(From the “Ohinemuri Gazette” of March 24, 1896.) ANOTHER WARNING.

The summer is now close at hand, and nothing definite has, so far as we know, as yet been done regarding the urgently needed water supply scheme which the County Council undertook to carry into effect. Month after month has been spent in correspondence and enquiries, and we seem to be just as far advanced as we were at first. If we remember right, one of the preliminary essential matters necessary was the obtaining of the passage through the House of an Enabling Act, but now that Parliament has been prorogued without any attempt being made to get such, nothing •in that direction can be done until next session, so we fear we have to face the coming summer months with absolutely no water even to lay the dust in the streets and 1 to flush the drains, no domestic supply for the increased population of Paeroa, and none for fire extinguishing purposes should an emergency arise. Such a condition of affairs is a standing menace to life and property, and a crying reproach to those who were the means of bringing it about. We need not dwell upon the dangers which the want of an adequate water supply, combined with effective drainage, must cause to a rapidly increasing township such as ours, for we are sure they are fully recognised by everyone, and therefore it behoves us all to move in the matter without de- 1 lay to see that something is done—and that at once—to remedy the present deplorable condition in which we are placed. We seem to be living in a fool’s paradise, as it were, priding ourselves on the rapid strides Paeroa is making in the number of new buildings that are being erected in all directions and in the increasing population, but blind to the insanitary conditions of our surroundings. LOCALS. On Thursday evening last the moonlight excursion, got up by the Fire Brigade, took place, but unfortunately the night was very stormy. In spite of all, however, some 90 persons turned up on the p.s. Patiki at 7 p.m., and enlivened by the music of the Paeroa Brass Band went down the river some distance. Had the evening been anything like the previous one there would doubtless have been a large crowd.