BRIDGEOLIGY.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 32, 22 June 1877, Page 2

BRIDGEOLIGY.

[COMJIimiCATBD/} Where is to be the bridge P What a question this Involves. What an ootcroping of little jealouses. What a clashing of petty interests. One party says lets hare the old site, another let it be at Smith Street. While another meek and mild individual says lets split the difference and bare it be twist the two. I wonder if be bas a section about there. While yet another s*ys let the bridge sweat until we see if England goes to war with Russia, because if there ia a bridge it won Id give the Russians such easy access to Ivcef ton. Now, after hearing that last argument, I begnn to think of oar sister Colonies going in so much for defence, and knowing we could not afford to send to Sydney for Colonel Scratchly for ndviso as to our defences, I thought I would trudge up to Black's Point and consult Stuttering Jack, the greatest military authority we h«ve. And now I'll give the veteran's opinion as near as I can word for word barring the stuttering. He says let there be a bridge, and let it be at Smith Street, and for why. No doubt the Russians have had their spies up here, and they know very well they can't come up from Westport, because a dozen men with picks in half a day could pick down so many slips into the road that no Hannibal of modern days could pass an army to Beefton, so they are sure to come from the Grey. Now if there was no bridge they would cross the Inangahna river down and take Beefton from the north. Whereas if there is a bridge they would cross.it for they don't like to wet their feet if they can cross dry. And once ' they got over the bridge their trouble would begin, for the Fatal Creek is before | them. And no person, unless native born, or gradually acclimatised could stand it. And no Russian with a nose on could possibly face it and live. And they would be bound to beat an inglorious retreat, and leave bag and baggage behind them. How I think that clenches the argument, and let the bridge be at Smith Street, and as for the Creek, flush not its stagnant pools with water of a pnrer nature, unearth not those time honoured boots, those broken platters, those discarded pants, and remains of crockery of such various domestic uses, for therein lies Beefton's strength. Listen no more to doctor's growls at bis old friends typus, cholera morbus fevers, &c., for if a few of the inhabitants do succumb it is for their countries good, and we can erect a monument to their memory, thereby rendering their names immortal. For who would not willing sscrifice themselves to achieve such glorious events as the old soldier predicts. PATRIOT.