THE Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1877.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 50, 3 August 1877, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1877.

{ Thkeb having been, a good deal of diverse discussion of- la to relative to the so-sty.ied alternate rou,te. for.. th.c Grey road between Bevery's Terrace and the Grey function,, we appe.nd the report upon tbe two rbu,tes, furnished to the County Council by' Mr 0. T. O'Cojtno^. Mr O'Cohnoe made a careful examination of the country along each of the. lines, and., as. maj be gathered from, the. report, be considers th,ejeijs little. to> choose between the contou,r. of country by either route. The w(e%tern route is sui,d to offer some natural advantages, but then these are fully c6u,^terba.l ( anced by the difficulty of obtaining a safe crossing on the Grey riyer. As the County is n,ot in. a ' position to enter, upon such a work as bridging that stream, there is but one course, open, and, as may be seen, that course has been taken by the Council in calling tenders for construction by the. old route. Those, therefore, who I have, recently taken up large areas of country io the. expectation" that th,e road would be. carried down the western, line, will be disappointed. Ihe report in question, fe as follows ;— m lhave the honor to sjate, for the information of the County. Council, that I have examined foe various alternate routes suggested for con.. Istruction pf the road from the Grey Junction, to Deverj^ Terrace. ' There are fpur routes in all, three of them bewer on the east si.de of the Little Grey River, and one on the west side Of the thr.ee on the east side, the, one suggested by Mr Woolley, with some : slight deviations suggestbd on the I ground, is decidedly the bea,t, and is as good a line as can be got on that sid.e j so that, as I understand it, the question resolveo itself intd the consideration as to vvhether, the best oj the eastern routes is, as good as the western route. So far as the items ol grades and cost of construction go , they would b". jiractiß'ally equal, tc both routes, ho i bat the question it again narrowed, leaving only the items , of fords and rivers, and total distance.

for comparison. On the eastern routo 1 1 there are two fords, one over, the ' Little G/rey, and one over the Big \ drey ; and on the western route there 1 are. four fords — nain v, at> Lard/a ( Creek, Burton's Cree,< River, ; and Grey Kiver, the er;>« ; ng of the i latter being below the juu : ioq of the 1 Big and Ljttle Grey rivers with. Rough River. Neither of iu,e fords on the eastern route would, be at all difficult to cross in fine weather., but in floods $bey would both be difficult. Of the fords on the western route, only one would be difficult to cross, eyen in high floods, as the creeks mentioned are insignificant, and Hough River would scarcely ever be dangerous enough to stop traffic, but \he one difficult ford on this route, namely, the one over the Grey Kiver, opposite Mr Donald's farm would be much more difficult to cross ■ in flood time than either of the fords on the easteru route. Were it therefore probable; that the traffic would always remain ' dependiinl upon fords for crossing the rivers, i \\ pv e i? no doubt that the eastern route would be the best to adopt. It is not, ' however, reasonable to supp-.^ that the traffic between Gfreymouth aud Reefton will always i remain dependant on fords, and such being the case, it would be desirable, if possible, to select a route which would afford a good opportunity of eventually bridging the rivers, while offering for the present a reasonable prospect of fording them, or crossing them by means of punts. There is, howeyer, unfortunately, no route between the points in question which completely fulfils these requirements ; the river crossings on eastern route not being suitable for bridges, and the crossing of Grey River, on the western route, not being very safe as a ford, but that the western route would be the most suitable as an arterial line of communication, if the G;rey "River was bridged, there cannot, I think, be a question. The course which I think would be most advisable would, therefore, be to provide, if possible, sufficient funds for a bridge over the Grey rrverinline p.f western route, and to construct the road along that route, using a punt $o carry the traffic in interval between completion of bridge, but if there is no Drospect of funds for bridge being available, then I fear there is no alternative except to follow the eastern route ; because although a pun,t would work now, and, might fora long ti<aa© continue to work we 1,1, on the river apposite Mr Donald's, there is nothing to guarantee the stream reregaining in its present course, so that without a, bridge the traffic w;ould be liable to be interrupted at any time, even in, small freshes." A. meeting of the Jockey Club vi\\\ beheld at Gamer's Hotel, this evening. The O,ddfellovv/ will hold their annual celebration, this evening, in, GKltner's Hull. A good band has been provided for the occasion, and the gathering promises to be a most brilliant one. In the hearing of a recent case in the. Nelson Resident Magistrate's (jourt, the Magistrate's made a casual observation which, says, a correspondent of the local Times, was not r,eceive4 with satisfaction by the legal profession ; a witness from the country w^a explaining to the Court that although certain, gentlemen were mentioned in the plajnt note w.Uhou.t their knowledge, they woujd not be held responsible- The witness was very particular in trying tjo make himself understood, and his painstaking palled forth the following i Magistrate :. as men of common sense we, know your meaning, bat legally the matter must be regarded in a different light, Witnes :. Exactly so. I was always of opinion that Law and Gammon Sense, were, utterly, afc variance, and your Worship's remark quite confirms this view. A reporter present immediately scored one for the vfi^e'ss, from the country. The Ota go, Daily Times sajs :.--Ifc. is just possible — but we would not vou,ck for the truth of it -that a well-known M.H.R., when, placed between, two fire f s yesterday afternoon, eoujd have sung with much feeling, the first lines ofj thaj: wellknow,n. song, " How happy coujd I be with either, fyc." Certain id is that one charmer asserted her • rights in a niannei;. that must have astonished ihe. political worthy, even as she compelled him to submit to her dictation,. Twas a touching scene. There was the steamer "V^>akatip.u straining at her moorings for a start to Wellington, well freighted, and wifch many passengers, amongst, whom, was some c £ the representative, wisdom of this district;,' including, and not the least i,n his own esteem, he of the land where, streams run strongly and the £jnow lies deep in winter time. He had arranged everything nicely —at leas ( t he thought he had—and, renting securely on the sweet assurance, was, after safely stowing his baggage and luggage , bejow, engaged in bland converse with ■ fellowxpassengers. But what was it made I him start so and ga^o. dou,btin£ly on ■. shore ?, Could it be the presence of a lithe female, with, "dark hair wildly flowing," making her w,ay with no uncertain tootsseps towards the steamer ? It would seem, so, for as she. stepped on board, the. representative man, was attracted to her as if by fascination, ,and th,en ensued a chase confab, characterised 'on the one side by imperious and on the other by deprecatory gestures. The. lady was beard to remark something about somebody " being on board, and you shan't go or I'll raise a scene" and then with lamb-like docility the M.H.R., was seen to decen^d to the lower regions, anon re-appeared with his luggage, and with an attempt — alns, how poor — at a bland smile, ' marched on shore, closely followed by the ! lithe one. But riot for long for before • they were halfway up. the pier she P stopped, and pulling a photograph from » her pocket, addressed herself to some p iadies, and much to their astonishment retailed how she had been "cruelly |- undone," and exhibited the photograph as that; of a woman whom the M.H.K., " hadn't ought to have known." And into i other ears did she pour out her griefs, at , least to all who would listen to her, whilst

the object of her hate disappeared in a ] svell known hostelry, and solaced himself there as b,e*t he might; as for the V^akatipq, shed sailed without him, and pet, perhaps as he could have averred, took away the better part of himself. Perhaps he was not chaffed by a few cruel J acquaintances, for it really is astonishing bow soon th,e affair got wind. T^'Wl"".' l :-' r l - L r