THE KAIKOURA STAR. KAIKOURA, MAY 15, 1894.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XIV, Issue 738, 15 May 1894, Page 4

THE KAIKOURA STAR. KAIKOURA, MAY 15, 1894.

Have the members of the travelling public been trespassing on the Flaxbourne property for years past? And is Her Majesty’s mail weekly carried over a trespass road between the Awatere and the Clarence rivers ? We opine not I And yet, from a startling statement made by the Chairman at the meeting of the Awatere Road Board last week, such is the state of affairs. Mr A. T. G. Symons, of Kekeraugn, with commendable zeal, recently took action with the view of improving the arterial means of overland communication between Blenheim and the South by shortening the road. He moved that a short cut through Flaxbourne be opened up for wheel traffic. 'This decrease represents a length of road of a. mile and fifteen chains—it is declared to be more, viz : a mile and a half. That is, however, of but secondary moment. What certainly is of great import is the exaggerated aspect of the Chairman 1 s estimated cost, and the amount he stated Messrs Clifford and Weld would require as compensation for injury done to their property by using a line of road surveyed years ago, but which, by some peculiar means, has fallen into disuse. The Chairman states that it would cost £2OO to make 1 mile 15 chains of road (rather expensive work) and £4OO to acquire this road—which, it must be remembered, he admits was surveyed, but the owners claim that when tbe Provincial Government laid off roads it was provided in the deed of purchase that after a lapse of three years if no work was done on them the road lines lapsed to the owners of the property. A pretty state of affairs with regard to a main line of road. But is it so ? That .is the crux of the matter. Should the Chairman’s statement prove correct, though it is open to the strongest doubt, then it would appear that the whole road line between the Awatere and the Clarence, running through six large properties, is, surely', trespass road, and the members of the Awatere Road Board are, it would appear, responsible for having spent public money illegally. The Board at its meeting last week agreed to spend £97 on an out of the way road, carrying very little, traffic, but objects to improve its main road, lhe amount claimed by the owners of Flaxbourne for the land required under Mr Symon’s proposal is equal to, in round numbers, about £4O an acre. What, it would be interesting to know, was , the valuation put upon it by the

owners for taxation purposes. It was pointed out by one member that the owners had had the benefit of miles and miles of unused roads, and yet they are found objecting to moving about three miles of fencing to accommodate the public. They object to give an inch without exorbitant compensation, while they have obtained miles for nothing. Every just and lawful right of the owners of the property should be fully respected, but it is simply * dog in the manger' conduct on their part to take up a position of antagonism to public requirements when they have thousands of acres of land used for no other purpose than a sheep walk. What selfishness ! The statement of the Chairman is being investigated by Mr Symons, and the whole matter will be reconsidered at tbe next meeting* of the Board, until after which we defer further remark thereon.

Land Board and Australian News on 3rd page. Correspondence, reports, and other matter on 6th page. County Council meets on Saturday next, at 10.30 a.tn., instead of in the afternoon. Tenders for County works close on Saturday. River Board invite tenders until Thursday for right of removal of firewood from reserves. Mutual Improvement Social 7.30 this evening. Parliament, it is notified, is to meet on the 21st of June. Tbe nominations and handicaps for the Queen's Birthday races will be found on the 6th page. The entries are satisfactory ; better than anticipated. The Open Meeting of the North Star Lodge last evening was attended by nearly two hundred residents, and a capital evening was spent. A good programme was presented, and the audience got a remarkably good free entertainment. It is unfair under such circumstances to insist on response to encores ; if the performer is willing to comply well and good. Mr Sandford’s youngest child, a fine little boy named Laurie, about three years old, met with an exceedingly painful accident on Saturday. He and a companion were playing with a mangle when Mr Sandford’s son got his hand in the teeth of the driving gear. His fingers were badly crushed, and the nails torn off two of them. Mrs Sandford and Mr G. Miles drove the little sufferer oft' to the surgery of Dr Gunn, who dressed the child’s wounds, and the patient is now doing first rate. Notification is made that the North Star Lodge (1.0.G.T.) Anniversary Entertainment is to be given in the Town Hall next week. A general idea of the programme to be presented can be gathered from the intimation made this evening in our advertising columns. As the Members of the Lodge have been generous in providing free entertainments for the public a good house should greet the performers next week, when a capital bill of fare will be offered, at very reasonable rates of admission, viz : 2s and Is. —Consignment of Drapery, etc., from Heath’s. Christchurch, to be sold at the Commercial Hotel after arrival of Wakalu.

A bamboo organ for tbe Jesuit Church, Shanghai, has been built for the use of the Fathers by a Chinese convert. The pipes are of bamboo instead of metal, in the customary square wood form. It is said that the sound is exquisitely sweet. A correspondent writes : —‘ I have never heard in Europe anything so beautifully soft and pleasant to the ear ; it is, indeed, angelic and super-human.’ As bamboo can be had from the thickness of a pen to pieces 12in in diameter, we may expect that these praises will be tested.