GREYTOWN.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5438, 31 August 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

GREYTOWN.

(FBOM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) August 29. Greytown appears to be shaking off that lethargy which threatened to bo fatal to its prosperity, if not to its very existence as a centre of papulation, I can discern the infusion of a new and more healthy public spirit, alive to the danger that promised to leave the town outstrip! in the race of general progress. If its inhabitants pull together for the common weal, bearing in mind the moral in the fable of the bundle of sticks ; if they show a determination to put down aims of a purely interested and selfish nature, I have no doubt they will succeed in effecting much public good, and will keep Greytown abreast of the other township in mutual advancement. The meeting on Tuesday night to consider the subject of a connecting lino of rail from Greytown to the main route at Woodside (jvhich, by the way, the Press Agency telegrams persist in calling Woodville), was attended by fully 150 settlers, who were unanimous that prompt steps must be taken to provide either a branch railroad or a tramway. By some extraordinary and unaccountable freak of fortune (I am unohivalrous enough to lay the blame ou that jade), Greytown, though the oldest settlement of them all, finds itself to bo the only one of the Wairarapa townships that is passed untouched by the trunk railway. I have always been under the belief that according to the doctrines of political economy the principle involved in tho construction of railways in all young countries was to place every outlying centre of population in a cordon of communication with some principal city or seaport. _ Thus, what would be a business speculation to a company of traders, becomes, in tho State, a great national duty. I have no doubt the strong deputation chosen by the meeting on Tuesday to bear a petition to the Government, will not fail to set forth in every particular tho just and natural claims wo possess to be joined up with the railway system of the colony. Tho Standard, in the course of a sub leader, finds fault with itsown published report of the meeting, so tickling my fancy thereby that I cannot refrain from having another “ slap” at my worthy friend the editor.

O would some pow’r the glftio gle us, To see ourselves as ithers see us. , Does he see what so many complain of, the unfairness that generally characterises his reports, of public proceedings, and which, moreover, has the effect of keeping people from freely using his open columns for expressing opinions on useful local topics, instead of corresponding with the Wellington journals circulating in the valley 1 The Carterton correspondent of the New Zealander stated the other day, apparently cathedra, that the Council of County West itm decline to bring the Act into dpsratio'n in

consequence of the heavy expenditure they would be put t > in keeping the road through the Forty-Mile Bush in good repair. Ido not sea that that is a justifiable plea for their inertia. They have received a handsome offer from the Government towards bridging the Ruamahunga River, which alone ahouui have been an incentive for the adoption of the whole Act, -for having gained thus much without trouble they could with pressure in a state of activity find the way to procure assistance in the first matter more readily than by sitting on a rail. Their eyes are bigger than their stomachs, forj with one piece of cake in hand, they cry greedily for a second. Messrs. Williams, Cameron and Co., saddler", are erecting a handsome front to their establishment here, which will be a great improvement. Mr. 11. A. Wakelin has also made a considerable addition to his steam sash and door factory, which his rapidly increasing btv-iues has entailed. Whore a few months ago a hundroed feet of dressed timber was turned out, he now despatches a thousand. The Working Men’s Club will he formally opened on Monday next with an inaugural dinner, to which a few of your leading citizens have been invited. I have no doubt it will pa- 3 off very successfully.