ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 330, 15 May 1877, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

[We wish it to lie most distinctly understood that ws are not responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.] e TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING MAIL. Sin, —Being a stranger to this town, I trust you will excuse me encroaching on your valuable and already overcrowded columns. I would like to compliment you on the rich and fertile soil with which you are surrounded. Nature has, indeed, gifted Oamaru with a superabundance of blessings, and I think tuat Nature's unbounded liberality has been almost too highly appreciated. The Oamaru flour is : an article that is gaining for itself a world- | wide reputation, and is, in itself, sufficient | guarantee for the richness and fertility of the soil. But is this soil so abundant that it can be already ploughed and harrowed, and nothing sown ? You ask yourself the question : Where is the soil lyinguncultivated ] Before your eyes. Do you not, in attempting to cross Thamesstreet after a heavy rain, wallow in soil over your boot-tops 1 Ifc is not only Thames-street that contains this great wealth, but Reed-street, Coquet-street, and many other streets which I will not stop to enumerate. Where is your Corporation, that they do not turn this rich soil into a profitable speculation 1 Would not mangolds or swedes, or some other hardy cereals flourish and bring in a good return ! Half the space allotted for traffic could be made to answer the purpose, and still leave ample room for the numerous vehicles traversing the streets. Might 1 ask whether your Corporation is formed of retired graziers, who delight in rich pasturage, and consider their gutters, which are rich in clover and juicy grasses, an ornament to their town ; or, whether it is a matter of policy to entice hungry kine from their closely-munclied half-acre sections 1 If so, it is, in truth, a laudable idea ; for roi only does it enrich the treasury of our ri ht, good, and loyal Queen,

but it gives employment to a gentleman whose duty it is to look out for stray animals and slops which perverse people are continually throwing into the gutters, which must, as a matter of policy, be kept free from any deleterious matters or fluids. I must say that the buildings in your main street are, without exception, of as fine a class as will be found in many towns that boast of colonial antiquity. And more I need not say, except that your streets are second to none in quantity, quality, and fertility of soil. —I am, &c., Hogarth. [lt is quite true that the streets are a little dirty just now, but perhaps our correspondent, being a new comer, is not aware of the fact that the weather has been unexceptionally bad of late. No doubt, as our correspondent very comically points out, the quality of the soil has something to do with it. We, however, are of opinion that our main streets are not worse than those of more pretentious towns at this season of the year. The only difference is that they succeed in forming excellent mantraps, by scraping their mud into nice little heaps. All this will come in the ordinary course of civilisation. Bide a wee. —Ed. E. M.]