MR. PYKE AND LIVINGSTONE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 6 September 1880, Page 2

MR. PYKE AND LIVINGSTONE.

(from a correspondent. ) I notice the hon. member for Dtrnstami has been making some remarks, about the Maerewhenua when advocating the construction of the Ocago Central Railway in preference to the Windsor-Livingstone line —intended, no doubt,, to be very disparaging. As his remarks, in some particulars, are not true, I will take the liberty of correcting them. He says, " I like to be precise. The population of Living-stone-is 59. male adults, or 103 including infants in, arms." His first number is as near the mark as his informant was able ,to give it; but his latter number is very • far afield, as there are 47 children on the • school roll. These do not, of course, in- • elude children below five years of age-.. Then there aro the mamma's to be added.. j; Again, he says, "There is not a single' ! store there from which you may judge of : iits importance." Herein he is wrong: ! again. There is a store at Livingstone,, jand what is still more remarkable, its. 'business is Conducted wholly on cash; principles. The like can scarcely be said! of any other up-country store in Otago. Again, "There are two places calledl hotels, the keepers of which perana mining in order to make both ends meek* Quite correct so far, and heroin is* great honor due to the respectable residle'iats of' Livingstone. They are, on the- whole, so. temperate (I believe the Good Templarsi of the local Lodge number 40 or upwards) that the business of selling intoxicants is not a flourishing one here* I think it very likely that, were the hon. gentloman to visit us with a viaw to acquiring a better knowledge of the place and people, their, prospects and, requirements—if his stayextended over say a month or two—hewo,tjhfcd reap a lasting benefit therefrom by

ibeing made a Good Templar. I mean to. say the zeal and energy of that honorable.) society is such that even an M.HJft. would be unable to resist ii. He next says, " And one blacksmith, who ekes oat a living by driving bullocks," and plenty too, were it even so,, but we have not one. I doubt if one- could, even by uniting therewith the interesting occupation of bullock driving, make a living, as every,man here is his own smitfa„ as much, from* , necessity as choice. miners are so. [ scattered that the labwof carrying tools < to a smith would greatly exceed the work; of sharpening thezjn when there. He, arrives at-the climax "rising to the: importance of the occasion," he draws so> largely and, successfully on his vivid! imagination, in the following paragrapli:: — "As to. the gold produced there, the smallest boy in this establishment cooldL take all; the gold that, has been obtained there fr.om the beginning of' time to the present day; down to Oamaru in a wheelbarrow." Thisi requires no remark in refutation from me. It speaks for itself, so "• let it R-. J. P." J L hope my friend will soon write another tate.. I am sure his experiences an«fc his: versatility would ensure success* especially were the subject " Whajfc may happen to a man at the.. Dunstan,—an autobiography."