CORRESPONDENCE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 214, 17 October 1874, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

columns are open for free discussion; but we do not bold ourselves responsible for the opinions of our Correspondents.]

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —Would it not be wise, and beneficial, that the prospects, and intentions of the Road Board, for this year, were shewn forth clearly and at once ? Many dubious inferences, and calculations regarding Government aid, and liabilities, have been handed down, and are still afloat, which in no small degree have neutralized a spirit of self-help that it is evident (by this time) would have effected much towards a different state of traffic facilities to the present. Let. the district know, determinedly, what it may expect and demand, and the Road Board will,- at last, make its own way much smoother. The mistiness of the late Board as to what might be derived from official munificence should be, and, I believe, is, by this time, cleared away, as far as. the present Board is concerned. Let us see, then, clearly what is before us. Let the tramway question—“ to be or not to be,” be decided forthwith ; on it- hinges the prospects of this and future years’ roadmaking. I shall not., for a few days more, bint to the Board that they are allowing the most favorable season for many operations both as regards condition of grounds and rate of labor to pass by ; nor should I as yet, recommend the community to make arrangements to purchase from the Auckland Provincial Council before its demise, the road engine known as the T.B.G. (Thousand Badly Gone) and formerly called the Black Elephant, which will be needed with a few flat-bottomed punts for next winter’s traffic to Ormond, and the Oil Springs, if the established mode of staving off vigorous work till the end of summer be adopted, to the bedevilment of the roads again. It may, I hope, not be necessary to do so.—Yours, &e., Roadster.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Our roads in some places cut through patches of fine pumice stone sand ; the breezes bring it along in their direct line, and it penetrates and pervades everything, fills the eyes, ears and nostrils, in a few moments, and must inevitably, in a short time, injure the course of the river. The nuisance can be, to a great extent, if not altogether, abated by planting the several roadsteads of the neighbourhood of the town ; with their turns and angles, an ornamental, and otherwise, very useful effectwould be produced. The attention of the Koad Board will, doubtless, be given to the matter, as town planting is now in the recognized system of progress; but if a little public spirit were evoked in the same direction to the immediate improvement of private property, a very few years would make a great change in the appearance and value of the flat surrounding Gisborne. Pot aloe planting still continues, a greater breadth will be under crop than of late years. Maize will also be sown to a considerable extent.; and is to be hoped that henceforward the disgrace of importing such produce to a district so capable of their production will not exist.—Yours, &c., Suttleb.

The Thames Advertiser says :—“ Mr. Gudgeon sold a large number of shares in the Lincoln Castle G.M.C., which had been forfeited for nonpayment of calls. They fetched low prices—from lid to 3d per share. The Melbourne Telegraph of the 26th September gives the following account of Mrs. Hallam’s funeral: — “ Yesterday’ afternoon the remains of the late Mrs. Hallam (Miss Hattie Sheppard) were interred in the Melbourne cemetery. The funeral was appointed to leave her mother’s residence in Elgin-street, at three o’clock, and for some time previous to that hour the public began to assemble at the house, and at the time the procession started there were probably 1000 persons present. In addition to the mourning coaches, containing the more intimate friends of the deceased, there were a number of private carriages and other conveyances ; but the great proportion of those present had evidently come with the intention of walking to the grave. On reaching the cemetery it was found that an equal or greater number had joined the funeral during its progress, or had been waiting for it there, and it was estimated that when the burial service was read there could not have been less than 3000 present. As it was not expected that there would be such a concourse, no preparations had been made to preserve order, and considerable crush- * ing took place on the way to the grave, but when there, and as soon as the service commenced, the great crowd became stationary, and nothing could be heard but the voice of the clergyman and the sobs and cries of the mourning friends who were gathered round the grave. It is probable that there was not a member of the profession of any standing absent, and outside of it those who had admired Mrs. Hallam as an actress, or esteemed her as a friend, were there to show that her memory was and would be cherished by them. The medical profession, the Press, and the Legislature, were represented among the chief mourners, and there was the most conclusive of all evidence that it was no common grief which had brought them there. Previous to the funeral leaving, the Rev. Mr. Perry, who had known Mrs. Hallam during her lifetime, and had ministered to her on her death-bed, baptized the baby, whose, birth cost its mother her life, and the ceremony in the chamber of death was one which neither the minister nor the mourners could well sustain. Notwithstanding the immense crowd, the scene at- the grave was an unusually affecting one, the presence of so many mourners of the deceased’s sex tending to make it so.”