ALONG THE COAST.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1089, 20 June 1882, Page 2

ALONG THE COAST.

Fortiter ferendo vincitur malum quod non eoitari potest. The weather on this Coast has lately been something dreadful. It commenced on the 4th instant, and has continued up to now (11th) ; a S.S.E. wind, with torrents of rain, flooding the rivers and creeks, making the whole country one sloppy mass, and the roads a sheet of mud. Land-slips have occurred, in some cases severe; in one place, Wai-o-tautu, the houses have left their blocks, and are slowly but surely sliding into the sea. By-the-bye, if the police barracks at Wai-o-tautu are a specimen of the quarters provided by a paternal Government for its faithful servants, I do not envy the individuals who are unfortunately constrained to reside in them ; a more wretched, dilapidated, rotten set of buildings it would be very difficult to find, even if hunted for, from one end of the Island to the other. Do the sleek officials who are responsible for these things, and whose province it is to inspect and see that tho men under them are properly housed and provided for —do they, whilst revelling in the luxury of their overpaid positions, for one moment dream that rain pouring through roofs as porous as sieves, wind whistling through cracks in the decayed timber (of which the houses—save the mark ! —were probably built), can be conducive to the health, efficiency, and comfort of the force of which they themselves are a part and parcel ? Do they give one moment’s thought to the inconvenience, misery, aye, and absolute downright illness caused by this state of things, to the wives and little ones of the men who are obliged by law to reside in these ruinous hovels ? I think I can safely say they do not! and further, they would rather not think anything about it, lest perforce of conscience they might inadvertently recommend to the Government an expense which, in their questionable efforts to retain a somewhat uncertain position, would be detrimental to them. I speak strongly on this subject, as it is now two years ago since 1 first noticed the wretched condition of these buildings, and nothing has been done by the authorities to alleviate the distress consequent on this State of things; and 1 do not believe there is a Maori in the whole of this district (and there are not a few) but what is better housed than the police are at To Awanui.

It is surely time we had a Lunatic Asylum erected somewhere between this and the Mahia—probably the suburbs of Gisborne would be a good place, as I fancy it is from-that town we shall get the first batch of candidates for admission. There must be with the sanatary properties of the County Council Room, especially towards the fall of the year, as I noticed the same tendency to derangement of intellect about the same time last year as has appeared this ; thus, I take it to be an insane act to authorise the repair, and in some cases the re-forming of roads, in the middle of winter, thereby making the said roads impassable for the rest of the year, when it would have been far better to have done so in the middle or during the summer, thereby giving every chance to the work to hold ; but the inane absurdity of the arrangement chiefly consists in the actual carrying out of the directions given, figuratively throwing the money expended on the work into the mud created thereby, and the proof of it is this—tho road repaired lately by direction of the County Engineer (with the exceotion of one contract) is next to impassable. Kokako. Waiapu, June 11.