District Notes.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 17, 22 July 1893, Page 12

District Notes.

SEAWARD MOSS, ' ; (By. Our Owk- Reporter.) In, this locality there'are not many change s r nor does settlement; inprease vexy rapidly. The greater part of the land is of .a cold, and wet nature ; it requires ai good deal • of draining and working before it can be brought into good bearing. Some of the settlers-are improving their holdings very well, and are now yetting fairly good crops and grass, as instance the farms of Messrs Harper, Treloar, Woods, Maclean and others, who have: been settled here for some years; In the direction of Awarua Bay, settlement. of the land may be called a failure, and several of those whopbtairied deferred payment and perpetual lease holdings have abandoned them, after doing considerable work in the way of building, fencing, etc; These lands have for the most part reverted to the Crown. Messrs Cantx-xck, Smoothy. and Anderson have each cleax-ed out, and they have done the corx-ect thing, as there can be no doubt that the land on the shores of Awarua Bay is of the poorest desex-iption. Eastward' from the road passing through the Seaward Moss to the Waituna Lagoon, is an immense peat bog of the most valueless nature — peat fourteen and fifteen feet deep, covered in parts with a growth of manuka scrub, and dotted with deep water holes. This is pari of the country that P. K.. M‘Caughan is said to have made an offer for some years ago, and he may consider himself fortunate he did not get it. However small his offer may have been, it was full value, and the more so if it was coupled with conditions of improvement, as a vast deal of money would have to be. sunk here before good land could be made of it. The dredging plant that was put on the Waituna Lagoon at a very large cost has been removed. I am sorry to add that for the very short time it was worked, little or no gold was obtained, thus proving a dead loss to the investor's. It is singular there was no gold washed out of the stuff put through by the dredging machine, as miners working with the pick and shovel on the beach for many years past have obtained more or less gold. The beach workings seem to be played out, os there are few if any miners now working on the coast. They were sometimes called “ beach combexe." The Te Wais Point run is now in the hands and occupation of Mi- Brook, the old and popular Squire Yale having sold this pastoral holding, and retired to a farm on the Seaward Moss. I also learn with regret that through. illness Mr Vale has removed to Invercargill for the purpose of being near medical aid. All who know him, and have enjoyed his genial company, will heartily wish him a speedy recovery to his usual health, A school is to be opened on the Moss in charge of Miss Stevens, in the house formerly occupied by Mr A, F. Morx-ison. It would appear some complaint has been raided re the carriage of nightsoil over the county road by the contractor for its removal. There is very little to complain of, or object to, as in riding over the road one can hardly tell where ; the nightsoil depot is. Owing to sparse population along the road, and on the Seaward Moss there is nowhere more suitable in the neighbourhood of Invercargill for the pux-pose, and vexy few men have the experience and practical knowledge possessed by Mr Treloar in its working and management. Mr Thomas Rolf is again in chax-ge of the'N.Z. Pine Co.’s Woodend sawmills, and with his well-known skill and aptitude for running sawmills he will doubtless make pretty full time at the Woodend mills. There is a creosoting plant at Woodend, adjoining the sawmills, belonging to Campbell Bids, of Melbourne. It has not been worked since the

or-eight-yearaAgo I—of A" coiitikckHo (.creosote --"several imndx-ed thousand ' sleepers for the railways.-- ;Mr " Gr. Murdoch’s sawmill at Duck-Greek-is kept steady at turning out a good deal of timber.