OPUNAKE.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 August 1921, Page 6

OPUNAKE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) On Friday evening a large dwellinghouse on the Cross Estate was destroyed by fire. The dwelling will be better known to many as Middleton's and Ching’s. It was substantially built, and as a terrific wind was blowing at the time, it was soon demolished. The loss to the owners will be a heavy one. The Opunake Racing Club, prior to their annual race meeting, catered for fifty owners and trainers. If the club continues to make the same progress as was shown last year, a hostel will have to be built. Such a building could be maintained all the year round. The situation is an ideal one as u tourist resort, or for the business man who desires a week’s recuperation. It is close to the sea, and in the midst of good fishing streams. The Town Board is devoting special meeting nights to the consideration of hydro-electric business. Opunake did not sustain the same damage from the severe storm as other places. A fpw fences were blown down, loose sheets of of iron aeroplaned to the paddock, and one brick chimney crashed through a house roof, and the 1 falling bricks narrowly missed the inmates. Mr. R. Miller, manager of the Opunake branch of the Bank of New Zealand, has been advised of a transfer from here. Misses Moore and Mackenzie, of the nursing staff of the soldiers’ sanatorium, Waipukurau, are spending their holidays here with relatives and friends. Mr. J. C. O’Rorke has been appointed chairman of the Oaonui Dairy Company. South Island potatoes are quoted here at 18s to £1 5s per sack. The margin between the producer’s price and the consumer’s shows that freights and “incidentals” take the biggest bite. Good work is being done by the contractors in driving the tunnel in connection with the hydro-electric power.