PUBLIC MEETING AT ALEXANDRA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 419, 23 December 1874, Page 3

PUBLIC MEETING AT ALEXANDRA.

(From our own Goirespondent.) A public meeting was held in the Library Hall on the 17th inst. for the purpose of considering the advisability of opening a road from Alexandra to the Waikaia bush. J. Samson, Esq., who presided, said that the meeting had been called for the purpose of taking steps to open up a road to the Waikaia. He had been assured by persons who were acquainted with the country that the road was quite practicable, and if completed it would bring them within thirty miles of a splendid supply of timber. It was hardly necessary for him to point out the importance to a mining district of a cheap supj>ly of timber, and if ib could be procured from the Waikaia, he had no doubt that many works would be carried out which the high price of timber at present deterred persons from attempting. He said there were several persons present who were acquainted with the nature of the country to be traversed and they would doubtless be able to give the meeting aomo information on the subject. Mr. Hastedt. said that the question was one that did not solely concern Alexandra, for if a road was made to the Waikaia, Drybread, Blacks, Dunstan Greek, and several other outlying goldfields could be supplied with timber at a far lower rate than they had to pay at present. He believed that the Ida "Valley contained one of the richest leads of gold in the province, but the enormous cost of the timber required for working the ground had hitherto retarded its developeinent. At the present time timber cost 10s per hundred feet at the mills, and the cartage to Alexandra came to double the cost of the timber ; and he believed if a road was opened to the Waikaia bush that timber could be delivered here for almost half its present cost. With the reduction in the price of timber, he estimated that there would be a demand for about 300,000 superficial feet per annum, and he thought that with_Jhese jFacts before them they .would be" justified in ena~eavouring^to-g<>t-a road opened to the Waikaia. A discussion of a conversational nature ensued, in which Messrs • Theyers, Chappie, and others took part, and a general feeling was expressed that the road was quite practicable, and that it would be of the greatest advantage to the district. A motion, was eventually passed that Messrs Cameron and ■^Forrest, should be deputed to proceed to the 4 Waikaia for the purpose- of -reporting on the "most .practicable route on which a road could be formed. After a vote of thanks to the chair the meeting adjourned.