Wairarapa North County.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3307, 12 September 1889, Page 2

Wairarapa North County.

The following report of the Engineer, Mr 0. E, Bremner, was presented to the Council meeting on Tuesday last, Musterton Riding:—Masterton to Wainiata road (bridge sheeting contract), The balance for the materials for the contract were only delivered by the sawmills on the 81st oi last month, and the remainder of the work was completed by the contractor on tho 7th inst. The

workmanship throughout has been well and faithfully executed and the i surface of the bridge dealt with should require little further attention for some years to come. A contract for metal haulinp on the Masterton to Kahumingi section . of this line, has been entered into in the in tor im since the Council's last sitting at satisfactory prices, and.the contractor is at present employed in delivering the broken stones for distribution over the road surface >_ between Te 1 Oro Ore bridge-and W Otahoua, this section of the road p being in urgent need of immediate attention. Te Ore Oro to Bideford road:—A careful examination of the Wangaehu bridge has been made by which it is ascertained that very considerable repairs will be required before next season's wool can be carried over the

river. Tho stringers, most of which .... have apparently been procured from '£ small trees, are very old and brittle, •-&■ besides being much decayed, and will, with the exception of two, require to he replacod by now timber. The decking will have to be 'renovated with 2100 feet of fresh planting and the whole length of the surface sheeted for a width of 9 leet with Bx2 birch sheeting. Theso, with other light repairs to tbo handrails, k., will make the bridge capable of supporting for years all traffic which is likely to be imposed upon it., The great objection, however, as I haYo before pointed out to the Council, to patching the present bridge is tho annually increasing cost.of the large timber floats which arir blocked by the narrow spans of the

bridge and which might,-under ex-: ceptional circumstances cause the loss of the whole structure during a high flood, The total cost of removing these floats during last' winter exceeded £lO, of which sum £7 was incurred after one flood. The costs this winter up to the present amount only to £1 10b which is due ± to the fact that no floods of any %

importanob have occurred in any part of the district. The fact however of the Wangaehu "Valley (a heavy timbered country) being rapidly settled upon, will tend largely to increase ibis evil from the effect of which it will he impossible to escapo exoeptby clearing away the obstructions caused by the piers of the spans of the present bridge. I have prepared a detailed estimate of the cost of the proposed repairs which will be found attached'to this.report. (Jaatlepoiut Riding.—Masterton to Waimata Road. With referenco to the proposed works at Rorokok(jJfl\ terrace and Sugar Point, estimates of costs of which were furnished with my last report, I will be pleased to receive instructions as to

which of them tho Council may eleot to proceed with, also whether I shall have tho necessary survey undertaken for the transferring of the land taken by the Kahumingi deviation Eketahuna to Tenui Road.—Tenui to Tiraurnca seotiou. Upon this lino y it has been necessary to construct a. V platform bridge crossing a small stream upon Langdon's flats. The present one is in a very dilapidated state and unfit for heavy traffio, and it wbb desirable to remove it before tbe commencement of the. wool season. Tho permanent man, with extra assistance, is at present employed in forming approaches to the new structure, whioh will be opened for traffio in a day or two. Alfredton Riding.—Eketahuna to Tenui Road. (Eketahuna to Tiraumea Section. Tho permanent man £)' employed on the Eketahuna W Alfredton seotion of the road at the present timo, ropairing tho formation and metalled lengths, The repairs necessary to the Alfredton-Tiraumea portion would ho more satisfactorily dealt with by contract, and I would recommend that the work be performed in thiß manner so soon as tho state of roads mil admit of its beingundertaken.

Opalti to Manawatu Road. Contract No 25. (Ekotahuna Township Eoad Survey.) An official communication is now to hand from the (lovemment. * Survey Department with respect'tc-i* this work, announcing its approval ' by the Chief Surveyor,

Upper Tauem Road BoardAn ordinary meeting was held on September 7th, Present—Messrs 0. Ei Cockburn Hood, (chairman), J. .Rutherford, J. Moßae, J. Millar and J. P. Perry.

CORRESPONDENCE, Mr Wingate ro culverts; Tfefc Secretary to the Treasury for ment of £2015s dd interest for half year on LBBO lis 12d under the Government Loans to Local Bodies Act 18G5; Mr J. P. Perry ro Wairero track; Messrs Lang, Hicholls and others ra making road through their properties; County Clerk re service of County Engineer; County engineer re line of road through Messrs Laing and Nicholls' properties, saying Bum proposed to bo borrowed is totally inadequate to make a road for wheel traffic of any description; Mr Geo. Fannin re map of road district; The Surveyor General re native rates; Messrs Perston and Perry re services of roadman; Mr Arthur R. Perston re forming road to wood shed. Resolved:-That Mr Wingate bo written to asking if tho number one culvert is in the Upper Taueru Road Board District; also thit the sum of L 8 be granted Mr Wingate for haul : . ing, and that the roadman shall split" the timber for culverts; That Mossra Lang and Nicholls be sent a cote of tho report of County Engineer;' That Mr Geo Fannin bo informed the Board are not at present in want of a man; That native rates be spent on road formation of Mungarai lino, Upper Taueru; that Mr Perston'a application ro forming road to wool shed stand over for further discussion; That notice be given all defaulting ratepayers that unless all rates are paid on or before the 80th day of September next, summons will be issued for the recovery of same; That the services of roadman be granted .Messrs Perston arid Perry on the road leading to their properties. Accounts passed for payment : T. Harlaud, £l6 14s; E.Price, £l, stamps for office. That the next meeting of tho Board be held on the first Saturday of October. Ravenous Sharks,

[NEWCASTLE (END.) CHRONICLE.] It was reported tbo otbe week that a sailor engaged in scraping the Bides of a troop-ship in the harbour of SSfcra Leone was drawn into the water and promptly devoured by a shark. This is not an uncommon experience, and a boatman has been bitten in the short time it took him to dip up a pitcher of water, while his craft was under full sail, We are assurod thut it is nothing uncommon for I lie- ravenous fish to spring ut foot out of the sea in ordor to Becure their prey, For milts they will follow a vessel, on lha lookout for any stray unfortunate who may tumbjo or ho thrown overboard, and so deop do they swim under %

surface that it requites even the practised eyes of tko unlives to detect tlioir prossnoe, Many of lb West India harbours arc so hiuintod by ibe whit and hammer-headed sharks—the least amiablo of the 150 different kinds known to zoologists—tlwt it is dangerous to bathe oven a few yards from , the shoro without an outlook being / ' posted. Yet tho West African negro lias been known to face the brute, not B> only with impunity, but evon to como off as victor in the end. All but amphibious, the swimmor cautiously approaches his enemy, and then just nt tho moment when the great fish turns ovor to seize him—his mouth beintj so placed that it is necessary—the daring black plunges his bile into its whito belly. The ponrkliveis are also sometimes successful in their attacks on tho sharks which try to r seize them, though, it is needless to add, such a modo of combat is possible only when the monsters do not come in numbers, and, under the most favorablo circumstances, requires a coolness, a dexterity, and a courage which aro not to ho acquired except by long experience in such perilous encounters, As o rule, however, it is Boldom that a man who is so luckless aa to drop among sharks ever appears again, There is a shriek, a white outline is seen under tho surfaco and a fin above it, a reddened crest tops the next swell which breaks against qhe ship's side, and the horror-stricken seamen know l hat tlioir messmate . will boscennomore. <& It is a well-ascertained fact that tho skoletons of sheep, pigs, dogs, and cattle which have fallen or been thrown overboard havo been recovered many days subsequent to their beins; swallowed; and it is on record tlwt in the stomach of a shark killed in the Indian Ocean a workbox was found, while in another the incriminatcry papers which hgd been thrown away by a hotly chasad slaver were recovered 4 from the maw of an involuntary witr ness thus curiously brought into court on the barb of a pork-baited hook. Ruysch, one of the most trustworthy of the old raturalists, affirms chut a man in mail— homo loricalne, he calls him—was found in tho stomach of a white shark; and it is recorded by Blumenbach that in one case a wholo horse was found. It is undeniable that many have been killed with ample capacity for such undesirable contents; and Basil Hall tells of one out of which was taken tho whole skin of a buffalo, besides a host of other trifles which had been dropped astern in the course of the previous week. "A. ■,— II ■