FORTY-MILE BUSH NOTES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3719, 26 January 1891, Page 2

FORTY-MILE BUSH NOTES.

(From our own Correspondent).

Anniversary Day was kept up in the Forty-mile Bush with due festivity, the principal attraction being the Pahiatua Sports. About 700 persons were on the ground, and every item on the programme was got off without any mishap, the weather being all that could be desired. At Eketahuna a picnic to the children was given in Mr Jones' .addock, and a b&ll was held in the Town Hall in the evening, which was fairly well attended. A large number of people arrived in Eketabuna by train. Some of them had not been there for four years, and were rather surprised at the giant strides the district had made in settlement during that time. Eketahuna fo '.r years ago was a diffcy, scattered settlement, with a nine feet country road running through in, and what few buildings there were standing about lh chains from the road line. The "intervening space was occupied by mud holes, dead trees, and stumps. There was then one hotel, one store, one blacksmith's shop, and a boarding house. That was Eketahuna of four years ago. The Eketahuna of to-day cm boast of being possessed of four hotels, three stores, two bakeries, three blacksmith's shops, one drapery establishment, one shoemaker's shop, one saddler's shop, one fruit shop, besides a town hall and a public hall. There is also train communication twice daily, the terminus being there, with two coaches to connect with Pahiatua and Woodville. There is a splendid metalled road running through the township, 1A chains wide, with a nine foot kerbed footpath on each side running the full length of a well drained township. Looking west what was four years ago a dense bush is now the thriving township of Parkville. The whole of the timber has been felled and burned to the extent of 250 acres for the township site, and there is now thirty buildings erected. A good road leads from Eketahuna across a large bridge spanning the Makakihi river, and goes right through the township with other two bridges connecting the back block of the settlement, where several thousand acres during the laßt three years have been felled and burnt. Travelling in the other direction towards Pihiatua, and about a mile from Eketahuna, we come to the pretty little township of Newman. About 250 acres has been cleared there for a township. In the samp space of time Newman can also' boast qf about thirty buildings. As the township stands on the main road no doubt Newman will be an important place in the future. Then agaiu several thousand acres of bush have been felled there. Roads are made, running right

through the back block. Going east (Yard the same giant stride has

been made in settlement. Thousands of acres of bush have been and aro being felled and townships forming. We see the same signs of progress to the South. Now, as all the roads converge to one centre, Eketahuna, we need not be at all surprised at the remark made by a traveller that Eketahuna has a great future before it.