INANGAHUA.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 858, 7 September 1871, Page 2

INANGAHUA.

A correspondent from Ueefton calls attention to the great scarcity of provisions in the Inangahua District: —He says that " the inhabitants are reduced to the greatest straits, and that the mailman hurried away being unable to get food either for h'mself or his horse. The housekeeper displays no little ingenuity in furnishing a scanty meal, and it is doubtful whether in the worst days of the investment of the French capital, the inhabitants were reduced to such straits as the starving population at Reefton. Parties have been organized to hunt the bush for nehau and wood-hens; these, as a means of subsistence, having been immortalised by the narrative of Waite's explorations. The good fortune of the latter, however, did not attend our Reefton sportsmen. The inevitable wood-hen that c mveniently turned up at the very nick of time to save Waite and Waller from starvation, they never fell in with, and after a day's fruitless hunt the party returned to camp decidedly more hungry and, perhaps, sadder men. By dint, however, of hunting up small parcels of rice, starch, &c, and shaking out mouldy flour-bag*, I managed to get a meal just before starting for Westport. As a natural consequence the population complain most bitterly of the neglect of their district by the Government and with they have had but one team of horses through laden with provisions during the past fortnight, owing to the state of the roads. The msjority have not tasted bread or meat for a fortnight, and have subsisted on tea, coffee, nekau and potatoes, the two latter being the produce of the district; and potatoes are now getting very scarce. The Buller Towing Track promises to effect a spe3dy change in this state of things, but the fact of such a work being left to be constructed by a oompany who, of course, have to levy a toll is most disreputable to the Government of the Province of Nelson. Their professedly liberal administration of the goldfields is a disgraceful pretence. Fo#unately the reefs are exceptionally rich, but, supposing that they had been of average value only, what possible hope would there have been of their being worked under the present public works system? The reply is none, whatever. It required extraordinary prospects to outweigh the disadvantages of excessively dear provisions and high cost of transporting machinery for the purpose of testing the value of the reefs. Thanks to the merits of the ground these difficulties have been partly overcome, but the district owes nothing to the Provincial Government."