TE AROHA. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1395, 11 June 1881, Page 3

TE AROHA. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

The whole of the gold-digging intorest in Te Aroha, is suffering one of the intervals of depression that constantly break the monotony of a quietly prosperous life or raging violent sudden prosperity. Gold rushes are always bucceeded by dull times that precede the hard work and sure return of mode) ate pioportions that come in time. The rush and the blind frantic .snatching about in tho wrong places for Midden wealth, the waste of timo and money by silly town unobs, transformed into bold bucoaneeis and jolly gold-diggers aecoiding to the pattern of the London Journal and tho Family Herald go by, and the real capitalists who have marked the pi. ice and watched their opportunity follow and get tho claims at a discount, and proceed to work them systematically. They then, when piopeily managed, may make returns varying fioin ten to 50 per cent per annum if earned on with peiseveiance, though they won't pay without work, and bometimcs long waiting. Te Aroha, is enduring one of these stages of disappomment of exaggerated expectations at the prosent time, but though the battery has ceased w orking, and some of the claims have done the same, and dullness pre- \ ails, it is known by anyone able to see further than his nose that the place is healthy enough as a leal money-making concern. All that is wanted now is capital to go on with, and pi oper working and a little tune. The gold is there, and the prospects are as fine as any seen in New Zealand. The depression will weed oif the loafers, thank goodness, and the jolly ahop-boy diggers will clear off to fields better suited to their peculiar powers when "tick" is no longer available and their long-exp ected remittances from the noble heads of the old Simpcox or Buqgins families are of no further use in raising the wind. Now will be the time for men of steady woik and companies well founded, with capital to work with, to make their show, and there is no doubt that they will come, if pioperly guided and made to see the advantages of the place. A new investment never gets more favour than a new man, if not propeily introduced, and guaranteed by some responsible friend, and if any man of influence who wishes well to Te Aroha will now take some mteiest in placing its good qualities before the money-investing community, he might find it a good thing for them and himself too. The surrounding land is good, and must always find increasing woik for a glowing population with the natural lise m ita value that follows upon the opening up of the country. Indeed, at the present time there are works being earned out in draining and road-making within a few miles from this spot that w ill find employment for two or three hundied men, at wages averagmgSs a-day. What with the woiks of the Lincolonshire farmers, and possibly the Yorkshire farmers, for we havo a delegate from Yorkshire now paying us a second visit, so much does he like the place, and the woiks of the large settlement for twenty imlcb lound we are not likely to see any peimanent depression in this part, even without the gold at all, and that will ceitainly find peimanent work for several hundred, so that there is no cause for our discouragement by any moans. For want of bomethinsj to praise let me point out one 01 two faults and subjects of complaint on the piirt of the Te Aroha public. We have a largely prevalent sicknoss and no doctor, nor tho means of getting the attendance of one, without the payment of an exorbitant sum that no one man conld hope to pay, unless his means weie larger than those of even our wealthiest. And even supposing the combination of 2 or 3 laised the sum demanded byjsome local medical charlatan as his ughteous meed of piofit by other people's misfortunes, of what use is one mere flying visit of a few minutes' duration in the cure of a case of violent fever, bronchitis, or dipthena. The Piako County Council is supposed to be the Te Aroha curator of the district's health ; should it and other Boards not be expected to co-operate in piocuring frequent periodical vis-its fioin some medical piactitioner at a stated salary thiough their districts, and his regular attendance in cases of dangerous sickness? It seems only natural to expect so much for young rising settlements. We ha\ c not even, a drug vendor in the place just now, and the only person to apply to for advice even is one supposed to be a druggist, but with no drugs, and certainly not qualified to treat cases of violent or complicated sickness, Then we have actually no burying ground in Te Aroha, though there is supposed to be such a moitai necessity at a distance of about six miles from the township. The bodies of two children who have lately died of scarlatina have had to be biuied in <i piece of ground near the river, belonging to Morgan, a Maori chief, who was much opposed to the appropiiation of his ground to the purpose in the last case, and was only induced to consent by being allowed to read the burial service over the poor little lost one. He is a minister, I believe, among the Maoris, and it must be allowed he read the service reverently and impressively in the Maori tongue, and enlightened modern notions attach a different importance to the burial service in the future prospects of the dead than those of our forefathers ; but unless the whole affair is a farce, it is only decent to have a sanctified restingplace for the bodies of those who die in the midst of a body of settlers of any importance. Ministers of one denomination or the other visit us once a week to attend to the wants of our souls. Can we not have a minister for our bodies to visit us also? as the latter half of our being, while we are compelled to make use of it, is surely of almost, if not quite as much importance as the former half." Let our Piako magnates endeavour to think the subject over, for it is rather an urgent and important one. — (June 10.)

On the night before he died, the late Lord Chief Justice Campbell, at a dinner party in his own house, said: " I think a clause should be added to the Litany, and, after praying against sudden death, we should say, >" From a lingering illness, good Lord deliver us.' " About midnight, after a cheerful talk with hia children, he retired to rest. The next morning bis seivant, going into hiß room, found him in an arm-chair lifeless, but cslm aa*if in sleep.