EAST COAST LETTER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 351, 14 September 1889, Page 2

EAST COAST LETTER.

[rilOit OUR OWN COBBESFONDENT.j Pray ait by us, and tell’s a talc, Merry, or sad, shall it be ? As merry as you will. —Wixieu’s Tale. Between Gisborne and Tolago Bay, the roads seem to be negotiable, and one hears few complaints bo far, but beyond that, the natural winter state of the bridle tracks is enhanced in badness by long continued and consistent neglect of the most flagrant description. The mailman says, that at a place called Tangaru, some 4 miles north of Tolago (inland), nearly all the bridges and culverts have been washed away, those remaining being absolutely more dangerous to orosa than the chasms which they are supposed to span. One he remarks, is especially unsafe, as it presents a fictitious appearance of stability. At the same place (Tangaru), a big slip has come down, and remains, of course, an all but insuperable obstacle to travellers, and a muddy example of how to let ill alone. It is Baid one of our leading settlers has wired on the subject to somebody. He will require a million or more of Edison's bolts I think to wake up the O O.C. or their Engineer to a like action as far as this end of the County is concerned. Do you know, Mr Editor, that the gentleman in question has only favored us with one visit during more than twelve months; and further north—well, somewhere in the recollection of the oldest inhabitant. Never once since he passed that region of buried and slummed culverts, has he ridden over the road inland to Makarika. It has simply been allowed to r i-p, and were it not for private work, the road would have been utterly impassable long ago. Through their own property, do you say, Mr Editor ?— Granted, Sir, but don't they contribute roundly to the rates, and have the honor of contributing to the screw of the gentleman before mentioned of whom personally they see so little, and whose services avail them not at ail. With regard to the bridge before alluded to. Mr Walker had to take all his swags oft his horses, carry them across one tottering structure, and lead hie horses by a circuitous route over the hills, to meet his baggags again within a few yards of where he started from. How jolly I —especially if by any chance one happened to be benighted in such a locality. Of course these sort of things will occur daring winter time, on such tracks as I speak of, and a good deal is doubtless not susceptible to immediate repair, but there is no reason why something should not bo done to mitigate, if not permanently improve the difficulties of the road, pro tern. One is at a loss to know where a certain well-known gentleman ia siaca the occultation of Te Kooti, He was smart enough flying around in those days. In a late letter, I related an extraordinary action of a Ngatiporou women in swarthing a leg of pork as a dead infant, getting up a big tangi, and corresponding feed on the auspicious occasion. She was bowled out, of course, but the taste, or perhaps I ought to say proclivity, for 1 tangis * (and feeds) remains, A good many people in your town know Johnny Hays, a halfoaste long resident at Bsporua, and respectably connected (it is not necessary to say to whom). Well, poor Johnny has been suffering from long-standing pulmonany disease for years, sometimes better, sometimes worse, as is the manner uf eonsumptives. Some months ago the Narrator was informed that he was dying—quite hopelessly, said his informant, * all bones, no breath,'moribund. 'lt would be a shame to torture him with remedies,’ quoth the Narrator. 1 0, yes,’ replied the informant. Yet Johnny still persists in existing, and his oustinaoy has placed his many friends who are waiting to * assist ’ at the obsequies in somewhat of a dilemma. His coffin has been made a week ago, the * funeral bakemeats 'are spoiling, and Johnny won't die. Obstinate Johnny.

I read with great pleasure an account of a banquet at the Roseland, wherein my old friends Currie and Hogan entertained a number of friends after their hospitable and kindly manner. Narrator remembers many a pleasant evening at the “ Chandos ” of like kind, and heartily wish the genial proprietors all success in their new house and undertaking.