Damage at Tuatapere
Bush fires raged around Tuatapere and it is due to the almost superhuman efforts of the fire fighters, who fought day and night, that any timber yards, dwellings, or places of business stand today. The fires were the most severe since the disastrous fire of 1916.
Hamilton and Co. and the Southland Sawmilling Company suffered heavily in tramways, especially the latter, who have been compelled to wagon the timber pending the re-laying of about 40 chains of damaged tramways. Mr D. Galt, of Papatotara, had his sawmilling plant, burned to the ground, and Young's sawmill at Orawia (near Tuatapere) is closed down owing to the shortage of water.
Shining cuckoo in Dunedin
Mr S.F. Whitcombe, formerly Traffic Manager of the New Zealand Railways, heard a shining cuckoo in Dunedin two days in succession at the beginning of November. "Down here", he wrote from Pounawea, Catlins district, Otago, on November 20, "both the shining cuckoo and the long-tailed cuckoo are very much in evidence. Their peculiar notes are heard frequently during the day. Bellbirds, tuis, fantails, pied and black robins, tom tits, riflemen, bush canaries and grey warblers continually flit through the forests. Some wood pigeons are nesting near here; I can hear them cooing from our little bush at the back of the house. It is a great pleasure to see native birds all around us.
At Belleknowes about a month ago, I saw the first albino blackbird I had seen since I left England. It was a female, and was hopping about on the back lawn at about 7am. Its head, shoulders, upper part of the wings and breast were quite white; the rest of its body was just mottled, in the same way as a good many pukeko, or swamp-hens, were mottled in the Tarawa Swamp, between Lumsden and Kingston.”
A timely warning
Every motorist who travels on the Berwick-Waipori road should practise the greatest care and caution. The need for this was again demonstrated on Friday, when a car, in order to avoid a collision, went over one of the numerous banks. What might have been a serious accident was by chance averted, but the situation had all the elements of disaster. The road is narrow, the corners in some cases very sharp, and drivers should exercise constant vigilance.
Railways holding back Queenstown
Queenstown promises again to hold pride of place among the holiday resorts of the province during Christmas and New Year. Accommodation in most of the hotels and boarding-houses has been increased this season, and yet it is readily taken up, and numerous applications are being received for more. If only the Railway Department would offer some encouragement in the way an extended period for the issue of excursion fares and a longer currency for these tickets, as well as weekly week-end excursions in the summer and monthly ones in the winter, then there would be no lack of building enterprise amongst those who cater for the travelling public. The traffic to the Lakes would develop beyond all expectations and the railway and steamer revenue would receive a big increase with very little increase in expenditure. Trains and steamers would be running full instead of half or nearly empty as they frequently are, and we would not he told again and again an irritating story of an unproductive service.
— ODT, 11.12.1923
