The object was to discuss the delay by the Government in starting the Manuherikia irrigation works.
Mr C. E. Murphy opened the proceedings with a vigorous speech, in which he described the district as lying dormant owing to the laxity of the Government in prosecuting the work, which had been commenced in 1911, and was even yet in abeyance.
The reply of the Minister of Public Works on three occasions had always been that the work was to be put in hand at once, and it had not been put in hand yet.
The Otago Daily Times of March 10 had said the work would be commenced in two or three weeks.
That was now three months ago, and there was no sign of a start yet.
The speaker also referred to the number of married men out of work owing to the decline of the mining industry.
Mr Bodkin said it was imperative that the people of the district should awake and make themselves felt in the matter of this long delay.
Their watch word must now be ''Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!''
The Land Board should also be approached to have the land to be served by the irrigation surveyed and got ready.
There must be no policy of inaction any longer.
Mr Murphy moved as follows:- ''That this meeting of residents of Alexandra and surrounding districts regrets that the Government has not commenced the Manuherikia construction works, as promised by the Hon. The Minister of Public Works, and respectfully urges the Government to put the work in hand at once. That, owing to the decline of the mining industry, a very large number of married men are out of employment. Unless this work is put in hand at once, and the lands to be irrigated thrown open for settlement, these men will be compelled to break up their homes and leave the district.''
Mr Weaver seconded the motion, which was carried unanimously.
• WELLINGTON: Wireless telephone communication between, say, Sydney and Wellington, is not a mere dream, according to Mr E. T. Fisk, of the Amalgamated Wireless Company of Australasia.
Mr Fisk made it clear at once that wireless telephony was no longer to be regarded as a scientific freak.
Very rapid progress was being made in science, and, with the improved continuous wave system gradually being perfected by the Marconi and Telefunken Companies, telephoning by wireless was now reaching the stage of a commercial proposition.
Experiments had shown, said Mr Fisk, that wireless telephony was going to be of great service over long distances, and there seemed to be good prospects of it displacing the present trunk lines of ordinary telephony.
Tests recently showed that the voice sounded much more clearly through a wireless telephone over a distance of, say, 150 miles, than through the ordinary wire telephone trunk lines.
• The Mayor of Cromwell (Mr Jolly) has received a letter from the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. W. Fraser) which indicates, according to the Argus, that the engineer has fairly well completed the survey of about five miles of the railway line from Clyde upwards.
The first one and a-half miles is being pegged out and should be finished this week.
The engineers are preparing specifications for this one and a-half miles, and it is hoped to call tenders for that section in about a month's time.
The information about the progress of the line will be welcomed by the residents of the district. - ODT, 25.6.1914.
• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ
