During the Premiership of Mr Mackenzie he took the matter in hand, and had a granite slab suitably inscribed in Wellington for the purpose.
In August last the slab was forwarded to Te Anau, and on the 4th inst. it was transported by the Te Anau-Milford staff of workmen to the top of the pass.
The matter is in the hands of the Government, which will employ a mason to erect the cairn and place the granite slab in situ.
The cairn will be of the circular variety, having a broad base. Owing to its high altitude and exposed position it will be built of quartz and granite blocks ready to hand on the spot from the blastings along the track.
The cairn will be erected on the shoulder of Mount Balloon at a spot overlooking the Clinton and Arthur canyons. Beside the cairn will be erected a sod hut, where in future travellers may rest and ''boil the billy''.
The Scottish societies of Dunedin intend to send a deputation to the unveiling ceremonies some time early in the new year.
Then (a correspondent writes) will the bagpipes skirl for the first time on the divide, and re-echo the sounds of the first bagpipes ever heard in New Zealand, when Captain Cook ordered his bosun to play for the savages of Dusky Sound in 1793.
• The Clutha Leader reports a remarkable instance of sagacity in animals which was evidenced in the accident to a young man named John Aitkenhead at Port Molyneux on Monday.
The young man was pinned beneath a tree in which the chains of a pair of horses were entangled, and while one horse was steady the other was very restless, and plunged about a bit.
After a while the restive animal turned round facing the man on the ground, and, on seeing him lying helpless, immediately became as quiet as a lamb, never even taking its eyes off him for an hour or more.
There could be no doubt the sagacious animal had sized up the situation.
• About 40 pupils of the infant room at the Balclutha school were absent on Thursday, owing to the scarlet fever epidemic. The cases (reports the Clutha Leader) are almost entirely confined to the infant room.
The health officer from Dunedin has been in Balclutha for a day or two in connection with the trouble. One family, while in quarantine, were found defying the regulations, and the matter was placed in Constable Harvey's hands.
As regards the idea of closing the school, the local medical men think it safer to have the town children at school than playing about the streets.
The committee and teachers are, however, alive to their responsibilities in the matter, and any suspicious case is at once reported.
Arrangements have been made for disinfecting the school buildings.
• A noteworthy performance, and one that displays the grit possessed by some colonial girls, was that of a resident of the Mataura district, the daughter of a well-known dairy farmer.
Her two brothers were absent at the Gore Show (says the Mataura Ensign), and had not arrived home at milking time, so their sister commenced alone the task of milking the herd of 44 cows.
On the farm milking machines are used, and the happening should prove a point in their favour.
The cows, however, had to be bailed up, the machines attached, the cows stripped, the milk placed in cans, the utensils washed and the dairy shed cleaned, which was all accomplished single-handed.
- ODT, 13.12.1913.
