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22 in different directions from Manor-place to the Leith, just as the taste or judgment of the party indicated. Immediately all available labour was directed to building, clearing, and fencing. The work of street formation, being in the hands of the Resident Agent, was from various causes not carried on so energetically as was desired, and this became a subject of common complaint. As a proof of the energy and enterprise exhibited, the church and school were erected and opened on the first day of September. As further evidence of the vitality of the small community, a newspaper, the "Otago News," made its first appearance 13th December of this year, having at its start a fortnightly issue, subsequently coming out as a weekly, and surviving until the 20th December, 1850, when the ninety-first number announced itself as "the last of its race," and bade its readers a "sad farewell." The little paper was characterized by a vigorous outspoken style. Holding views differing from those of the large majority of the settlers, it did not hesitate to express them, in one or two instances thereby causing deadly offence. So strong was the dislike to the opinions of the little paper, and so great was the fear that its so-called misrepresentations would do incalculable injury to the growth of the settlement by retarding or diverting the influx of immigrants from the old country, that it was determined to withdraw all support and start an opposition journal. The main points which constituted the offence were the persistent attacks made on the distinctive principle of a class settlement, and the repeated assertions that the soil and particularly the climate were such as to prevent all hope of ever being able profitably to grow cereals, particularly wheat, so that the energies of the people would require to be directed to stock raising and wool-producing, which would not employ a large population. Serious enough was this estimate of the capabilities of the settlement, long since disproved, but whether deserving of such severe punishment may be open to question. There can be no doubt the proprietor, editor, printer, and publisher of the "News," for he held all these positions in his own person, had at the starting of his paper a very high estimate as to the land of his adoption, judging by the motto which he selected for his paper: "There is pippins and cheese to come."