The Opelousas courier. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910, 1897-10-30
Improvement of the Ttche.

The following communication wa
mailed at New Iberia on the 22d o
Sept. last, but only reached us las
week, too late for our last issue:
Editor OPELOUsAs COURIER -
Myself and the Hon. Il. F. Broussar,
have boon very much censured by SOM
before your Police jury at its last regu
lar meeting when we haGt promised t,
do so. y
feel it my duty to botlr II us to in
form tho people of st. Landry NfeTanE.
did not do so. We neither of us knew
positively the day on which the Police
Jury would meet, and not wishing to g
on an uncertainty, | addressed IL com
| municati0n to the President aud Mem
bers Oh or about the Goth of August ,e-
questIng them to inform US of the day
and informing them of our intention tt
be present and that [ would expect All
answer to my application to take the
statistics of the commerce of the Teche
or as much of the Parish as they might
wish. AS matter of course | waited
| for an answer, never dreaming that my
communication would be suppressed
or treated with contempt, bnt it seems
such has been the case, for | have new
er received any reply, and go far as
have been ahl.: to ascertain, it never
was submitted to the Police Jury or
any action taken on it. This seems to
me most remarkable proceeding, and
| think demands an investigation. Has
the communication been suppressed and
what has become of it
| have been met with the strongest
opposition from certain parties in Ope-
l0usas. The Hon. 4. 4. BrOussard and
myself have been persistently misrepre
stnted We have been charged with act
ing from selfish and interested motives
to build up New Iberia at the expense
of Opelousas, to steal your Bayou and
almost everything else that is dishoD-
orab:e, but never dreamed they would
resort to tricke!y aud rascalty, as it
seems they have done. We saw the
Bayou Techo almost natural canal
running through an extensive country
densely Inhabited by an industrious
and enterprising population that was
of no use to them, for the want of i'm
provement. That these people, instead
of having navigation at their very
doors, were compelled to haul their pro-
duce long distances We thought We
would be doing the people a great favor
by inducing the General Government
to improve the navigation of the Bayou.
Having ascertained through Major j.
B. Quinn that it could be done at Il
moderate cost, we appealed to the diff
ferent parishes interested, to give
us their aid and cooperation. st.
Mary, Iberia and St. Martin promptly
responded by making the necessary ap
preparations to take the statistics of
the commerce of those parishes. Know
ing that st. Landry was almost equally
interested, ] appealed to your Police
Jury to do likewise, but strange to say,
have so far found 1t impossible to get
them to do SO.
When we take into consideration the
immense advantages to the people of
the Upper T6che and the Parish of st.
Landry of making the T6che naviga-
ble stream, without asking them a dol
lar except a small appropriation to take
statistics of their commerce, | am as
tOnished at this hesitancy and Opposi-
ton. Recently certain parties in New
Iberia have organized themselves into
a Company to build what they call the
Palmetto, New Iberia & Gulf Railroad.
Where and how they are to get the
money to build their proposed road, |
have never been able to learn. 1t mat
ters not whether they build it or not, or
how many railroads you have, you need
the proposed navigation to regulate
them, or you will be completely at their
mercy.
am inclined to think that this is an
other trick of the Morgan Railroad to
divert attention from the Improvement
of the Bayou Teche, and if possible, to
defeat it entirely.
r. r. KING