SOUTHLAND LETTER.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7350, 1 July 1889, Page 2

SOUTHLAND LETTER.

[FBOM OTTB COBBESPONDENT.]

It is an ill wind that blows no one any good. The recent severe frost has been & godsend to the plumbers, water pipes bursting in all directions, and the youngsters have had a glorious time of it; the ponds and sheets of water all over the country have been frozen over, so that skating and sliding has been the order of the day, and the young folk will now be able to understand the stories of their fathers when describing to them the grand time they used to have on the ice at Home when they were boys. Wβ have had the last of our presessional addresses. Mr T. G. Ward, the member for Awarua, addressed his constituents a few night's ago. Mr Ward was pleased that he had been able to assist in placing additional burdens on the people in the shape of protective duties, thought the Fair Bent Bill should pass, was opposed to Hare System of voting, and was strongly opposed to the San Francisco service .which should be abolished, as we were simply subsidising American wheat shippers. This service cost us last year £59,609, while the six Australian colonies (outside of Queensland) only paid £75,000 for a weekly service, or an average of £15,000 each. He received a unanimous vote of thanks and confidence. We give 'em all our blessing, it's a way we've got. Mr Ward is now on his way to attend to his Parliamentary duties. The banking case Wilson, Tame and Co. vßank of New Zealand, which when tried here a short time ago excited so much attention,and was—consequent upon the Invercargill jury failing co agree—removed to Dunedin,ha3 just been decided there, with the result that Wilson, Tame and Co. has got a verdict in their favour for £5000—a good job for W. T. and Co., that the Invercargili jury did not agree. There seems to be quite a revival in mining matters in this quarter. The ComwallTin Mining Company of Stewart s Island have accepted tenders for driving a tunnel into their claim of 240 feet, when it is expected the lode will be reached: and there is a big thing on hand in regard to the Nokomai Goldfleld, where a large area of ground has been pegged off by a Air Conliffe, representing (it is stated) a body of Tasmanian capitalists, who intend to work the ground with improved appliances. Previous attempts during the last twenty years to work the Nokomai flat have always failed; how this one will fare it is hard to say. Old experienced miners have never had much faith in the possibility of bottoming on this flat, or if bottom, of any adequate reward to|compensate for the enormous expense m doing so ; however, in times past, large quantities of gold have been taken out of the spars running from the hills on to the flat, but how much gold there is in the flat it U hard to say ; certainly there is plenty of water, which will put the modern appliances t» the full test, and the public will wait with some interest to see the beginning of what if persevered in will be a very big job. News is also to hand that Green's reef, in the Otago county, has had a lucky find, the stone showing splendid prospects, while from one of the Lake reefs good returns are to hand. Minere and others working on the Upper Nevis goldfield—this field adjoins the Nokomai—are asking to make a road from the field to the Kingston line. No doubt this would greatly facilitate their operations as the Uoper Nevis <?oldiield can only be worked as a summer diggings, being under snow in tue winter. Shipment of oats to* Melbourne for this week, &,000 sacks.