SKETCHES FROM THE LAKE DISTRICT.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 26, 11 May 1870, Page 5

SKETCHES FROM THE LAKE DISTRICT.

BY A VISITOR.—(No. i.) Agricultural interests, I should presume, hold paramount sway in Queeustown. All the talk there is about farm produce, cattle, and laud. In what, I understand, the people, or some of them, have dubbed the City of the Lakes-—whatever that may mean—the tone is evidently bucolic. I happened to be in the Queen's Arms Hotel' —a first-class house, by the way, and worthy of patronage—-and the room was full. Some one said that the dredge was paying well. " How much I* said one ; and the reply was given in the same mat-ter-of-fact way as the statement was made, " I hear 35ozs weekly."—"Always thought dredges would pay," remarked an old Shotover resident j and the conversation then back, amidst the music of the piano, ably played, and a violin, evidently played by an amateur, to the subject that seemed most engrossing—agriculture: not that the people, as 1 found out by a qnes tion, were not alive to gold-mining pursuits. During this time the pianist played, and the violinist fiddled—two or three gentlemen attempted the catgut at intervals, but none kept time—but the conversation still continued about farms, produce, new country, and fresh openings. " Faith," said I to myself, "ami back in a provincial town in Ireland 1" Unmistakably I was not, for half a dozen twangs and burrs met my ears. " A strange people," I found myself saying again (after the old-fashioned way of relating a story), " but eminently practical." Here were the Irishman and the Scotchman, the German and the Yankee, and all the other representatives of other nationalities, inoluding a specimen of the veritable New Zealander, discussing the crop and land question. Yes, and with as great a keenness as they would do it in Mark Lane, or in that witty commercial hall, the Dublin Commercial Exchange. I felt that I was amongst quite a new class of people, and that they possessed features and traits worthy of sketching and describing. In our midst ; yet so original a commnity that they take a different position to the other inhabitants of the gold-fields towns. Ah, me ! I am afraid I shall make a mess of it, for I have my spurs to win as a correspondent, and I do not know rightly how to commence. A happy idea strikes me: I -will tell just what I saw, and what the people saic, and let that tell the tale I want told. Well, then, this edging—it was a Thursday, and the public luminary of the district, in the shape of the Wahxtip Mail had not yet put in an appearance. Eight o'clock : half past eight o'clock : no paper ! I enquired, " Is it a night paper?" but my neighbor and another who also volunteered information at the same moment dispelled my ignorance, and I learnt that it was veiy uncertain at what hour they issued the Mail. " They pleased themselves," said the. more emphatic of my neighbours; and the landlady, who then appeared on the scene, and, I think, heard my remarks, also volunteered a statement that the paper did not appear in proper time, and thought it a great shame. " Free-and easy-going community," I found myself again saying —a bad propensity, however, is that of pondering in company, as one's wits should be at work. " Editor tipsy 1 printer drunk V —" Oh ! no," said a gentleman, in answer to a mild suggestion of mine of this kind, and resplendent in a big collar and velvet vest; V the editor won't get drunk while he has work to do." —■ " The paper, except for its principles, is not worth a snap," again repeated the pursy gentleman with the collar : /' you should see the papers in Canada—how they advocate the land policy: a dollar an acre." Another American gentleman chimed in, and I again heard the land systems of America, California, Buenos Ayres, Chili, Queensland, Victoria, and, I verily believe to this day, every other place on the earth, discussed or explained. " Curious people," I caught fcnyself again saying. " Why, they have 400,000 acres at their control." I was, of course—l don't like to say it, but I have promised to tell the truth—a fool for hinting it beyond my own bosom, but the tongue is deceitful. Instantly—l do not know by what magic influence—the ranks closed upon me. Chili and Canada, Cape of Good Hope and Western Australia, united, were down upou me, and I got what is known in select circles as " a caution to the Greeks." Then my eyes were opened, and my supposed blissful knowledge proved infernal ignorance. Tbey Avere, however, very hospitable people, and between their arguments, sundry whiskies, and polite attentions I got into a state of fog as to all they wanted. I understood, however, that what I conceived to be the most outspoken and radical journal in New Zealand—their own organ—did not pitch the key high enough, or smothered notes that should be heard. "Happy editor! if you are known," again so foolishly said 1 to myself. I found out afterwards that a very curious but remarkable individual, who I could not understand that night, and who was remarkably facetious, was the editor, or presumed editor. Another, but a surly kind of man, was afterward?j pointed out to me as municipal counci lor, editor, proprietor, reporter, and halt a dozen tilings besides. I do not yet knr r w which he is, and the myß- | tery seems tc? lower o'er the people of

Queenstown. The facetious gentleman h* mercurial and clever; the other is prosy and solf-assertative. Yet these two unhappy individuals eould not go far enough fax getting the land opened. They said—that is, those in the room, and those 1 haw and hoard afterwards—that Boyea Bros.' run must be opened, that the land at the* % head of the lake must bo similarly treated ; and so forth. The wrotclied squatter wai* gibbeted, and yet, at the same time, consideration was, i must confess, shewn to him. They would pay Mm compensation, give him a reserve, and all that kind of thing j but to consider his position as a leaseholder, and tlie services ho had rendered, was out of the pale of the question, which they summed up as emphatically as my own. Compensation! " Unhappy squatter !" therefore said I. Very little beyond pecuniary compensation must tfao squatter in that region, I think, expect. The people are determined—they would wear away a brazen image like that which Nebuchadnezzar set up by sheer talking at it; and the fun of the thing is, talking sense all the time, " What can Ido with such a people as this 1" said I. (You see it is impossible in a first communication to correct one's style properly.) The opinion I formed was that'it was best to let them have their own way. I found that the people I had talked to—while the piano and the fiddle played their parts —were not public-house loafers, but men of influence and position. No angry words passed—-no coarse language, such as I have too often heard, was uttered. They seemed in earnest—and their mirth, and the way they took it, was too earnest for me. Why such a people should have their own way, I will tell you in other letters, if you will accept my rambling descriptions. Swagsmax.