QUEENSTOWN.

Cromwell Argus, Volume VII, Issue 331, 14 March 1876, Page 6

QUEENSTOWN.

[from our own correspondent.] March 11, 1876. We have a return of very pleasant weather, something like the second spring of Australia. There are no fresh cases of typhoid, and the opinion is gaining ground that it was a false alarm, and that there was no intestinal fever. At the same time our corporation should bestir themselves like yours has done, and bring in a supply of clean water for domestic use. The swamp through which / our town creek flows is being drained for the past month, and caused the water to assume a milky, sickly appearance; for the present it is anything but drinkable. I hear complaints from Arrowtown also about water. In most towns a great mistake is made in putting business alone on corporations. As a rule, they are afraid to offend their customers, and so pigs, cows, and horses are permitted to become public nuisances. Our corporation are certainly very energetic, but there is a want of firmness about carrying out bye-laws that give offence to those who do not keep their properties clean. Our Forest Inspector, Mr Bolton, has been engaged for some time past in reporting on the working of the deferred payment and agricultural lease systems, and rumor has it that the Provincial Government has hitherto utterly neglected its duty in enforcing the regulations, and that an extensive system of dummyism has been the result. If true, this is much to be regretted, as there should be no dummyism on the goldfielda any more than on the other portions of the country. I am told that nearly all this district, at all available, is taken up either under one system ror the other, and any person can see for himi self that the improvements are very little and settlement sparse. It certainly wanted inquiring into. ,But the strangest part of the matter is that this officer is required to do all this extra work on a very small salary and allowance for one horse only. I believe he thoroughly knocked up one animal. This is manifestly unfair. An officer entrusted with such important work should be well paid. The necessity for this will be apparent when it is considered that all the moneyed and influential men in the district are land selectors, and the Waste Lands Board should take care that the conditions of settlement are fulfilled, or they themselves strike the knell of Provincial or local land admistration. I should have brought the matter forward before now, but waited until I was certain of the main facts by personal observation. I now point them out to show, not the weakness of Provincialism worked from Dunedin, but the necessity for local administration, as well as the unfairness of requiring an official to do so much work without adequate travelling allowances.