ALONG THE WAKATIPU.

Cromwell Argus, Volume VII, Issue 369, 5 December 1876, Page 6

ALONG THE WAKATIPU.

(from an occasional correspondent.)

Your popular paper gives us a smatter of Queenstown news that we look for in vain in our local print. You may see something about a Mr Raworth who was attended to at a Lake Wanaka Hotel, and how a Mr M s was at the Bluff on his way back, having purchased —well, a new hat—and such like; but news, as it is understood, —never. Will railway communication to Kingston alter matters? Present and prospectively things look gloomy; with the exception of a few industries struggling into existence, and which never can mature for want of combined action and capital, there is absolutely no inducement for any man, be he married or single, to make a home in the district : the truth" must, and ought, be told —there is no employment of any kind. After shearing and harvest, runholders and farmers require no one. Brickmaking is just now being carried on near Queenstown, by Hales and party, and Burrows and party, but really having no market:—M'Larn and party, M'Kechnie and party, and Cowan and party, have commenced supplying Queenstown with firewood in opposition to the steamers and sailing boats on the lake. These people— M'Larn and party especially—deserve support, for under great physical difficulties, a high rental, and a prospective and problematical return they, from almost unapproachable bushes contigious to Queenstown ; are supplying firewood (next to food) at moderate rates,—not famine prices as formerly,—besides knocking to pieces that old fabric, Monopoly. Taking a trip to Head of the Lake a short time back, by the track, I made a few enquiries as I went along. And here let me once for all say that as soon as the County system gets into working order the track right through to Glenorch ought to be attended to thoroughly, at once. Stock and pack horses going through are now becoming the order of the day steamers notwithstanding. Coyle and party are sluicing at the Seven-mile, with small, but regular results. Mr Coyle has built a neat and commodious stone cottage residence close to the track, and which some day will prove a great convenience to the travelling public. It is surrounded by a good garden, evidencing prosperity, and the true result of settling down to a thing. At the 12-mile, the brothers Small are doing well in their tunnelling claim, and which has every prospect of lasting for years. They seemingly are surrounded with every comfort. Gallen and party, higher up the creek, have a very good sluicing claim, a splendid grass paddock, and neat well kept vegetable and flower garden. You pass one or two small sheephomesteads ; those who have small runs in the vicinity costing as much to work, I am given to understand, as a station of 30,000. sheep ; of course, this will never pay. A little further on is the celebrated " Bob's Cove,'Va lovely spot in summer-time, but almost Arctic climate in winter is its drawback. The sun in winter only shines on part of it for an hour or two. Directly opposite, on a kind of peninsula, is the well-known Wakatip limestone and sandstone quarries. Should railway communication tend to open up the district, there is a great future looming for these quarries. At present Eldred and party, Burres and party, and Beer, and party, have lime kilns in operation, but to my mind they are simply doing each other an injury ; better by far combine, and let one kiln supply the limited demand. Here also M'Caffrey has his splendid sandstone quarry. 1 have seen some tombstones in Queenstown made from the stone of this quarry ; they are simply magnificent. No doubt the labour bestowed has something to do Avith these results ; as well as the goodness of the stone. It is here in this locality, as well also as about Kingston, that the bad policy of allowing wood-cutters to demude every inch of the margin of the lake of its luxuriant evergreen scrubs may be seen in all its nakedness. On enquiry I found that the Waste Land Board, at the strong recommendation of the late Ranger, directed that nothing should be touched for 10 chains from the lake ; but the present occupant _ of the office ignores the to him displeasing fact that " a thing of beauty is a joy for ever," and believes that a "thing of pence, is a present joy," and for a paltry pound or two, opened up to applicants that which had been previously interdicted from the ruthless

axe of the wood-choppers, and that without further reference to the Waste Lands Board. On further enquiry, I found it came about thus: A kind of "wood-cutters' pressure" was brought to bear on that gentleman from the fact of his having turned wood* ohopper (by deputy) himself. Other woodcutters could not stand this, hence the pressure, and hence the nakedness of the most picturesque parts of the lake. This nut the Waste Lands Board ought to crack, by increasing the income of their most persevering ranger. Passing on, we come to the 24 and 25-Mile Creeks, one, if not the only one, of the loveliest spots on Lake Wakatipu, and a calling place for the steamers. Wood-cutting operations are carried on at the 24-mile, and that of mining at the 25-mile. There is also a small homestead here, the residence of a widow lady, who runs some 2000 or 3000 sheep ; but it can't pay, it is too expensive to work, Hqwever, I understand that in this case the sale of mutton for the last few years has materially supplemented the ordinary income from wool, which must necessarily be small if the miserable, half-wooled sheep I saw on my way were a sample. Mining is carried on steadily at the 25-mile. Watson and party have cut a race from the 24-mile into the 25-mile, at a level that commands a large area of both banks of the creek. There are one or two '' hatters" who sometimes present a good sized nugget for inspection. This creek was one of the richest in the precious metal in the whole district, and yet maintains an average. One G. Orant, an old and indefatigable miner, has cut a race some three miles at the base of the long range of hills that runs parallel with the lake, and thus secures a considerable quantity of water, all from drainage. He has a substantial dam erected to keep it in store. It was in this creek that Fitzpatrick and party constructed a long and expensive tailrace, almost from the Lake, right through the bed of the creek. It was not a success : some say they went to work too expensively: of that I know nothing. It is here also the great break in the hills leading into Queenstown occurs ; it is no distance to Moke Creek, and you can almost shake hands with Lake Luna right overhead. Some say copper lodes and indications of quartz reefs crop out on Lake Wakatipu side, near the falls on the 25-mile, with what truth 1 am not prepared to verify. The township of Glenorchy comes next, head of the Lake, a misnomer, yet it is as well reserved from the clutches of the runholder. Mining is still carried on at the Bucklerburn, but not as of yore. The Chinamen are all gone. There are a fewparties of Europeans seemingly doing fairly, if appearances go for anything. There ia Campbell and party, Wilson and party, and Dwyer and party all settled down. I went across to the opposite side from Glenorchy to the rising township of Kinloch, the terminus of the steamers from Queenstown, of Robertson and Go's, magnificent tramway, and of the mountain track from Martin'a Bay ; also the margin of the Valley of the Dart, truly a noble position. None could be better for a great future, and a great future there can be no doubt is before it. Railway communication on the one hand will open up its vast agricultural capabilities : it has a more durable soil than the Shotover district. The Dart goldfields will do the rest, and Martin's Bay settlement will go ahead. Some say the influence of one great family, who go in for monopoly, may we retard it. All I can say, and I say it advisedly, is, let that family influence—if such there is—strengthen,". and when the County system comes into operation will find that same family influence in the Council of the County. Such being the case, the road to and through the Dart goldfields will be "well and. truly" made. I returned to Queenstown, in one of the royal mail steamers, that is to be ; a pair of them, in fact, have combined to run down an irritating, biting, mosquito of a small steamer, leased and worked by the two lessees in a. remarkably indefatigable manner, and apparently, as it seems in the eyes of the larger steamers, with success j so much so indeed that they are about to crush her. Four times a-week now to Kingston, in lieu of once, a greater accommodation to the public, and brought about by this nasty little steamer. Well, I am of opinion that they are just about to add to her earnings, for that " many-eyed monster"—the public—after all, are discriminating. They will most assuredly support tooth, and nail the handy little Venus, who runs here and runs there, at all times and all hours when it conveniences a single one of the public, to the annoyance, no doubt, of the big wiga (steamers I mean). So cheer up lessees of the Venus, take heart of grace, the Argus gives you the benefit of this advertisement ungrudgingly.— you will hear from me again.