LAKE WAKATIPU.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XV, Issue 749, 18 March 1884, Page 3

LAKE WAKATIPU.

(FKOM OUR OWN CORRSsrONDKNTS ) AIIRO W T OWN. March 17. It is shocking to sec the rate at which the suicidal mania appears to be increasing in these colonies of late years. Scarcely a day passes without one hearing or reading about some unfortunate fellow having come to an untimely end by his own hands. The latest victim up here is Kdward Fisher, storekeeper at Skippers, who shot himself on Friday morning last. Fisher has been in business on tire Upper Shotover since the early days, and was well-known as a kindly, honorable, mid obliging man, with intelligence and education considerable above the average. A very successful vocal and instrumental concert in aid of the funds of the Arrow Brass Baud, took place in the Athenmum Hall on Thursday night. Although the charge for admission was very moderate a very nice sum was realised. Messrs Kudarz and Verno performed in the Arrow on Friday and Saturday nights, and Mr Kudarz astonished the natives by his wonderful feats in the sleight of hand business j whilst the dexterity he displayed in the cabinet seance called forth the applause of all present. I venture to think that few Court records could show where three borough councillors and three ex-mayors were fined on the same day for a breach of their by-laws, as was the case here on Tuesday last, when that number were mulcted for allowing their cattle to wander in the streets. Since I last wrote, Mr Ussher, Government engineer, inspected and passed No. 1 Contract, Cardrona road, and also No. 3 Skippers. Work is being vigorously pushed ahead on the last two sections of the Cardrona road. We are now getting grand weather for the harvest, and reaping and threshing is the order of the day. The most of the crops are yielding well up to expectations. The Tipperary Company have just finished crushing, and brought down a cake of 380ozs on Saturday. This result is a good deal over an ounce to the ton, and is much more than was expected, considering the mixed quality of the stuff that was put through. There is every reason to anticipate a still more satisfactory return next crushing, as they are now on excellent stone.—lt is satisfactory to learn that the prospects of the Mountain Maid and Ladye Fayre claims are improving.—The Treasure has again made a start, and so has the Homeward Bound.—lt is said the Garibaldi is looking very well.

QUEENSTOWN.

March 17. We have some satisfactory items of mining news to record. The Invincible Company (Eamslaw) have had another crushing of ITOozs retorted gold, the proceeds of 340 tons of quartz, All this comes from a slip. The mass of stone is huge, and has thus far averaged half an ounce to the ton. What is evidently required is a powerful battery—say 40 head of stamps. The company have sufficient water power to d rive this, and they have a very mountain of quartz, though a slip, to crush. They might, however, secure a pratical manager turned out from the mining schools of Victoria or New South Wales. The applications for qualified men from these schools are numerous, but great prospects are open in the Earnslaw district for good men. The latest discovery is that referred to as a prospecting company in my letter of 3rd March. It may be as well to repeat part of those remarks. “ Work is now going on at the new quartz claim up above the Invincible Co.’s claim, Earnslaw. The prospects are considered good. The prospectors are a private company of 10 or 12 shareholders.” The hope of good prospects has not failed. A strict test of driving from two opposite sides led to the discovery of a well-defined reef in solid country. This discovery and others mentioned about alluvial gold shows that our upper formations have, at least, not received that attention they deserve. The reef is a gold-bearing one, but to what extent time must tell. The Invincible Company want all their own crushing power and cannot take in work. They might, however, give a friendly crushing trial. Again your correspondent reiterates that the Dart and Earnslaw districts stretching to the West Coast is a vast net-work of quartz reefs and mineral resources. Dr Hector, Caples, Williamson—the latter a real prospectors proclaim this. Every scientific man who has since visited this large but strangely-distorted district has arrived at similar conclusions. The country is iminentlya volcanic one, and grand Mt Earnslaw the great testimony of many minor ones.

In the same district are to be recorded good finds from alluvial claims in gullies or gulches, or whatever they may be called—not from beds of creeks or rivers. The Twenty-five-Mile is a slight exception, and yet this old worn-out river is yielding a good return upon terrace levels. After all, mining in this portion of the district may be said to be in an infantile stage of progress. Darkly we look through the facts pregnant for other years to unfold. It is well to know where great resources exist upon great scientific authorities j it is more satisfactory to know that the more the country is tested by practical worth, the labor and experience of men of industry and perseverance is endorsing steadily but surely the footsteps or predictions of Dr Hector and others.

Before leaving this subject, good results under similar auspices are being obtained from other portions of the district. They are chiefly alluvial, and all from high altitudes, they are terraces over the various creek formations. The Lake is 1,020 ft above the sea level. Some of those claims mentioned are twice or more than that height. The Chinese first discovered the value of these higher levels, and the Europeans have not been slow to follow and test them. They have proved profitable so far, and hence the dawn of a new mining era in this part of the colony.

Fine harvest weather rules to the present. The farmers, one is inclined to think after some experience, is more inclined to cry “ wolf, wolf,” than is necessary. The actual results are satisfactory. No great general injury has been actually sustained. How the crop is to be disposed of, chief! v wheat and oats, is another matter. Barley will find a free demand. The price will probably rule at 4s 3d to 4s Cd. Some barley crops are grand. We have imported too much oats lately. Our supplies, though heavy, will only just meet demands daring the coming year. The fact is that farmers cannot hold over sales after harvest. They will borrow, and interest follows. It is not interest for one year that kills ; but renewed and compound interest. They—the farmers—have to blame themselves for these results. They have been too ambitious, perhaps have had too high hopes dargled before their eyes. Loan companies somehow do manage to secure claims that cannot legally be denied. They are the masters of the position. The farmer, the woolgrower, and the freeholder becomes the unthinkand unfortunate victim of circumstances. This season cannot make their bed of rest a happy one, for prices of all grain, as stated abo ve barley—are low. Mr Edward Fisher, of Packer’s Point, Sandhills, a man kindly throughout life, committed suicide, aged 65. He shot himself deliberately dead upon one of his verandah door-steps. He appears to have tied a piece of string to the trigger of a fowling-piece, and deliberately committed suicide. Cause, financial difficulties, yet other miners would have cleared him of every penny piece of indebtedness.