LAKE COUNTY.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXI, Issue 1032, 29 January 1889, Page 2

LAKE COUNTY.

(prom our own correspondent.) January 21st. This day week, Lake County Council met in solemn conclave, but except dealing with ordinary routine business, referring to road work, nothing of any importance transpired. Among the few extra items which came up for discussion, was the rule relating to the hiring out of a set of boring rods, procured by the Council for the use of miners desiring the bore for deep leads. In the rough, these are that the hirer has to pay for their removal to the scene of operation, and for their return to Queenstown. He has to pay the expert who goes with the plant and superintends its working, at the rate of 8s per day, and the hirer is responsible for the loss or damage of parts or the whole of the plant. The period for which it may be used at one time by any party, is three months. After the Council had been furnished with a detailed inventory of the plant, they discovered, xipon its delivery, that there were no tubes, and great and virtuous was the indignation of not a few of the Councillors at this wonderful discovery. The tubes, which will probably cost as much as the rods and bits, are essential parts in the plant, as in the great majority of the cases, it would be useless without them. Last Tuesday, very sad news was received by Mr Robert Hood, a respected resident at Macetown, of the rather sudden death of his eldest son, Robert, while on his road from Silverton to Melbourne. The young man, who was about 24 years of age, is deeply regretted by a large circle of friends and acquaintances, by whom he was held in the highest esteem. Physically, he was a fine specimen of the colonial youth, and counted with some of the strongest men in thisdistrict, while, mentally, he was a cut above the average of a colonial youth's intelligence, aud was blessed with a most amiable disposition, hence the universal regret with which the news of his early demise was received here. The deceased contracted typhus fever, to which he succumbed, after suffering six days the pains of this insidious disease. Great sympathy is expressed for the bereaved parents, who count with the pioneers of the place. Mining news for 1888, are, after all, not particularly bright. In spite of the unusually good water supply for the whole of the past twelve months, the escorts fall short of their average for the season. This is, in a great measure, accounted for by large numbers of miners having been engaged on contracts for mining works, instituted by companies and private parties, but chiefly by Melbourne syndicates. It is, however, questionable whether the majority of these miners would not have been better employed had they stuck to their claims, as some of them think themselves lucky to have come out of their engagements with " only " two months' tucker to the bad.

The Maori Point Co., (Melbourne syndicate), which failed to succeed with the Maori Point reef, are now about to utilise their splendid head of water by bringing it to bear upon some alluvial ground on the opposite side of the Shotover river, for which purpose the water is now being taken across.