The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 1863.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume II, Issue 60, 25 November 1863, Page 4

The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 1863.

We have frequently written as to the necessity of the Government forming roads from Dunedin to the Lake field. We have, however, always urged upon the Government the necessity of their giving their earliest attention to the formation of tracks to the outlying diggings. The necessity for a good road between Dunedin and Kingston is apparent to all, and its accomplishment will be the completion of an undertaking of considerable magnitude. Tbe resolution of the Queenstown Improvement Committee, agreeing to instruct the Secretary to urge upon the Government the necessity of completing immediately the road from Queenstown to Frankton, savours, however, very much of selfishness. The gentleman who submitted this resolution, will, we have no doubt, readily admit that the trading interests are bound up in the Shotover miners. Considering that the storekeepers of Queenstown have a ready and accessible market in Invercargill, it is surely suicidal for them to put their secondary interests into competition with the vital interests of the miners on the Shotover. It is stated in the resolution that the distance from Queenstown to Frankton is only five miles, and that there are no engineering difficulties. We beg to state that the distance from Queenstown to Arthur's Point is something less than four miles, and that there are no engineering difficulties to prevent the formation of a dray road between those two places. The construction of such a road would reduce the price of provisions at the township of Arthur's Point for township it must be called, inasmuch as it contains at least twenty stores to one in Frankton—and represents an amount of revenue and wealth almost incalculably in excess of the latter place. Arthur's Point is essentially the opening up of the Shotover, and the formation of a dray road thence to Queenstown would bring the whole river one day's journey nearer to its source of supply. Goods can be landed at Frankton by land and water conveyance as easily and as cheaply as they can be landed at Queenstown. If the Government ever do complete their contemplated road between Dunedin and the Lake via Dunstan, it is quite apparent that the Arrow township will cease to be dependent upon Frankton for supplies. Whence the necessitv then, for hurrying on the completion of a dray road between Queenstown and Frankton? Humanity itself dictates the necessity of part of the burthen being taken from the shoulders of the Shotover miners, and we feel it to be our duty to declare, on their behalf, that longer delay in commencing the formation of a dray road to that place is criminal. The convenience of one or two inindividuals, who chance to be traders here or elsewhere, should not be permitted to cutwei-li the righteous claim of two or three thousand miners. It is no

use to say that a sum has been put upon the estimates for the one road, and not for the other. There are ways of remedying this. And further, it is shameful that such should be the case. We are informed that a Petition to his Honor the Superintendent is about to be signed, praying that the better claim of those on the Shotover receive consideration prior to the request of the Improvement Committee. We are afraid that such a proceeding will be of little use. It is very likely that any petition emanating from them, will be declared uncalled for, and that it will find its way by the shortest road into a waste paper basket. We advise them, however, to try it, because their claim is so just, and their necessities so patent, that a refusal of their request would, we believe, cause a blush even on the faces of some of our rulers.

On behalf the more intelligent merchants of Queenstown, we beg to say one word. It is, that their feelings and sympathies are entirely with the miner, and the interests which opposes them exist only with one or two individuals, whose names we refrain from publishing, simply because so doing would give them a notoriety which their present mean position would not warrant.