SIXTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4326, 10 August 1937, Page 5

SIXTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

• (From the files of the L.W. Mail.) It will be noticed from our 'Warden’s Court reports that Mr Beetham has refused to yield to the- objections of the settlers of Miller's and Frankton Flats. Leases are to be granted subject to reservation for roads to the back country. It is to be hoped that there will be open ones, not merely slip panel ones. In the present disorganised state of the Government, it would, perhaps, be useless, to urge the opposition fur- j ther, but a movement may bo very properly taken to have the roads running through, not only these lea- I ses, but also older ones, made bona- j fide open roads. Loads have, ere this, been fenced in, ploughed up, and cropped. We coni mend the matter to the attention of everyone who owns stock, horses or sheep.

At the present time-, Queenstown might vie successfully with many less favoured districts as regards the dustiness of her streets. Owing to the process some of them are undergoing of being formed and raised to town levels, and the extra traffic ujion those already formed, combined with scorching hot weather and strong winds occasionally, the prevailing element in Queenstown at the present moment is dust, dust! To add to our prospects of discomfort, the Corporation have resolved that the cleanser of our highways and byeways shall remove all grass growing upon tbc lines of streets.

Property, despite the cries of dull times, is steadily and surely rising in Queenstown. Messrs Hallenstein and Co. have sold this week to the Bank of New Zealand those two old shops formerly occupied by Messrs Prosser and Lorimer and by Mr Goldstein, together with sections thereon in Pees street for the sum of £450. This property was purchased less than three years ago for under £2OO, and has been let on an average at about 30s per week for the last two years. So the vendors have no cause for complaint of the price obtained. The bank purpose the immediate construction of handso'me stone buildings on the site—27-11-72.

We understand that steps will shortly be taken to call a meeting to consides the advisability of extending the provisions of the Highway Act to this part of the province. The towns are as much interested as the settlers and miners in having passable country roads in the winter season, and we hope that no untoward jealousy will prevent the adoption of a system that will secure us from some of the evils of the past.

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At the usual meeting of the Waste Lands Board last week the following business of local interest was transacted: —Objections were lodged by Mr J. Scott, runholder, and R. 0. Bryant against granting to Messrs J. W. Robertson and Co. a license to occupy 75 acres of Kinloch for a paddock.— An application by Mr S.F. Reid, on behalf of Messrs Robertson and Co. to purchase five acres of land at OneMile Creek for a woollen factory, was referred to the Warden for his report, as it affected the proposed water supply for Queenstown, the right to which it was alleged, Messrs Robertson and Co. had purchased.

AVe understand that the mining lease claims of Messrs Boyle and party and Eager, both of which adjoin the now celebrated claim of Grace and party, Pleasant Creek Terrace, are to be thrown into one claim, and worked by a company under the mining Companies’ Limited Liability Act. It is said the nominal capital is £20,000, one half of which will be taken up in shares by the present owners, in consideration of their interest. Both claims have been sufficiently opened up to prove that they contain rich leads, and when we take into consideration the products of the rich terrace claims of the Upper Shotover, there is every probability that the enterprise will prove a safe investment for capitalists. AA r e trust this ::.s mil v the fore-runner of many

’her und'utakkmv "f a similar kind. A'e are injornn'd {hat lie prO'pecfu? e the provisional dimorory will shoiiL be published. '—• i * Mi Powell's new hold iu'Ttt...'.l' :, ■Si. mav be considered for all purpose*

of public requirements, finished and opened. An inspection of it at once shows how superior a massive stonebuilding is to a wooden one. The bar was cool, and the liquors which, of course, we tested, were also cool. The range of bedrooms on the ground floor are comfortably furnished, whilst upstairs the suite of rooms offers 'manifold accommodation either to the fastidious bachelor, or the father of a family, while a flue (though to our taste, heavy) balcony, along the whole front, offers additional attraction. Altogether we think that few hotels in Dunedin, or out of it, could hear comparison.