TOKOMAIRIRO. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENCE.)

Otago Witness, Issue 554, 12 July 1862, Page 4

TOKOMAIRIRO. ( FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENCE.)

Tokbmairiro, July 9th, 1562. Last Sunday morning the eyes of Victorians here were regaled on awakening, with the somewhat unwonted sight of a landscape clad in snow. On the Saturday, there had been occasional showers of snow, but not sufficient to whiten the ground. The fall during the night was, however, very heavy, for, early on Sunday morning, there was a depth of about four inches, and owing to the continued fall during the clay and succeeding night, a depth of about six inches, on Monday morning. Monday v/as a series of heavy showers of snow, with intervals of thaw, the one so equally balancing the other, that the depth at night was about the same as in the morning. Frost then set in, and has continued since, except for a short time in the middle of to-day (Wednesday), when the sun shone out brightly, and melted a considerable quantity of the snow. As frost, however, has again set in, I do not think that the snow will have entirely disap- ! peared from the plain for some days to come. On the hills around, it will of course, remain for a longer period. This has been, I think, about the heaviest fall of snow in this part of the Province for the last ten years. At least it has lain longer on the ground tlnn any other that I remember within that period. The snow falling on top of the previous accumulation of mud, has made the roads perfectly indescribable. Fancy the worst swamp that you ever beheld or could imagine, aud you will have some faint idea of the present condition of many portions of the main Southern road. Carts minus wheels, with broken shafts, axles, &c, strew it iv all directions, while every here and there the traveller passes teams hopelessly stuck fust, the horses making enormous but ineffectual efforts to extricate themselves and load from the soa of mud and slush in which they are involved. Sometimes, although rarel} r , they prove successful, but usually the driver has to remain patiently until another team arrives, when, by combining forces, both parties manage to get over.

The men who I informed you in ray last had been arrested for the robbery at the bridge End Hotel here, have been discharged, theie being no legal evidence to warrant their being committed for trial. The money found in their possession was of course returned to them.

A meeting has been held at the Woolshed, for the purpose of petitioning the Government to either proclaim it an independent gold field, or to annex it to that 1 of Waitahuna. The public opinion there is, I believe, in favor of the former course, but I think that the yield is not at present large enough to justify the Government in incurring the expenses of a separi'-- staff theie. For the present, at kast, yits annexation to thit of Waitahuna would, I think, prove satisfactory, although it wo'ild certainly be a long way for the Warden and Inspector of Licenses to traverse between the two places. A gold receiver would have to ba appointed there, aa it would be nearly as difficult, and much more dangerous, for the miners to convey their gold to Waitahuna as to send it into town direct. Something will I hope soon be done, for matters are daily becoming worse there. At the meeting a committee was elected to promote the object, and a deputation, consisting of Messrs. Mead and Blair, were appointed to go to Dunedin to represent the present state of the place to tha Government, and to endeavour to get them to remedy it in some manner. Surely they will not let matters remain in their present disgraceful condition much longer. A We?leyan clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Vicars, who is stationed at Wetherstone's, intends, I believe, to visit this district every third Sunday. One or two sales of cattle have been held in this place lately. There was a large attendance of buyers, and the cattle realised very high prices. Considerable additions are being made to the police-station here to accommodate the Escort, who, as they now have only to go fortnightly, will, in the interim, be stationed here. The next escort from Waitahuna will, I am told, be a very heavy one, as sluicing on a large scale is now being carried on there. I have also been informed that Detective

Tuckwell has succeeded in finding the hat of the mau Wilson, who disippeared at the Molyneux lately, and is supposed to have been murdered.

The Rev. Mr. Bannerman, the Presbyterian Minister in the Clntha District, recentty broke his leg, in consequence of his horse falling on it while riding along a siding. A Church of England clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Williams, is now resident in that district. The sub-^ scription for the purpose of obtaining and supporting an Episcopalian clergyman in this district, is progressing satisfactorily.