LAKE COUNTY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1866, 26 August 1887, Page 17

LAKE COUNTY.

August 22. — The past week has been remarkable for delightfully fine and warm days — so long as the sun shone — and for the Arctic severity of the evenings, nights, and mornings. It is to be hoped that the frost may exhaust itself before the fruit trees begin to bud, even if we should have a late spring. The greatest amount of harm is geuorally dune by the Irregularity of the season; and locUorchnrdists can never form an estimate of the quantity and quality of the fruit until it has set, and growth has actually commenced.

" Sarvbs " Them Right.— The long-threatened has come at last. Sometime since it wa9 reported that writs for the recovery of moneys illegally squandered by our county councillors" had been issued. This report proved a canard. Now, however, the writs have been actually served on the councillors ; and what looks like busineas is that the claims are made conjointly and separately, so that it appears as if Government were determined to establish a precedent. The claims in some cases amount to £120; but this will, ofcourse, be much increased by their being made conjointly — two of the councillors having died, one turned insolvent, while several others are not in a position to meet even a tithe of the claim. In this dilemma it has been suggested that the amount required should be raised by public subscription, the surplus there is sure to be to be devoted to a festival of oublic rejoicing, in which a scramble for sovereigns, limited to councillors, should form one of the leading features. One of the pieces of extravagauce indulged in, and for which the erring councillors are now called upon to pay, was that in couuection with the Kawarau bridge, over which £98 was spent, and to which Government officials, who did not pay any rate whatever, were invited, and

attended with "their sisters, ' their cousins, and their aunts " ; while ratepayers contributing as much as £30 and £40 per year in the form of rates were left out in the cold, Another senseless piece of extravagance took the form of travelling expenses for members of the council, who went to Wellington on some occult business, for which they modestly charged the ratepayers £80. This episode occurring so shortly before an election of councilrora will, no doubt, have a deterrent effect upon candidates who might otherwise have intended to offer themselves. On the other hand it is the ratepayers' duty to elect either members who are able to pay for their foibles and extravagant habits, or who have given proof of their honesty and business capabilities and shown that they are proof against temptations of this kind. history Repeats Itself.— lt is told that the old identities of Dunedin saw with dismay the influx of the gold diggers in the olden times, and regarded them as a new iniquity. Something similar is repeating itself now on the verygoldflelds. While marking off & claim near a well-known diggings township, a gold ' digger was recently watched by the guardian angel of the town accompanied by a councillor, who With strained eyes and palpitating hearts afc tne sacrilegious proceedings hid behind the willows whifcfcl sheltered them and afforded them a safe point of observation. However, the town property escaped molestation, and the two watchers' agitated feeling < were consequently soothed and their fears allayed. Buggy AcciDENT.— On his road to Queenstown, during his last visit id these parts. Mr W. J. Farrell narrowly escaped a nasty spill, lhe horse he was driving having got foul of the harness, Mr Farrell got out of the buggy to put things to rights, which he had no sooner accomplished than the horse bolted, leaving the late occupant of thebuggy by the roadside some two or three miles from Queenstown, on the Gorge road. ' The horse arrived at Queenstown with the fore-wheels, the remainder of the biiggy being about equally distributed over the distance traversed. The Weather looks now, at time of posting (noon), very threatening, and it is almoet certain there will be a change for tile worseere long.