LAKE COUNTY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2106, 5 July 1894, Page 22

LA KE COUNTY.

June 30.— Mild open weather continues, and though just now it is inclined to be wet the indications are that nothing serious is threatening. Pedagoguic— At the examination of teachers at Queenstown four candidates presented themselves, of whom one was from Queenstown, two from Frankton, and one from Arrowtown. The results will not be known until the 7th. The Rev. T. Paulin acted as supervisor. Death.— The ranks of the old identities have been further thinned by the removal of Thomas Begg, well-known since the early days at Queenstown and later as a miner on the Shotover, where he waa fairly successful. The deceased died at the Frankton Hospital after suffering for five weeks from gangrene. At the time of his death Begg had a good claim at the Branches, Shotover, where he kad been doing well for some time. Though a character in his way, he was a quiet and industrious man.

Hey ! Presto ! Quick and Begone. — The Arrow Hospital Trustees are once again in quest of a doctor. These frequent changes, for which no apparent or sufficient causes are or can be given, call for serious comment, as they affect not only the subscribers to the Arrow Hospital, but also the residents of the district generally, who are in no wise bound to accept or part with a doctor at the bidding of the trustees, and who deny the right of the trustees to set up their judgment as the sole arbiters of the fitneaS or otherwise of a doctar for the district. In the case of. the last change and the present intended one there was neither a charge against the doctor nor fault-finding of any kind, aud without any apparent cause or reason the fate of the doctor has been sealed apparently simply for the purpose of giving the trustees a chance to call a fresh one from the vaaty deep to be treated, for aught we know, in the same manner *s hia prodecessora when his turn come 3, as come it assuredly will. It may be an extreme view to hold that the trustees deal with their doctors according to their private likes and dislikes, not to say prejudices, yet their conduct lays them open to the charge. Nor is this the worst phase of the question, for it has just been shown that they do not know their own minda. In the preaent doctor they had their own choice, -were full of exultation at it, and yet their choice has palled aa soon as the new doctor has been a twelvo month in the district. From this it would appear that after all the trustees are in nowise judges of what constitutes v ''good doctor" when they tacitly admit themselves so uncertain and fickle in their notions. Neither is the prospect for the next victim an exhilarating one. Perhaps a doctor clever at letting blood— one who can use his fists as well as his lancet, and is able lo inoculate the trustees with some degree of common sense— might enliat their sympathies and command their respect. It will certainly require a doctor quite out of the common run to hold his own with the Arrow Hospital Trustees. But we shall see what we shall see.

A Colonial "Buffalo Bill." — Our local butchers sometimes have to go far afield for their fat cattle. They penetrate to Martin's Bay, heads of Lakes Wanaka and Wakatipu, the Matukituki Valley, and other remote and outlandish places with even more barbaric names. Cattle droving, therefore, is one of the local tine arts, partly made so by the masterly inactivity of our County Council in looking after outlying tracks and roads. Mr 6. Heller, who carries on a butchery at Arrowtpwn, had some nasty experiences with cattle which he drove down from the head of Lake Wakatipu last week. However, though there were some tumbles over the track no cattle were lost, and Mr Heller fared better in this respect than another drover, who took 13 head of cattle down the track some years ago. Arriving at Rat Point, there is a right-angled bend in the track, and, bush cattle not being educated in trigonometry beyond the virtue of straight lines, the whole mob wont over the track into Lake Wakatipu, a clear descent of about 1000 ft. Strange but true, only a few of the cattle got cut and bruised in their aerial journey, and the whole lot were swimming about the lake quite contentedly until safely landed. But for all that, drovers are in no way anxious to emulate this short cut, and the County Council is to be moved— if possible— to make the track a little more passable for man and beast. There are a good many settlers living along the track, to many of whom it is the only means of communication with Queenstown and the outer world. If a good track existed the settlers at the head and eastern shore of the lake would find a ready market for their cattle, aB those localities are eminently fitted for fat stock raising and dairying purposes. Dambrod. —Mr D. A. Brodie, of draughtsplaying renown, is at present on a visit to these parts, and votaries of the fascinations of the game are not a little fluttered by his presence.