LAKE CBUNTI.

Otago Witness, Issue 2171, 3 October 1895, Page 23

LAKE CBUNTI.

Septt-MBKR 28.— At the onlinaiy meeting of the Lake County Council, held last Wednesday, the piece de resistance was the co-operative Bquabble over the M-vceto wn dray-road extension . It appears that the Luke C unty engineer, Mr J. Black, and the c l-opsrators have landed in an ugly me^s Ariaing chiyfly from an excess of bumptiousness on tho part of the former aud also in part at least from the unfavourable weather of thepist two or three months. Seeing tint the co-operative contracts were calcultred to yi*ld only 7* fid p<:r d^y per c> oporator, who ha-l to find his own tools, ammunition, etc., and tho frightful weather causing immense slips of rock to come down, the woikmen w<>re ontitlad to a little more than ordinary coneidcratioti at the hands of the county ciunc llora and their engineer, iiißtead of which they have received Ira. Perhaps their st'M?k of courtesy had surf-rye* fro'n the recent frost. However this may be, wheu the men saw that ledre-s or even fair da dim? was not to ba obtduei from the local pjworo they very ri at u rally looked to.varrls Wellington, bringing their case under the no ioc of the Government It i' all wed tlut this svep gravely offnuded the county engineer, aud that he has not regarded th< co oner-Ati>rs nines theft with a too favourable oyc. What makes the casu .ill the more peculiar is the fact that an inspector was appointed to sse that the co operators did their work in a proper mAnr>er, and, being nearly continually on the scene of opnwtioiiß, cnild liavo giron such data as would lead to a satisfactory sottlcment of the xn-n.'x claims for work and labour duno, instead of letting them wait for their money for months. The c unity councillors seem at last to have awakened to the Ini'i position of affairs, though their remedy is of tho hope-deferred description, a resolution be-ng enrried to Hsk the Government to appnnt an engineer to arbitrate in the (linpute iietween thfl 00-opfr.itois and the county engineer in reference to the Arrow-Macetown ro-id extension. And here the matter rojts. There is, how ver, another phase to the subj.vt, nnd tbat is the fact that the foot truck up tUo Arrow iiv«r has 'Con reii'lercd al :iont impa r iblc thv-ui/th tlii-* i,qn ibbl-i, on 'i anybody who h compe lc 1 tv ti.xvel »1 'Hg it do.-s -oat the lifk (<f hi^ neck— in fact, fur a time a n ii.c svis p <'ted up »e»r tli»* Bite of the track infouni iff travfl'crs that the tra^k lay up the Air<>\/ ilvcr, bit sti t^iis loute ivjuiie>l cither a h )>• f or a v-*ii" >>f gum bo >ts t') luwifcat^, fie noticj w:ss -i! olishfd. The t-ack up to the pivont remans in the moyt disgraceful nnd da' geruii3 M ie, ron-is'ing in platei of to«-li<iles only, and is si nunow that two liatrdn couldn't pass och oth<;r. When it ia added that the route lie? along v vory prucipilous rocky sidling an uleA of its tla'ißuroin naturo maybe glcm>d. But all thia and tl-e c •nvviiieni-e <>f the public a]>(>.tr'_ ntly counts for nothing with o.u- c^mlj ;uiT]\)riiies. A few little incidents tnuy be mentioned to bhed a light upon thene Blat«ine>jta. Shortly aftw the co-opeiat'ire »ont tL«ir petition to Wcliinji'ton a second progress piyment become due, when the engineer went to Arrnwtown to pay iK Having got wind of the position he tviked one of the coop€ratoH (Mr Willi>iiii Fletcher) if it were truo that a petition had be«n Rent to NVclliiiKton, and the truth being told to him he iuUniMOvl that in face of the petition he would not pay the nun though he had money in his pocket ; ou the contrary, he knocked off the men. Through this miserable equabblo the news has pout; forth that mea in tlm di^tiict refuse 7s Oil par dny, when the truth is th.it there is not a single unemployed working nnii who would not jump at Ihech^iice of even b>n Her pay thun that. However, to rot urn to the co-iM»°ra-live system as work«d iv Lake C ualv Fr.'jn what hBB trauspirod it i» pretty evident that the lump suum fixed for the eeveial contract-, h:«vo been arrived at by ffue u 8 work, and so far the county engineer has refused to state his quantities in any one of them, while some of the contractors by uciual measurement show, to their own satisfaction at all events thxt the prices aro aUo^ether at v»ri*uce with the quantities. As the case stand*, the unfortunate co-operators have done considerably over two months' work, for which th<-y have received as a firtt progress payment ou an average about; £% per nun, which iv some case 4 ! bsr-ly pays for outlay, the c>-uuVy engineer B'oppiig the second pr>gres« payment, sind also suspending the men from work, ho that they have niw beeu i-iln for about a m inth It is RaneriHy htld that the co operative system was to find work for the temporarily unem l)j r eJ; in our case, however, it has ad^ed to their nuiibera instead of doing ho. The whole cs.se is pregnant with many fine developments.

Survival ov thr Fittest.— I v . is interesting to note how quickly changes are brought sabout in native flora and faun* by tho advent of what we are pleased to term civilisation. In the drat pl*ce tbere is the a'niQst totiil di'appsaranco of our old friend the spe'.rKvms. In the early day-? of tlie Wukfttipu rush the flats, the gul'ioi, and the hillsides wero literilly covered with fierce and dangerous buuch''S of tbih grass. Now it is raicly m-t with. Next, th*re is tho approAfhingextiuction of the iimtt-vonra, or »« it is moie familiarly known the " Wild Irishman," for the bark of whhh tha rabbit ha« developod a taste, to gratify which has made a perfect gjiuußS*. of the rod-nt. Lasi winter haa doiic much towanls the reduction of this scrub, whir'i if not ex^'-tlyorn^mei tul is at lc*=t u--eful Whole patches of it may be seen with the b»rk off, e*eu the sm«ller I>iaiicbe3 comntet ly nibbled b»re. Besides this, bunny b«" b-son the indirect cause of the r-xtiiiotion of our u«tivc gio\rid birds, such ac the wefca, kiwi, &c. Tho nitive ver.mir-a, once no <\ l>>.ntiful, is now a'tiii only in iu'.u'c<."<dible spots where it is safe from deprecation ; and bo on with many other native shralw aud aounnl", in fxch-nigc for which we have the nblquit jus r^V>bit hs the survival uf the fittt'st ; eveti last wintcr'H nnow and j;encral s>-veriti ronM do no mo-c than check his iiiereaKe for a lime lut for P. time only.

A Si:.v6ation -'!h? action of the sheep mid cattle inspector in the recent cuse of so-called pleuro-pn umonu is variously and pretty freely critic ; 3' % d by the public In the first place people cannot mulcy'ruid why and how it was that the desrus-jd me-it wns not ordered to be buried or otlnsrw.si d-'«t roved wlu>ii it wns fir>t found, killt'il, ciri»?so»), iindoxp >s^d for b>l'' in a bu'chei's shop in Airoivtown, but instoad w,i^ p u-ked ofT, and iigHiu foun I its way into ,uioth-r -hop in Quoonstown. If the inspector ord Ted \bc nviit t> be nuinsd in the first instance, as if i iiid ho did, why did he not aec his orders carried out or in somo manner 7iiu<lo sure that they had been obeyed ? Th s would hay.} prevented mu<:h ve-^'i-tion to all cinoer.iei— espe"ially so to t-he putilic. What safeguard was there so loug as the do 'ea^pd meat was not destroyed th it it might not crop up R'jain disguised as sausages, brawn, or other delectable goo Is? The very fact that the abiminatiou was a'l'iwed to cause a seasation twice is enough to show what enterprise in that line can aud will do. In the next phce, nothing whatever so far as is known has ben done in the way of isolating or quarnntiniiu the cattle tho deceased beast wns herding with. Instead of doing .something of the kind tho inspector contacts himself with retiring, to the safe distance of Clyde, leaving the unfortunate Wak.ifcipuans to tt.eir fafco, and in mortal dread of tho appearance of pleuropneumonia. All this may be quite in order, and in utriefc keeping with inspectorial priucipies, but public anxiety is not allayed by such procedure, and tho psople waut to know what the inspector is fu\ '- Omtuary —On Wednesday night laat an early settler of Southland and this district passed awsiy, in the pi;i«on of Mr Ribert Steoli*, at his resid -nee at Arrow Junction. Th.i decease'l g'Jutlfni vi vms formally years oip'aiuof a mercluvitiinn n i\'i-R.-tmn thosi uth-'ij vis he abandoning ilif. «f *ring lifts fora cul n,i»m? oid Ue k.ive awilow and grown-up f.innly, mwy uf wh'iin «ie m.\nieil and settled here. JDeith overtook deceased in a somewhat sulden manner, as he had not been ailing to such an extent as to give hi-> family the least anxiety. He dad in his eighty first year. Mr Steele dates back his fiist advent iv these parts to the early thirties, long beforo th^ foundation of M lbourno. coming to aouthl md in 1835 and taking up a run around the present site of Clinton, theive removing to Dunedin just prior to the sold discoveries, and on his sons settling in thia dwtiict he joined them in 1871.