OUR NORTHERN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2202, 14 May 1896, Page 19

OUR NORTHERN LETTER.

(From Ouk Own CoRBESPOMDtfNT.) Ross, May 6. SHE ROSS MINING BOOM. Mining matters have risen to such a pitch here that folk have gone to the length of doublebanking one another in the rage for acquiring leases, and in one case we had two independent parties applying for the same area ; consequently the interest evinced in the Warden's Court soared above concert pitoh, each applicant being determined to win- or feed the law priests Some days previous to the final battle, howtmr, it somehow got into applirants' heads th-it certain informalities 'iv the pegging out and application* might very posmibly arise to burst up the " show," so they made preparations against the contingency b"y running a line of live picktta .frjm the courthouse door to the disputed territory. Said line, confisting of "humans," in whose bands were posted signal flags, and who stuck like trigonometrical Btations along the heights overlooking Ross and the scene of action, ran dowu pell-mell and 'pegged all the claim' of 100 acres auaw immediately tho Warden declared all application!) to be informal and the ground to ba Crown lands open foi application as if it had never before been applied for. The successful pegger out i* now the Mont dOr Gold-mining Company, which will in due course of time bscome possessed of the ground, which has long been known as the Golden Wedge," and tbis valuable area will greatly enhance the woith of the property, which has been Bought after by more than ono syndicate. OTAGO WITNESS, AHOY 1 Mr Brown, an evteeo ed manager of the Kingston home station, near Colytos township, and for many years -an ardent reader of the Witness, scored by aid of that journal a considerable point recently. It was thuawise. His master, who is as popular as they make them, deals largely in wools and skins, chief produce of his fine station. Having an offer from a Wellington firm for" a considerable lot of the latter, he casually mentioned to his worthy manager the price. That gentleman exclaimed : " Hout, man, you wadna' sacrifice them at that piicd I Just bide a wee till I fetch the Witnejs " The Witness being produced, aud its commercial column* being eneorly scanned, elicited the potent fact that skins were fetching in Dunedin at that period over 4.1. Now the Wellington firm's lop price was 2s Id. Since then, the proprietor of that station naturally swears by the Witness, whilst that Wellington firm dcubtless.swears at it. MISCELLANEOUS The Reefton papers report the probable candidature of Mr Eugene O'ConDor, alias the Buller lion, for the Reefton constituency. If the fight bo narrowed down to between be and thn genial clever Pat. O'Regan, why, the "man who has been acknowledged by no less an authority than tho Wellington Evening Post as being the best speaker in the House of Representatives will knock spots out of he whose flag was lowered by Rory M Kenzie at the last battle of the Buller. v A brute named Mitchell, for attempting to drive a horse drawing' a vehicle containing his wife, two children, ana a Chinaman from Reefton cemetery to Cronadon with a tom*b.awk, w«s rightly imprison d for 21 days and fined £4, and in default of payment thereof, seven days' extra. The mare's buttock was said to bo one mass of blood from wounds. The enlightened surveyor who laid off the Vallf.y road leading from the t«p of the mountain overlooking Palmers on its eastward flank and the picturesque township of Colyton pighfc miles to the westward ought to be mummified and stuck as a trigonometrical station on the point of Furlong Hill as a warning to other surveyors who, making similar mintakts, doggedly refuse to alter their plan^ in the face of undeniable proofs of better and cheaper routes Here we have one of tho most disgraceful blunders made, for th* road, instead of following the natural valley, which would have led it *traight into Colyton shoiter and gradeleas, is made to rise abtuptlysome hundreds of foot over the southwe*tern shoulder of Kingston Hill ; and before the , plans were finally adopted the farmers roint«d this out, but the surveyor refused to alter his plans, and so all Colyton going to Fulmars have to climb up and down the hill, and bo all Palmers going to Colyton have to climb up and down the hill, and the adjectives of the English language are greatly diversified in emphasis and largely increased in , number and order during the process of that going up and down. Mr M 'Govern, inspector of police, having received notice of removal from Westland, where he has done duty for many years with great credit, to New Plymouth, Coastal papers, whilst regretting his departure, congratulate tbe gemleinan on his promotion. It goes without saying that every lawabiding citizen liked him. Mr Ohpong, an eminent Celestial lecturer from the Flowery Land, is interesting and instructing Coastal centres upon the e^rly history of the remarkable people and country to which he has the honour to belong. On the West Coast last wionth the rainfall recorded was: — HoVitika, 17 81 inches; Greymonth, 17 "62; and Westport, 1676, A correspondent, writing to the Westport Times, says, in respect of the taking of the census in the Denniston district, that it is a complete farce, as he knows for certain that the enumerator missed- over 20 dwellings in the itreets of the towwhip. Hokitika is nothing If it does not quarrel. Its present oause of disagreement appears to be as to the disposal of. its sum total of £282 3s Cd, collected in aid of the Brunner sufferers, some holding that it should be all sent to the relief of the widows' and orphans of that terrible disaster, and others dißfenting bscause it wa« not clear whether the Kaitangata people had suffered by the fuoda subscribed not having all been spent on them. The Point Elisabeth Railway Company have taken to throwing Bcrub into the Grey River, whereat the Grey Harbour Board called a special meeting, and after each Individual member thereof had aired his eloquence in the hall of reason for an hour or less, the conclave came to the concluiion that before allowing more leaveato commit depredations on the draught of their Bwut-nowisa

mer,\the written opinion of. the engineer to the board ho given as to the likelihood or othei wise o* these ttrawa shallowing the bar. The corupiuy's engineer-in chief, who happened to be preEent, stated that when the bends were being taken out of the Brunner line no objection was made by the bo,ird 1o the tos^in? of branches into the river; but the Point Eliz.beth Railway Company being a roere privjte couoern, cnuUi the board be jusiifi- d in placing such restriclions in the way of its progress ?