LAKE COUNTY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2319, 11 August 1898, Page 29

LAKE COUNTY.

A uuust 6 —The scow and rough weather which 1 r-wc-pt over Ihe Ri cater part of Otago at the end of last and the beginning of this week have let us off with very tlight damage. It was blowy and cold and the ground was covered with a few inches of I snow, and frost following it has not yet disappeared. Altogether it has been a very funny I winter. Beginning in May aud ending in August with a very shtup frost, it had for its <niddle quite ! aa enjoyable bit of sinumor-like weather, with 1 oliiar skies and 1 almy aiis. But then in the Waka- } tipu we do not know what really bad weother is. j Billiards.— A biUiard match between six t Queensland and six Anowtowi) representatives j was played on Wednesday last, when the Queens- , town torn proved victorious by two gain-s of 100 ' mi.

j ( "ire.— A very serious fire occurred on Wednesday last on the farm of Mr Jobn Turner, Speargrass llat, near Lower Shotover. About 1 o'clock in the morning Mr Turner wakening discovered Im stable and chatthou^e, which were under one roo f , to be on fire. He rushed out at once to try if possible to get out the uorteF, but unfortunately tho flames had tuch a hold upon the building, which was 60ft long and ll)ffc wide, that it was impossible to save anything. Betides the building, Mr Turner loses four draught hciise?, a chaffcutler, a quantity of harness, and a miscellaneous lot of tools and implements. TLe total loss is estimal d at £200, the hotses alone being worth JEMJQ. The insurance is £50 on the building with the New Zealand Company, f=o that Mr Turner is a heavy lo3er, aud being an old and much respected settler great sympathy is felt for the loss he bas sustained.

Land Sale.— Messrs M. O'Meara and Co. held an exUnsive sale at Arthur's Point, when the property of the recently dscessed P. Oaat'ey «vas put up at auction. The property consisted of the well known hostelry, Sportsman's Arms, and 178 scies of good arable land. This being put up in one lot brought £240. A quantity of furniture and f-rminc: implements lealised nearly £200 inntv.

Mork 'iiKßKii Talk. — The woodcutters at the head of Like Wak&tipu have a real jjrievance in leapect of the ixisiing laws affecting their calling. A license fee of £5 per annum for cutting and selling firewood and £7 10s for post and rail splitting is in itself almost prohibitive under existing circumstances, but to confine their operations to small fixed areas is enough to knock the industry on the head. The timber at "The Head" has been drawn upon for upwards of 33 years for all building, fenciug, and mining purposes as far south as Cromwell. It is only of late years thnt Southland timber has supplanted it, and that was not the case until the timber at " The Head " showed signs of exhaustion. To complete the destruction, the Dart Valley, from Kiuloch for about ei?ht miles up stream, wa-! denuded of timber by a bush fire about 13 years ago, so that it is a hard matter to find even a 10-?,cre block that contains a sufficient number of trees for the woodcutter to make a living and the price of his_ license. What is wanted is a mateiial leducSion in tho price of licenses, and doing away with the confining of the men to any particular area. JouitNALisric Amenities. — The Wakatipu Mail, in a fikndly note, bears out my statements anent the Anglican Church building at Qucinstown. Peihap3 tbo Mail will be so complacent rs to iel.ite how the church was put up at "n art union and won, and still remained the property df the congregation. The story of this little episode hf»3 never been msde public, and would make a highly sen'-ational item in local ecoksisistical history.

Promoted.— The promotion of Mr J. A. Algie, postmaster and telegraphist at Airowtown, fium foutth to third class postmaster calls for pointed notice. Mr Algie is eminently fitted for the department in which he serves, having the qualify of inspiring confidence to a very marked degree, which, joined to undoubted capacity for business, is enough to carry him, under favourable circumstances, to the top rung of the departmental ladder. Tha promotion of course implies a substantial and corresponding increase in salary, and upon both Mr Algie is warmly congratulated by his many friends in Arrow, which thus has been raised to a thiid-class post town. Wakatipu Licensing —Since the outburst ef the local licensing hubbub I have received five letters— two from the same party— a«king me to u^e "my facile and powerful pen" (sic) in the elucidation of the embroglio. Ilad the writeis added some ideas to their flatteries it would have been easier to comply with their requests. However, taking the most obvious phase of the situation as a text, there is the action of the chairman, as already fet forth in my last week's letter. To compress the whole thing in a nutshell, the chairman, as a Government nominee.takes it into hishead io act in direct opposition to the expressed wish of »1I the members of the committee, who represent the declared vievys of the electors of the di=tiicfc on licensing questions. When the members resent such action, a step that was forced upon them by the position in which they were r>l;»cpd by tbo electors, the chairman curtails the travelling expenses of the members, to coerce them into submission to his will. All this is done, mind, in strict accordance with an act conf eived. introduced, and mads law by our present 1i) eKi 1 i.') ( i. . srnment. 'ihus this widening act 1 .i 1 • s „v ,\ , i i at least nullifies, the people's loc-»l f.i/ri>,n ■"'•"• °nd the expres&cd wish of the electois „a 1 b; ohe arbitrary dictum of a solitary Hutu .if '! He Government, to whom, in addition, iin *' ", ; . Siven to coerce fchi? numbers into

submission or punish them for carrying out the wishes ot those who elected them. If such a thing had happened in Russia or Turkey there mitcht have bsen motions. Here, in enlightened New Zealand, we fall before the juggernaut thut styles itself !l Liberalism ! " T.AND FAtE.— Mr Henry M'Gibbon's farm, at Crown Terrace, has changed hands, Mr John Cheriy, the well-known carter, being the purchaser. Ihe price is said to be £1500. Mr Cherry is to be congratulated upon his bargain, and being a steady and haid-working man, with a good practical knowledge of fanning, he will no doubt make a good thing out of his bargain.