LAKE COUNTY.

Southland Times, Issue 3446, 7 July 1879, Page 2

LAKE COUNTY.

. «gi. — :■• ■.• (from our own cobeespondent.) Winter appears to< have set in upon us in all its intensity, making the old saying good that as the days lengthen, so the cold strengthens. Up to the. shortest day we had splendid weather, and many thought we should escapealtogether, or that Old Boreas had decided to make amends for his misdoings last winter, but people were all mistaken ; frost and snow' set in, and have continued to hold -supreme dominion ever since. The snow in.the low lands has not been heavy as yet, but there is a very considerable depth upon the ranges, and with what is almost sure to follow during the present month, there is little to fear but that the average rate of water supply for the coming summer will be secured to us. The tracks to the Atacefcown Kaefs," with the exception of a block in the ice on the Arrow River causing a few slight interruption.?, by means of pack and saddle horses, has been easily maintained. The traffic is, however, very small just now, as but few claims are able to carry on operations advantageously. Mr S. Gorman, of Nobel's Explosives Company, has just arrived at the Arrow for the purpose of giving practical lessons in the use or his celebrated dynamite. This explosive has not been much in use in this district as yet, whether from prejudice against the new thing, lam unable to decide. Trials of lithof racteur have repeatedly been made, but the results have not beeu eutirely satisfactory. Mr Chas. Hem, in the prosecution of his operaaiions iv tunnelling under the Arrow River F.illsjuses Nobel's dynamite, and considers five charges of this explosive is equal to nine of lithofraetenr. Mr Heiu succeeded in striking the "wash" forming the river bed on Friday last, by boring a drill hole through to the gravel, and from the small, quantity obtained got a.prospect of four specks of coarse-like gold. The result is evidently gratifying, as clearly showing that Mr Heiue's project is not without the eleaicnts of success, although difficult at first to attain, [f the Government desire to assist bonajicle prospecting, here is a case for them, and some help might, with advantage, be given, wiihout putting a selfdependent aud enterprising man to the necessity of begging aud praying for it. The question of opening for free traffic the punt on the Kawarau River at-Morven Ferry, appears to be as far pif settlement as ever, in fact our County Council seems unable to deal with the difficulty. Our neighbors iv Vincent have got over no less than five similar ones ; the levying of black mail at river crossings down country has become quite a thing of the past, and only remembered as one of the iniquities of the " dark ages." Our "local governing body enjoy a sort of " Rip Van Winkle" existence, and never wake up unless fairly under the most excruciating torture, and when they even have done so,, and sufficiently rubbed their eyes so as to be able to look around them, what do they see 1 That Vincent County, with Mr Vincent Pyke at the 'helm, has steered through five similar difficulties (while th n .j are frightened at one)"and is smoothly sailing along preparing to* encounter more. The people of Arrow Riding, determined to rouse up our sleepy County Council, called a neeting on Monday night last, when a very large number of persons assembled to express their indignation at the loss the district is being .put to for the want 'of a free punfc. What, says one speaker, is the use of a railway to Kingstown- and a subsidised steamer on L"ake Wakatip, if traffic with Cromwell is cutoff by a narrow-minded County Council ? Let us petition them for the last time, and if they do not wake up to a sense of their duty, we will ask the General Government to interfere. Another speaker said, Let us beard the lion, in his den, by sending a deputation to tickle their noaes, and so wake them up, and if that :s not successful let us meet again, and then we will have at them properly. Then followed two other speakers, who appeared to have lost themselves in a fog, but they eventually concluded by adopting the same strain as their predecessors in the necessity for a free ferry. This concluded the real business of the evening, when as an agreeable winding up, there ensued a smart squabble between two well-known Bonifaces, the subject of which could not be clearly understood by the listeners. It might have related to the price of hot grog, for which there is a brisk demand this cold weather, or it might have related to something which neither themselves or anybody else kuew anything at all about, and which was most probable, as a loud voice from the meeting proposed a vote of thanks to the Chair, whence followed the usual stampede to the door. Generally in writing these sort of letters there is some cause for congratulation, but 1 know of none just now beyond tlie fact tbat we are still alive. The difficulties of preserving an existence are somewhat great just now ; there is very little work, very little trade, and very little money : all of the latter is said to be in the hands of the banks, who are determined not to part with ifc. The miners cannot get gold because they are frozen out. The farmers cannot sell their produce because there is no cash to pay for it, while promises to pay are quite unnegotiable instruments. The squatters used to be a good stand-by for -us once upon a' time, .but they are completely laid upon the shelf just now ; in a large number of cases absolute ruin stares them in the face, having lost f ronf one half to three-fourths of their, sheep by the severity of last winter ; consequently there was little wool to send to market. „ Then set in a severe season of severe visitations from Mercantile Loan and Land Companies, and now, horror of horrors ! the Government are serving writs in all directions for non-pay-ment of rents; If ever there was a class Pf unfortunates it is the Wakatip .squatters. No lordly fafc inheritances here ; ; .if any class demands our pity, it is the poor unfortunate Wakatip squatters. I think our. gold-mines' are the only real legitimate outlet for capital just now, and they really do deserve more support than has hitherto been accorded to ■ them. The days of excitement and rash ventures are over, and we find that mining enterprises are as systematically carried on as any. : o+her businesses. Our quartz -reefs are without a- doubt almost absolute certainties, and if we read the newspapers we find there is quite a' revival in mining almost every where, without even going put' of Otago. Nothing can assist trade so much as an increased yield from our goldfields, and there never was a better time for the profi table introduction of capital; in to pur mines than the present,"