LAWRENCE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 13, 20 July 1888, Page 7

LAWRENCE.

CFrom an oecaßioaal Correspondent.)

July 16, 1888. PROFESSOR BIACKS report on the Waipiri quarts mi-iiss hn« created something like a seneation in local mining circles. Captain Pearse, who has been commissioned to place the properties on the London market, took with him some twelve or fourteeu hundredweight ot stone which, it is confidently expected, will even exceed the estimate given by Professor Black. The undertaking, in its initiatory stages, has entailed considerable expense — the report alone costing a trifle over £500 ; while Captain Pearse was consoled oa his homeward voyage with a Btimulant in the shape of 300 sovereigns and, in the event of success, a guarantee of further and still more generous consideration. With the single exception of the famous Mount Morgan, there has probably been no mining venture ia recent times set down before English investors with so irresistibly tempting a prospectus. " Quartz to keep the batteries going for ten years at the rate of a thousand tons a week ; water rights well up to the mark, no shaft sinking, and a yield right through of l«dwta. to the ton." So runs the report, which must be very inspiriting news, indeed, not only to the actual owners, but to all and sundry located on the Siberian altitudes around Waipori. The net profits from the properties are estimated in the same document at £40,000 annually and yet I am credibly informed that the whole of tha properties are to be disposed of in the London market fur £30,000 — that is to say they are to be offered for £10,000 less than the profit they are guaranteed to yield in one year. This seems a very liberal offer but there is a parallel case at hand in the Blue Spur Tailings Company's claim. This claim waß guaranteed, by the agent whs was commissioned to execute the sale, to yield an annual net profit of £50,000 a year for ten years, and yet it was disposed of for £30,000, and, what was still worse, the terms of the sale were anything but satisfactory to the people out here. lam now merely contrasting the two properties in certain specified particulars as they show on paper, and here it is to be hoped the parallel ceases. The Tailings Company's claim, which, by the way, was guaranteed to enrich the lucky iuveators to the extest of £50,000 a year, had yielded but a single threepenny dividend iv the long eight years prior to i-.s disposal. Under the altered system of working, the yield hasbeeu vastly increased, though scarcely up to the anticipations of the new purchasers. What promised to be a very interesting as well as instructive correspondence was opened in a recent issue of the Tablet, but whbb for Borne occult reason, closed much too abruptly. The public have now a very comprehensive knowledge of the Blue Spur incident, aud as far as I know, have drawn their inferences very accurately indeed. There is, however, another unsettled point or two which nobody next to the principal himself, could so easily decide as (i Shareholder." It is for that reason regretable that he deenaei it expedient to withdraw from the correspondence. Instead of deputing his defence t > henchmer, Mr. Brown should, if only to show that he understood the significance of the issut.s involved, endeavour personally to disprove the offences which have be^n so persistently made against him. - Shareholders " appeal for quarter oa behalf of bis friend was made ostensibly on the ground that a " local industry " was being endangered, but of course, ia reality, from an entirely different feeling. Now, so far from the sale of the Blue Spur claims being a benefit to the district, they have been ft positive and a serious injury. During the long period of twelve or eighteen months, during whicu time they were floating about the London market, there was no such thing as regular or continued work in the claims. The interested parties here were living in a state of torture, and were being turned into every kind of alternating mood by the deceptive reports which were being continually circulated, and every one of which was as baseless and s,s devoid of truth as " the fabric of a vision." And, at present, what is the actual fact? There is not a fourth of the men employed on the Spur that there were previous to the transfer of the mines, and, what is still more suggestive, the number of families there has considerably decreased since' that event The Great Extended, Halo's and Mine's, the Otago, the Nelson, the Blue Duck, and Morrison and Co. claims, at one period working steadily andaffordingemploymenttoalarge number of men, are now all idle. The Tailing's claim, it is true, is working, but the number cf men employed in it has been steadily on the decrease, hnd may now be roughly computed at twelve or fifteen. To regulate thisßmall complement of men, there is a local chairman of directors who drawn I understand £500 a year, a director at £150. a manager at £250 and a few decayed servitors wbos : political services *re rewarded by some kind of undefined position on the staff. This is the beneficent ' local industry " of which " Shareholder " pretends lo be ho desperately solicitous. The truth is the high old days of the Spur are passed long since. It was falling into a sate of gradual decay, and the introduction of the Consolidated Gold Co. (to whic i I beg to tend-r my profound sympathy) settled its demise beyond oavil. From mining to church bazaars is a pretty long cry, yet there ia a very close and necessary connection between the two. A short time ago a meeting r.f ladies, over which the Rev. Father O'Leary presided, was held in the church here, at which it was determined to hold a bazaar.for the purpose of assisting in defraying the expense of a new church. The outcome of the meeting was the fcr nation of a church guild, which is industriously engaged in making the necessary preparationslforthe opening of a buzaarsome time towards the close ot the present year.A siteforthe proj-os^d building inacemr»l and commanding position has for some years bt en the property ot the ra .iuh. The present buildiDg, which is used for the double purpose of church and school, is not quite what one would wish it to be, for the sacred

purpose for which it is used, it is therefore to ba hoped that ths praiseworthy efforts <,t both prie3t and people may be rewarded by a lull measure of ■access.

In a pr&rions letter I referred to the oompaliory retirement, on allowance, of Mr. Dannehey, the late gaoler at this plaoe. Mr. Dennehey's treatment was exceedingly harshiand unceremonious, and was entirely the result of outsida political pressure brought to bear on the head of the department to which he belonged. I was privileged to see the official correspondence with which he wag favoured on the matter, and can, therefore, apeak from personal knowledge. The facts are very brief but striking;, an-i only admit of one constuction. a, few weeks before tha opening of Parliament, Mr. Dennehey was notified that in consequence of the exigencies of the public eervioe he would ia future, when without prisoners be expected to discharge the duties of police constable, otherwise Me should retire on the usual allowance. He, however, unhesitatingly announced hia readiness to conform to the new regulations, and no more concerned himself over the matter. Meantime Parliament had met, and with the appearance of the intriguing and fnssy politicians in Wellington the opinions of the Dafenca Minister underwent a sudlen and unaccountable change on the subject that so vitally concerned tha prospects of the official. Mr. Denuehey was about this Unas the recipient of an official misiiTe, informing him that the department had been informed of his unfitnees for the position of gaoler and constable. He was told that he was old, and suffered from frequent illnssg, and that ia addition his eyes were giving out. Utterly false and offensive as tb«ae statements ware, there was no Court of Appeal for the maligned official, and he was relentlessly driven out ou the world. The incident itaalf may not be one of very grave public importance, but the system under whioh so flagrant an injustice can ba committed deserves to be exposed and reprobated. Mr. Dennebey had in various ways been made aware that he bad incurred the displeasure of the paioa who rules over the destinies of these parts. This ia not by any means the only instance in which an erring official bus been made feel a malign influence. Mr, Dennehey was suspected of recording his rote on the wrong side at the late election, and for this unpardonable off ance he has b«en whispered out of his livelihood and turned adrift on the world. As I have stated before, there is not a vestiga of truth in the reasons alleged for the retirement of the official in question. They are nothingjjmore or less than the creatioa of a designing aad vindictive mind. The County Council is at length beginning to realise the gravity of the situation. Until furtber notice the Council meetings, will be held every alternate month. Tuis more than anything that could ba said, explains the position of tHe Council. It is, however, but the beginning of the more drastic reforms which the pressure of the times imperatively demands, lintional aud economic administration it i* to be feared, will not be regarded with favour until further changes are made ia the personnel of the Council.