LAWRENCE.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 4, 30 July 1874, Page 3

LAWRENCE.

(From our own Correspondent.")

I do not know whether your readers are sufficiently interested in the doings of the inhabitants of the premier city of tbe goldfields to read about them occasionally. Certainly the resources 'of your district are entirely different from this, snd while we are gradually exhausting ours, you are gradually improving yours — in other words, while we are daily lessening our gold deposits, you are constantly taking in more land and cultivating it, thus increasing your producing power. Not but what there is plenty of land in this district, but of a nature more fitted for pastoral than agricultural purposes ; so that in time to come we will be able to exchange our mutton and beef for your flour, barley, &c. I look upon it as a healthy sign, tbe advent of the Leader, and judging from the first two numbers, I should think tbat the gocd people of Clutha have reason to be proud of their paper.

The election for Mayor resulted in the return of Mr. M. Hay, by a majority of four votes : the number of votes recorded for each being— Hay, 80; Ferguson, 76. I do not know upon what grounds Mr. Hay was preferred to Mr. Ferguson, unless it be that Mr. Hay made it appear that the Council would require to borrow only some LBOO, while Mr. Ferguson calculated that it would take about L4OOO to see us through our difliculties. The British public did not care about swallowing the bitter pill that Mr. Ferguson had prepared, however good it may have been for them ; they preferred tbe sugar-coated article from Mr. Hay. lam not surprised tbat Mr. Fer^-u-' son did not head the poll. He is the proprietor and conductor of our local journal, and in that capacity has had at one time or another tramped upon the toes of not a few of the ratepayers. Ia a small town like this, the editor of a paper cannot help but make a number of enemies. It may be that Jones had a little drop too much last night, and while in that condition is inclined to be frolic-ome, and next morning is summoned, "at hi B peril " to II fail not " in appearing before his Worship. Jones interviews the editor of the local thunderer, and in a bland way asks that the report of the he aria er of his case be left out. The editor tells him to mind his own business; and when the thunderer appears a day or two afterwards, containing a report of tbe hearing of the case, the wrath of Jones is terrible to behold. That is one fruitful source of enmity to the editor. Or it may be tbat Brown had to summons Robinson for the balance of that little bill which has been owing for twelve months, and deft-ndant having lost the case is anxious that it should not go forth to the world. Editor is interviewed again. Robinson endeavors to make it appear that be is an injured man, insinuates that the magistrate was guilty of favoritism, and winds up with a request that the case be not reported. Tbe editor, not complying with the request, bas made another mortal enemy. Other sources of enmity to a country editor are plenty, and it is only on occasions such as the present tbat the cloven hoof is shown. I do not' write in disparagment of Mr. Hay, wbo has always taken on active part in public matters, and who has claims upon the ratepayers for several years' service in the Council, but to " hold the mirror up to nature," and show upon What petty grounds some of the ratepayers voted against Mr. Ferguson. If you, Mr. Editor, have ambitious designs upon the mayoral chair of Balclutha, I would advise yon to bear in mind the fate of your contemporary, and if you wish to be successful in your ambition, you must play the role of the popular man, and endeavor to be " all things to all men." Mr. Bastings, one of the members of the Provincial Council for the Tuapeka district, and late Secretary for the Goldfields and Public Works, addressed the electors last week, giving an account of his stewardship. A unanimous vote of confidence was passed in him. Mr. Bastings has not been fairly treated by some of the members of the late and present* Government, but it is evident from remarks he made in the course of his address that he is "nursing his wrath to kegp.it warm," and that next session of the Council will see a change in the personnel of the Government.

You are to be congratulated upon having secured the services of Miss Darton for

your school. Miss Darton has for years been a pupil teacher" in the Lawrence Grammar School, where she graduated^ and before her departure was presented with a valuable Colonial gold chain by the teachers of that school. She was also presented with a handsome bible by tbe teachers of the Presbyterian Church Sunday School. The past week has been the most severe that I have experienced in New Zealand. Snow fell in one night to the depth of a foot, and the severe frosts that set in has prevented thaw to any great extent. A large number of miners have been compelled to knock off work. The members of _ our newly- formed brass band are assiduously practising two or three times a week, and Mr. M'lntyre, the indefatigable leader, confidently expects that he will be able to muster his band for the purpose of playing " God Save the Queen," on the occasion of tbe opening of the railway from here to Dunedin, which is expected to take place towards the end of 1875.

Our local brewery changed hands last week at the respectable sum of L 2,000, Mr. W. Hayes being the purchaser. The nomination of Councillors took place on Monday lastjjibe 27th inst. For the Middle Ward, Mr! William Sheath had a walk- over. Messrs. Humphrey and Cox contest the East Ward. There being no candidate proposed for the West Ward, the compulsory clause in the Ordinance was taken advantage of, and no less than five persons were -proposed for that Ward. Altogether, the nomination was a very tame affair, none of the candidates addressing the ratepayers on the occasion ; and I am inclined to think that the election wiil be also very tame.