BANNOCKBURN.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 44, 14 September 1870, Page 5

BANNOCKBURN.

— o — From our own Correspondent.) September 12, IS7O. With respect to alluvial mining, nothing has occurred here of late to call fur any special remarks. The reefs in this neighborhood arc beginning to cause some stir and excitement, and should the weather continue in its present warm state, the snow and frost on the Oarrick Range will soon be dispelled, and the claims in that quarter re-occupied. For some time past, a party of men have been engaged in constructing a road for the owners of the prospecting claim, Garrick Range. Th road, which will unavoidably be of a steep and circuitous nature, commences at the foot of the Smith’s Gully spu •, and taking its sinuous course along it, crosses the saddle at the head of Adams’s and Pipeclay Gullies, and terminates at the claim. A crushing machine was purchased by this company a short time back. On completion of the road, it will be sent to its destination, and erected on the site appointed for it. Report says that an expectant publican in Cromwell, with preconceived visions in his mind of the increasing demands of the district, intends building a public-house at the foot of the road to the reefs. Another enterprising individual, with a perspective eye on the future, thinks of throwing a bridge over the Kawarau, to meet any heavier requirements in the shape of traffic that might ensue from the development of the reefs. A considerable portion of the miners of this district are looking with dismay at the future that lies before them, the steady incoming of the Chinese being the cause of their gloomy forebodings. Even now some of the back gullies are so monopolised by Chinamen, that a European can scarcely find'a piece of unoccupied ground large enough.to stick a pick in. Surely the province cannot be benefitted much by introducing a class of men into it who never intend settling in it, but who, as soon as they have hoarded up a sufficiency for their small wants, at once he-, take themselves to their own country. Mftt* chants and storekeepers can derive but lifx|| profit from men who import their own apparel and a great part of the stores thoy|sgb sume, and who live mostly on rice, and hovels covered with old gunny-bags sewn tOgß' tlier, to save the expense of a few yards of calico. Chinamen are temperate and industrious—qualities which, in one sense, would almost appear detrimental rather than beneficial to a colony, as the possession of such virtues enables them the sooner to realise a competency, and return to their own shores. These remarks will very likely be set down by many as emanating from the w'eak brain of a narrow-minded sciolist; but perhaps some far-seeing politician will enlighten the:.miuers of this country as to how a large number of them will earn a livelihood in the course of another year or so, if the Chinese keep on arriving in the colony, arid steadily but surely fill up the different gullies, to the utter exclusion of Europeans. The concert and ball hold at the Bannockburn Hotel last Thursday evening would have been an unqualified success had accommodation been afforded to ladies from a distance, m the shape of aroom set apart for the purpose of refection, Ac. “ Whose dog is that ?” shouted an irritated butcher, as a thievish cur darted from his stall with a lump of beef in his mouth. “Awoel,” said a canny customer, who was present and witnessed the transaction, “’he used to be my dong, for I ha’e fed him this lang while, but be seems lobe tired o’ me noo, and has begun business on bis ain accoonl.’’