Cromwell Argus, AND NORTHERN GOLD-FIELDS GAZETTE. CROMWELL: TUESDAY, JULY 4.

Cromwell Argus, Volume 2, Issue 86, 4 July 1871, Page 4

Cromwell Argus, AND NORTHERN GOLD-FIELDS GAZETTE. CROMWELL: TUESDAY, JULY 4.

" Facts are stubborn things." In again recurring to tlie necessity existing for holding sessions of the Supreme Court oh the Northern Goldfields, and the indefeasible right Cromwell has to be selected as the fittest claimant for such an act of public justice, \ya.' intend adducing a few of these convincing' items for the consideration of the Superin-' tendent, honourable members (if Council,! and our co-Provincialists generally—whether! spread out over the broad Goldfields of thej country, or massed within the busy highways' of the metropolitan towns. I Situated at the confluence of the two most important rivera in Otago—the Kawarau and Clutha, —Cromwell has advantages far beyond those within the grasp of Clyde. The banks of the Kawarau and its tributaries, ever since they became known ;is coffers of golden treasure,—a period dating back nearly nine years,—have bevn sensibly increasing in

populousness and prosperity. By the Kawarau trends the; rou|e|to the famed Lake country. From at the Wakatip, its terraces and its affluents form a continuous theatre of mining operations down to its debouchement into the Molyneux ; its working enlargement being always commensurate with, and only bounded by, its watersupply ; and, now that an efficient system of increased water-power for the diggings is likely to be at no distant date an accomplished fact, it will certainly have added to its numbers hundreds of remuneratively employed miners. The residents at Bannockburn, Kawarau Gorge, the Carrick Range, and the NeviaJ—localities noted for alluvial or quartz-mi iing industries, for their solid progression ij and extending occupation and all look to Cromwell as the natural centre of their position. No ephemeral success, adventitiously acquired, makes these places of consequence ; their worth is of long standing and of Provincial celebrity. As of the places named, so also of Cromwell and its immediate environments.

Let us journey from Cromwell up the Clutha, in the direction of the Hawea, and Wanaka Lakes. Wending along the river—the swift-flowing, world-renowned Molyneux —the unrivalled. Pactolus of our modern colonising epoch—the mightiest of New Zealand rivers—we meet with land under cultivation, and mining claims occupied, on both banks, till we approach Bendigo. A good road traverses this tract of country. Bendigo is a rich reefing locality ; the further development of its alluvial area is but restricted by the want of plentiful aqueous force—that paramount agent in Otagau gold-workings. The Lindis here joins the Clutha : it is fairly auriferous, and possesses within its capacious basin quantities of fine agricuhmral land. Its waters can be diverted for the sluicing requirements of the Bendigo district, as well as for its own banks and flats, and will eventually be made the abode of many persons following mining and agricultural pursuits. Following the Clutha from the Lindis junction to its source in the Wanaka, s'.milnr evidences of profitable capabilities present themselves ; and when these broad expanses of water—little inland s.'as —are re; c led, a wide-spreading belt of country, suited for the plough of- the husbandman, stretches out before us. Good timber for building and mining requirements can be obtained here, — the forest on the lake's margin producing an abundance of this necessary material. Cromwell and the far-outlying country'draw their supplies of timber from this quarter. Nor must the Cardrona, with its valuable deep leads, be forgotten in the enumeration of the places of which our town is the mining head-quarters and chief commercial depot. The Clutha, from two miles above Cromwell to within twelve miles of Hawea Lake—a length of twenty miles (it least—oilers no difficult obstacles to navigation. Its inin'mum velocity does not exceed four miles per hour. Raft? of timber have been floated on its not dangerous current from the date of Hartley and Reilly's discovery down to the preseruKime ; and Ave predict that the boisterous puff of the utilitarian steamboat will yet be heard by the settlers located on its arable flats and in its golden gullies. Boats drawing no more than four feet of water would, unless in extreme cases, be able to ply between the points indicated without danger of shoaling. All these places above described are subsidiary to and dependent on Cromwell. We shall now speak more distinguish ingly of Cromwell itself ; and some facts may by used to define and illustrate its importance. Below are a few which we commend to the careful notice of Mr Hiokev, and lion. gentlemen of the Committee for the almhistration of justice to the goldfields.

The revenue derived here from the Warden's Court—from July 1870 to June 187J, both months inclusive—swells up to the veiy respectable sum of £ : )20 7s lsd, thus eontritributed : —miners' lights, £555 ; business licenses, &c, £247 ; from other sources of mining revenue, £llß 7s 6d. Had land be3n procurable for commonage and agricultural purposes by the residents, this total would have been largely added to, and our payments for farming leaseholds quite as extensive as those of other goldfiolds, which in this respect materially assist the provincial finances. At present there are only two such holdings in the district. In this period of 12 months, 42 complaints were disposed of in the Warden's Court; 13 quartz prospecting claims, and 0 special sites for the erection of machinery granted ; 213 acres taken up in extended claims ; 32 applications for residence areas were dealt with ; for dams and reservoirs, 25 ; for tail-races or tunnels ; for agricultural leases, 2 ; for water-races, 05 ; for protection certificates, 73 ; besides other business we need not mention just now. The cases heard and adjudicated on in the Resident Magistrate's Court during 1870, are classified as 247 civil, and 48 criminal onesmaking an aggregate number of 295. The fees and fines for the same period amounted to £2Bl. 14s. Truly, facts are stubborn things. The people of Alexandra have been taken to task by the "Dunstan Times" for supporting the claims of Cromwell to the Supreme Court Sessions, and told in a pitiful manner, not to be forgetful of their own safety, which, it says, is bound up with that of Clyde. They have doubtless been actuated on our behalf by a sense of public duty, as well as by a special regard for their own benefit; for in the natural course of things, Clyde is doomed as the seat of officialdom : its decadence becoming daily more apparent, and its collapse more imminent fob- ioun even to the indifferent wayfarer.

> Cromwell's standing with regard to the subject under advocacy, is, we think, firmly established, as one of public right and public justice. The sum of £550 has already been voted for a Court House to bo built here. This sum, with a little more supplementary, would suffice to build a creditable Northern Gold-fields Supreme Court; and the pressing demands of the common weal make it imperative that Cromwell should be the place chosen for its site.