"BENDIGONIANA."

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 179, 15 April 1873, Page 5

"BENDIGONIANA."

The entire absence of any items of news of any importance to chronicle in this cheerful purgatory of a place, compels me to follow the example set by many of your correspondents, of late, who have taken to moralising or speculating on what might be, I or ought to be done, to accelerate the sluggish pace of our material prosperity. This apparent general dearth of news will, assuredly, bring to an untimely end the careers of that useful class yclept "your own." While cudgelling my brains for matter wherewith to till a page, I am reminded of an anec- • dote of a man who ordered his son to take a ' jug and bring him a quart of beer. '' Where's ilie money, father 1" said the lad. "Pooh! money ? Why, any fool can get beer with money; but to get it without, that's the trick," replied his impecunious dad. The ! boy set off and shortly returned, and, hand- j ing his father the jug, said—" Here you are, ! • drink, father."—"Why, you rascal, there's j l no beer in the jug."--"Ah !" said his pre-11 cocious son, " any fool can drink boer when | J it is in tlie pot ; but to drink when there is i' none, that's the trick." And so with us poor i' scribblers of the present: to supply the public ! with news when none comes to hand, " that's ( the trick ;" and one which I confess is very ' difficult of acquirement. So much for a com- ' mencement. Now, turning to my notes, I find a memo., " Fuel in the future." Has it ever struck anyone, that in a very ] few years most of our gold-producing districts < will be totally destitute of fuel ; that the < consumption is continually going on, and ] that nothing is being clone in the way of i planting trees, &c, to meet future requirements I This world is a selfish one, I know, i and Utopian ideas are not generally relished ; i but let me soberly ask, —What are our su> i cessors to do in the absence of all combus- J tible material ? " Slinging the billy" will be \ obsolete to the future gold-mlnu* of Otago ; ; and unless some method of " bottling sunshine" is initiated, the miner, ct hjc genus 1 om.ie, will also become oosolete. Hundreds 1 of square miles of auriferous ground which, 1 under more favourable circumstances aj re- j ( gards labour, &c, would afford employment '. to thousands in the next generation, willsim- 1 ply become and remain a howling wilderness \ from the above cause. Cannot the Govern- j 5 ment initiate some plan to meet the case ? ; The squatter pays but a trifle comparatively j \ for the wealth he draws from Crown lauds. ! i If one of the conditions of his lease was, that j ] he should plant so many acres of forest dur- j I ing his tenure, a step would be taken in the ; i right direction ; and doubtless the climatic j i and other benefits to be derived from a plen-1 teous vegetation would become so apparent, j 1 that the example would be followed far and Is wide throughout the Province, by all who j ( have any desire to make it a permanent home J i for themselves and families. j ( So we have at last a properly constituted ( Mining Association for the Cromwell district, i Well, I hope it will be productive of benefit; '. but I am afraid the mining interest has suf- s fered so long from chronic neglect, that it ; must now almost be in ariiculo mortis, and i t beyond the reach of curative measures. How- t ever, it is worth the tri il : miracles have oc- i curred, and may do so again. As yourself ; and other journalists have frequently reite- l rated in our ears, Union is required if we j 1 would hope to better our condition, induce ai 1 respect for our calling, and compel our legis-! ] lators to give the industry the same conside- i > ration as the other wealth-producing interests ! 1 of the Province. The fledgeling of the l " Bannockbites" appears to be aole to run c alone, and to disregard the injunction. But < it will never do. Like the Highlanders atii Waterloo, we must march shoulder to shoul- ! \ der to achieve success in the work for which s Mining Associations were instituted. The re- j ( marks about whisky-vendors, &c. , in a Liter ( which appeared in your last issue would have l been better left unuttered, as not at all cal- < dilated to add to the dignitv of an officer of c a deliberative body, such as I assume a Min- j ( ing Association to be. Gold-fields towns are 1 necessary to miners just as miners are ntccs- i sary to gold-fields t >wns : therefore I see no- ; thing incompat : ble in thf conjunction of bnsi- ; ness people with miners, and th'nk it verv s bad taste to impute unworthy motives to the 1 former, whose interest in the miners' welfare 1 is nearly as great as that of the miner him-' s self. Hovvevir. c rpcrientiad>c»t ; and 1 have i hopes of seeing our Mining Associations con- ] ducting their meetings and deliberations with j i as much gravity and dignity as our Provincial |1 Parliament, whose respectability is kept up II at the rate of 20s. per diem individually. 11

I suppose it is fnllv to speak about tl o weather. Everybody knows that it is and has been the driest season experienced by tl e mine rs in Otago B-it d »os a ipbody know when rain will come ? I should like to know, you know; as I have lately met several melancholy sluieers who hive apparently become slightly cracked, owing, I suppose, to the continued drought, and should like to relieve their minds of a nionomaniacal idea which seems to possess them, that it is never going t > rain again. This is a desperate state of affairs, and the Clerk of the Weather, whoever that mystic personage may be, will have much to answer for in so persistency withholding the aqueous supply. Snow fell to a small extent in the more elevated regions last Thursday, but the thirsty earth lapped up the scanty dole, and the lower localities reaped no benefit whatever. Gold, in this district at least, is unattainable without the agent water. We have none, and Winter is close at hand to set its frosty seal on the miners' labour : so I fear unless a general amnesty is proclaimed between the miners and their purveyors, the winter of 1873 will be one of nnexamphd bankruptcy. I may be thought a croaker in venting the above opinion ; "but let the Government look to it; they hold the r< medy in their hands in the shape of £300,000 for water supply, and upon them be it. Bcmdigo, Aprils, 1873. VIATOR.