NEVIS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 187, 10 June 1873, Page 6

NEVIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) June 2, 1G73. 'T/ie WerdJter. —The long spell of dry wen "•titer we have enjoyed was brought to an i abrupt termination on Monday last; and a-| ■somewhat unsatisfactory termination it has • proved to be for some of us. Early in the forenoon of that day rain began to fall, and J continued steadily on till 9 o'clock p.m. Of | course the river rose, and what had been a | comparatively insignificant stream for month,?, j became in a few short hours a raging torrent, ' impassable for man or horse ; bringing devas- ; tationtand ruin to the miners whose claims! are -situated in its course, carrying away! dams, smothering tail-races, and sweeping' away'the handiworks of man as ruthlessly as the stormy wind drives the chaff before it. What terrible powers the elements are, and how feeble are the puny efforts of man to cope with them ! There's nothing very profound or original in the remark, but the truth con- j tained in it is great ; and this truth is not oftener or more painfully experienced by any j other than the miner, especially him whose ! claim is situated in a river's bed. For there is no sort of mining as hazardous as this : a I few hours' rain may ruin the labour of months, and this labour may and often is done under a disheartening load of debt, and all the consequent privations which honest poverty endures. Then how hard must it bu when the j miner—after all his labour and privations, ! and when he thinks he is on the eve of at-1 taining success; just when his dreams of prosperity and independence are most vivid • —when he finds Ins airy castles and the more substantial work of his hands demolished at one fell swoop by the rolling, turbid waters. Brave must be the hearts that can endure all this, and the reward ought to be great indeed that induces them to try again time after time. Our Superintendent need not go far to find to whom the prosperity of the Province is due so long as there are four or five thousand miners in it win; can do these things. I find that I have got away from the ; flood of Monday last; but I will bring it back ! only to dismiss it by saying that the damage j done was considerable, every claim within its reach suffering more or less. Those of us who think it worth while, when the waters subside, will "turn to" with what heart we may, and repair the damage done ; whilst those of us who do not think it worth while will leave for fresh fields and pastures new, —

in short, will go and look for other claims. In the meantime, the world will go round, and there will be no sensible disttirbance in the affairs of'mankind in general because of Monday's Hood in the Nevis river; be assured of these things, my friends, and " go in and win."

Now that the tocsin of war is sounded, and the war-whoop of Macandrew, answered by the yell of the slogan of B,eid, threatens to resound through the length and breadth of the Province, we here are anxious to take part in the fray ; but to do so effectively the the most of us believe that it is necessary we should have our names emblazoned on that glorious roll yclept the "Electoral." Many of us have a distinct recollection of having, about two years ago, made the (as far as known to us) necessary application to have our names put on that roll of the free, independent, and respectable. The papers were despatched to the Registrar at Clyde : he refused to have anything to do with us. After painful enquiry, we fouud a trace of them at Queenstown : the officer there denied that he knew us. From where to whence they'went Heaven only knows; but there is a grave and well-founded suspicion that they have found their way to the Inferno of the waste paper basket somewhere, and that we remain among the unfranchised so far as the having a vote in the election of the Superintendent is concorned. When we consider how little all the sham kings called Superintendents have done for this place since' it became a gold-field, it may be thought that it is scarcely worth our while to trouble ourselves as to who is to be the next. And there is much of truth in this. But still, the exercise of the franchise in its fullest sense is an object worthy the attainment of every civilised man ; it is the result of hundreds of years of contention, the fruit of hundreds of years of progress ; and great will be the folly of the residents of this district if they allow themselves to be denied the exercise of one iota of this, the most glorious privilege that a civilised people can possess. It may be that our suspicions are false, and that our names are on some electoral roll or another; but all enquiry hitherto has failed to find that such is the case. Should our surmise turn out to be correct, we can only add this neglect on the part of Government, in not including this place in an electoral district, as another item to the already long list of injuries and injustices suffered at its hands by the residents. I may state that there are many here who are fully qualified in every respect, and anxious to have their names inserted on the electoral l roil when the opportunity again occurs ; and it is to be hoped that the mystery as to our whereabouts as electors- will be speedily cleared up, so that they may have an opportunity of doing so. It is a pity that Messrs Macandrew aaod Beid could find no other means of settling their little private differences than by arraying the electors of the Province against each other, and plunging the community into the tunjioil of a general election. Things have come to a pretty pass when the affairs of 60,000 people are liable to disarrangement because two of their servants like to fall out; j for let these gentlemen ascribe what motives they please for their conduct, there can be no other conclusion arrived at than that private antipathies were the motive powers, and were at the bottom or the beginning of the contest. And with these antipathies the public has nothing to do, and least of all has it a right to suffer from or pay for them. Perhaps both these gentlemen have done the state some service, but it is ridiculous to suppose that they a?'e in any degree essential to its wellbeing ; but on the contrary, seeing how tilings have come about, it is very questionable if their present action does not out-1 weigh all the good services that both of them ! ever rendered to the Province, and if it would I not have been better that they had both re-! mained in a position wherein they could have i gratified their spites without inconveniencing the public. The plausible pretexts used by them (that of Progress by Mr Macandrew and that of Constitutionalism by Mr Reid)! seem to have served their purpose so far, as it is difficult to see how matters could have been accommodated without a dissolution, or the resignation of one of the combatants. If, for the sake of argument, it is admitted that Progress and Constitutionalism are the real motives which actuate Messrs Macandrew and Reid, it must be patent to anyone who has taken the slightest interest in the proceedings of the Provincial Council during the last two sessions, that Mr Reid lias much the best standing ground in the present dispute ; that is, if the principles of representative government and the government by majorities are to bo abided by. This is the second time consecutively that at the very opening of a session an executive appointed by Mr Macandrew, during the recess, has been un-

ceremoniously turned out of office by large majorities of the Council. From these circumstances, Mr Macandrew might have in-! ferret! that his ideas of progress were not those of the majority of the people ; and what lie ought to have done was to have accepted the policy of the majority, or, if he found that to he derogatory to his position, the most, patriotic thing lie could have done was to red'/n. But in the place of taking either of these courses, he has preferred to put the community to the expense of a general election, and to let loose a herd of conn cillors whose ambition it seems to be to earn nineteen shillings and eleven pence three farthings per day, by gulling a simple public. In reviewing the conduct of Mr Macandrew during this crisis, it is hard to come to any conclusion other than that he is so inflated with the idea of his own importance as to think that he may presume to the position of Dictator; and there is no saying but what

ho may attain to it, as the people who can tolerate the sham institution (Provincialism) cf which lie is the head can submitto anything. I see from the newspapers that the proposed new Mining Bill is printed and published, but I am sorry to say that no copy of it has found its way to this place as yet. However, we will try and get one, so that we may see what that trio of able (?) lawmakers, of which Mr Shepherd had the honour to make one, have done for us. And the sooner we get it the better, as from the inkling which Mr Shepherd gave us of its contents there is ample cause for alarm. In this instance, thanks are due to the Government in giving us timely notice of its intentions.