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Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 206, 21 October 1873, Page 5

We have been iriformed that Mr Cowan intends to make an impounding raid within a day or two. : ’ ■ • We have to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of the Votes and Proceedings of the Provincial Council during last session* Two well-known residents at Lake Wanaka, Messrs Macdonald and Tuohy, are now in the direction of the head waters of the Haast river. They are about to take up some country in that direction for pastoral purposes. The Cromwell Town Council met twice since our last issue, but the business was purely of a routine character. The first was to make arrangements for the nomination of the Mayor, and the other, which took place yesterday evening, to do the same for the vacancy in the ranks of the Councillors caused by Mr Dawkins’ election. Saturday first is the day appointed. We believe it is the Hawea Block, No. 1., which is referred to by Captain Fraser in his speech in the Legislative Council, —reprinted on our seventh page,—as the 2500 acres adjoining his own run. If so, it must also be Mr M'Lean, of Morven Hills station, who is described as having walked into the Land Office, and bought up all the land with the exception of 200 or 300 acres. Certainly, Mr M'Lean is at present the owner of nearly the whole block. In reference to the late dispute between certain miners at Cardrona and Mr Cottar, we are informed that two-thirds of the sum finally agreed upon to settle the matter, —namely, £3OO, —is to be paid by the Government. At the same time, we believe the Government does not intend this conclusion to form a precedent for future cases of a similar nature. In consideration of the £IOO paid by the miners interested they are to be allowed certain privileges in taking up special claims. We understand it is the intention of Mr Campbell, of Wanaka. to put another punt across the Clutha about 300 yards above its confluence with the Hawea river. It is not to be put on in opposition to the one owned by Mr M‘Pherson, and situated below the mouth of the Hawea, but simply to avoid the crossing of that river when occasion arises to travel in the direction of the head of the Lake. There is a very heavy current at the ford of the river mentioned, and it is often impossible to cross at all. The sum of one hundred and fifty pounds was voted during last,session of the Provincial Council for the improvement of the track between Albertown and the Makarora. There could not be a fitter time for the expenditure of that sum than the present; In a very short time it will be impossible to get the necessary labour for the performance of the work, as all the stations in the neighbourhood will be busy at the shearing season. The track at present in many places is in a very dangerous Condition ; especially is such the case on the sidling going up to and from the low saddle between Lakes Hawea

A new line of coaches is shortly to be started between Tuapeha and Dunedin. Mr Henry Schutz, an old- miner and long resident in this district, left last week for Port Darwin. Mr Henry Norman, the well-known proprietor of the Albortown Hotel, is now on his return voyage from England. He is expected to arrive in Otago in about a month. The City Council of Dunedin propose building a hall that would accommodate the City and Supreme Courts, at a cost of £31,000, They offer £l5O premium for a prize design, We understand that Mr J. Solomon, draper, has made up his mind to settle permanently in Cromwell. He has leased the premises lately occupied by the Bank of New Zealand. The immigrants by the Otago, which arrived in Dunedin the other day, have been eagerly snapped up. Mr Colin Allan, the Immigration Agent, says he could have found employment for ten times as many females. A Brisbane (Queensland) telegram of October 9 says:—The Government expedition to Endeavour river discovered a rich and extensive diggings. The news caused a rush. The Government chartered the steamer James Paterson to convey the official staff with stores and horses. Walter Taylor, the jockey (aged 28), died in the Christchurch Hospital the other day from inflammation of the lungs, caught whilst riding at the Geraldine races (near Timaru) on Sept. 21, Taylor had been training Sir Tatton, with whom he won a hurdle race at the meeting referred to. At the last meeting of the Waste Lands Board in Dunedin, the following was part of the business transacted Letter from Mr John Hurley requesting a reduction in the price of the section upon which his cottage stands. Refused. —Application of Messrs F. Hull and Co. for a lease of 50 acres, for the purpose of mining for antimony, on block 2, Bannockburn district. Mr G. P. Reid appeared for the applicants. License to be granted under clause 161 of the Waste Lands Act, 1872, at £1 per year.” The impounding season has again commenced. On Monday evening, 13th inst., a mob of cattle (about fifty in number) were driven to the Clyde pound by Mr Loughnan’s orders. They were mostly cattle running about the Gentle Annie, and were the property of Messrs M'Nulty and Henderson. On Saturday morning, IBth inst, about twenty-five horses were also driven to the pound. They have mostly now been released by their several owners. How long, we wonder, is this state of things to be endured? It depends entirely upon the people themselves. The monthly meeting of the Athenaeum Committee took place on Tuesday evening, 14th inst. There were present: Messrs Preahaw, Baird, Taylor, Marsh, Jolly, Colclough, and Wright. Amongst the other business transacted, it was resolved on the proposition of Mr Jolly, seconded by Mr Marsh, that steps be taken by the committee to get the sub-dividing boundary lines of the land on the Lower Flat at once laid off by a surveyor, and that on the same being completed, a yearly rental be levied from occupiers of the various portions of the Flat. The President, Vice-president, and Messrs Marsh and Taylor, were appointed a sub-committee to carry out the necessary arrangements, and to report within a fortnight. Mr Taylor gave notice that he would move, “ That this committee purchase sections 33 and 34, of Block IT., for an Athenaeum site.” The meeting then adjourned for a fortnight. “ A Traveller” writes from Arrowtown, under date October 18, as follows :--“The sale of the Shotover Ferry Hotel, Queenstown road, was held on Thursday, by Mr D. Powell, auctioneer. The premises realised £5lO, and the furniture, &c., sold at satisfactory prices. The purchaser was Mr Thomas Gibson, of the Twelvemile, Arrow district. The prices obtained show that property of this description has increased in value during the past few months, although the past winter was characterised by much depression, owing to the flooding of the Arrow and Shotover rivers in the early part of the season. The progress of the railway to Kingston, the great strides made by the town of Queenstown, the initiation of a system of mining on the rivers by large companies, and the bridges proposed and in progress over the Kawarau are some of the causes at work. At the Arrow, Messrs Hallenstein and Co. recently disposed of their business premises at a price which showed ample confidence in the future of the place on the part of the purchasers (Messrs M‘Dougall and Smith). It is most likely that were a really first-class hotel, affording extensive accommodation, ample stabling, &c., erected there, it would be a good investment, nothing of the kind on a really liberal scale having yet been attempted.” Between ten and twenty of the citizens assembled in the Town Hall on Friday, on which day it had been arranged that the nominations for the office of Mayor of the town, rendered vacant by the resignation of Mr Fraer, were to be handed in. Twelve o’clock, the hour fixed, having arrived, Mr O. Colclough, acting as Returning Officer, read the only nomination he had received, that, namely, of Mr James Dawkins, who was proposed by Mr James Taylor, and seconded by Mr G. M. Starkey. Mr Colclough therefore declared him duly elected Mayor of Cromwell for the remainder of the municipal year. Mr Dawkins briefly addressed th‘>se assembled, He was thankful *to them for the honour just conferred upon him, and hoped to fulfil the duties satisfactorily. He had almost earned the position, having been a Councillor for four years, and it was evident that he had pleased the ratepayeis, A cheer was given for Mr Dawkins, and the proceedings terminated.— The same day and the same hour had been fixed for receiving nominations for the vacant Auditorship, but none were sent in. The members of the Town Council are rather forgetful of their duty in this latter matter, or some of them would surely have arranged that some qualified person was nominated. Seeing that the nomination for the same vacancy fell through once before, they should now jiofainato some one either with or

■* The death of Sir Edwin Landseer, the celebrated painter, is announced. Extensive forgeries of bank notes have been discovered in Parramatta Gaol, Sydney. It is thought that in 1900 the population of the United States will be close upon 100,000,000. On October 6, a newly-constructed balloon left America for an aerial voyage across the Atlantic to Europe. “ Return of the Ruahians” is one of the headings given by the Greymouth paper to some news regarding the Haast rush. A Baptist clergyman at Emerald Hill, Melbourne, recently sold church lands for £2OOO, and put the money into his own pocket. Influenza is so prevalent in Invercargill that an amateur performance that was to have taken place there last Friday had to be adjourned for a week, as nearly all the performers were suffering from that complaint. A cable message dated London, 7th October, just received in Melbourne, states that the Eastern Telegraphic Extension Company is discussing the question of telegraphic communication between Australia and New Zealand. The project is so far favourably received. Promises are made in a message by cable that terms for laying a line between Sydney and the West Coast of the North Island of New Zealand shall be submitted to Colonies interested. A Wellington telegram dated October 5, says“An Order in Council has been passed to-day, authorising the granting of free passages to nominated immigrants. A circular letter is about to be sent to the Superintendents, to take charge of the immigration depots and quarantine establishments in their respective Provinces. The Agent-General is to be instructed to grant free passages to all suitable immigrants. He will nave a discretionary power to make advances to enable immigrants to reach the port of embarkation, but must exercise the greatest stringency in their selection. He is to endeavour to send out 30,000 immigrants in the next six months, and to charter two fine steamers, to start in December—the oue for Port Chalmers, and the other for Lyttelton, so as to bring immigrants out in time for next harvest. ” From Mr Warden Tizard’s report on the Haast rush, we take the following paragraph, descriptive of the prospectors’ claim and the surrounding country The next morning we crossed the ra'nge to the prospectors’ claim. It is in a very small creek in a blind gully, and I was certainly disappointed at the small extent of ground left after pegging off their claim, there being only room for about three other claims besides their own. I have no doubt they have a payable claim ; the prospects taken varied from a colour to Idwt, llgrs. to the dish—coarse gold. The claim was only just opened, the prospectors having worked in it for about three days before they left for Okarit.o, having no provisions left. There is about a foot of gravel wash on a soft blue clay bottom. I enclose a copy of the grant of the claim. The range, on which is situated the claim, runs north and south, and round the base of it winds a creek of only moderate size, and on each side of the range are small creeks, running out of blind gullies into the main creek. The prospectors state that gold is to be had in nearly all of them. Their claim is on the eastern side of the range, whilst the creek near the camp, from which they obtained most of the gold they took to Okarito, is pn the western side ; but whether the gold runs through the range it is impossible to say, for although the fact of finding gold in creeks on each side would tend to that opinion, still the appearance of the ground close to the creeks does not support the idea of there being an extensive alluvial diggings. In the main creek there is every appearance of gold, but no one could get a prospect. I accompanied four men up, but we discovered nothing, and it is very difficult to travel.”