DUNSTAN.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 258, 8 September 1874, Page 6

DUNSTAN.

; (FROM OUR OWN CORESPONDENT.) September S, 1874. The Pneumatic Dredge has b,'een got afloat again, yery little the worse of the accident, except that her cylinder and part of the machinery had to be taken off her before she could be risen. It a question for the Directors of the Company to determine whether the machinery will be again fitted up. During the period that work has been going on, no prospects have been met that would be in any way remunerative, and though there may be some who, if the dredge were in working order, might be yet sanguine of meeting with success, yet the majority cam hardly be expected to be of that mind, and it will be no surprise if this catastrophe precedes the winding-up of the Company. It is no longer a mystery how the Legislative Council rejected our Waterworks Bill. A Wellington correspondent of the Dunstan Times has solved the problem by telegraph. The Water Pollution Bill and the Clyde Waterworks Bill were, he says, thrown out on account of their being in the hands of our honourable member, Mr Shepherd. Was this piece of intelligence sent by way of consoling us after the loss of the Bills, or as a warning not to trust important measures in future to our member, or is it an outflow of personal pique from an antagonist, to poison the minds of his constituents against him. This latter conjecture must be pretty near the mark. Surely this correspondent must think we pay little attention to the doings of our member, and hold him at a low estimation, and that a bad report must needs be readily appreciated. He must think we are ignorant of the fact of our member boldly taking up the matter of water pollution by the miners, after the famous Goldfields Committee threw out the first Bill, which provided for the difficulty, on the grounds that the Bill had not been circulated, and that legislation was not required. The members of that Committee were indeed a credit to their constituents, and no wonder Mr Shepherd denounced them. For what else but to have fresh legislation did the Provincial Government convene the Mining Conference of 71, and what induced the miners of Otago to meet by conference at their own expense in 72 and 74, but to get their laws amended. Yet this model Committee said no such thing was required. Such Committees do not represent the miners. They do not care how many actions or thousands of pounds of damages, brought on through bungling legislation, may be facing the miners like°drawn swords, each assailant seeming to wait for the other, as if gathering their force at one sweep to stamp out the mining industry. The author of the intelligence surely does not : contemplate that we have seen Mr Shepherd's speech on the second reading of the Pollution Bill, or his reply to Mr Vogel thereon, or that we are aware that he earned both this and the Waterworks Bill through the House of Representatives, else he would never insult us by asking us to believe that the Legislative Council would throw out measures that had passed the Lower House simply because the honourable member for the Dunstan had introduced them. Ido not mean to hold up Mr Shepherd as a paragon ; his faults may be many, and they are well told. Whatever they are, the thanks of the miners of Otago are due to him for representing their interests in the Assembly, and they and his constituents will, I am sure, denounce with contempt the vindictive spirit which could circulate such an unfounded report.