Cromwell Argus, AND NORTHERN GOLD-FIELDS GAZETTE. Cromwell: Tuesday, September 8, 1874.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 258, 8 September 1874, Page 4

Cromwell Argus, AND NORTHERN GOLD-FIELDS GAZETTE. Cromwell: Tuesday, September 8, 1874.

The utterances of the Hon. Mr Campbell in the Legislative Council would be most amusing and instructive things to notice, were it not that the results which sometimes follow these utterances, are so mischievous. The man speaks, not with the utmost fluency we must admit, but with the most untiring pertinacity and in the most oracular fashion on things and matters to which he has given a very small share of attention, and of which he can have acquired only the minimum amount of knowledge. But of course, the very fact of his occupying a seat in the Ccuncil lends a weight to his sayings which they otherwise would not possess. Take for example, though it has only a local signification, his remarks during the progress through the Council of the Cromwell Waterworks Bill, which we have reproduced in another column. The hon. gentleman could not allow it to pass without his valuable explanation of the circumstances of the case. The hon. gentleman is a traveller, and some seven or eight years ago had the pleasure of seeing Cromwell, in company with Sir George Grey, and was therefore entitled to speak with authority on the subject. The town now consists of " only a few huts," and of course at that remote period—(the hon. gentleman must have been very young)- the number must have been considerably smaller. "From his knowledge of the place," the hon. gentleman went on, "he could say that it was built on barren shingle at a corner formed by two rivers,

and at any day mig'ht- be absolutely de- , sorted." " £&tid off" ad nauseam. The ; same kind of arguments we may reasonably suppose, in absence of definite information, were adduced against the Clyde Waterworks Bill, in which, case they unfortunately were successful.. A■Very briefly let us put forward a few facts, and see whether the Hon. Mr'CAMp- " f bell is justified in using language like that above quoted regarding.-.-, Cromwell. Our object* is-not 'by any means to hold forth publicly the' 'size : Or extent of tha;t township, but simply to show the absurd position taken tip in this one case by the- hon. gentleman, and the downright ignorance he displayed of .the- matter in, hand. The area of the township is roughly about three-quarters of a square mile. About half of this has been sold in sections of various sizes, realising to the Government between £4OOO and £SOOO we should suppose, or about half the sum paid by the Hon. Robert Campbell for the famous Maerewhenua Block. The buildings erected on these-sections will probably be wortb, reckoning the bare cost of them only, about £25,000 more. ' Did it not strike the hon. gentleman of whom we have been speaking, that possibly without a thought of the health of the people inhabiting the place, the Council might have been justified in passing the Bill, merely to protect the town from commercial motives t Supposing we reckon the value of the stock and furniturein the town at about double the value of the buildings, it will be easily seen that from £60,000 to£Bo,ooo worth of property is at stake, in this insignificant little place called Cromwell. The reduction in the rates of insurance, which would be made if a water supply were obtained for the town, would more than doubly pay the interest of this £SOOO loan. The Hon. Mr Campbell said the town was—a few huts. Well, of course we can't boast of any palaces in Cromwell : the luxury of living in palaces is reserved for landowners and Crown tenants, like Mr Campbell. Our huts are quite sufficient for our wants, however, and are sufficiently expensive for our means. Even Mr Campbell would think £2OOO quite sufficient to pay for a hut to keep about £IO,OOO of stores safe and sound in, and §*s daresay that value of stock could bev'fojtnd infa r few of the huts of which Mr CAMPBfEta speaks so glibly. The hut in \yhich ) ''#'efintend, to read our newspapers will tS>Rt' f aHout'£l6oo ; the huts where we hold .TJiyirie Worship will have cost in a short time a similar sum ; our Educational huts have cost us already about £IOOO ; our camp buildings, (to one of which we. should have great pleasure in introducing certain legislators we could name,) have cost about £I3OO. Is it necessary to go any further to convince even such a man as the Hon! Vfr Campbell that his assertion that the town was one which any day might be absolutely deserted, was simply a piece of impertinence ? Uttered by Mr Campbell, as Mr Campbell, it would not have deserved, and would not have received, the slightest attention ; but when uttered by him as a legislator, it could not be passed over in silence. As a contrast to the remarks of Mr Campbell, we would direct the attention of our readers to those of the honorable and gallant Captain Fraser and the Hon. Mr Menzies. We recognise in their remarks the utterances of true colonists. They have seen, as well as Mr Campbell, the present insignificance of the town,- but with maturer judgment they also recognise the possible future importance of the place. Tt is not. the first time that the people of Cromwell have been indebted to the honorable and gallant Captain, especially, for his advocacy of their interests. The people of the whole province, not Cromwell alone, are indebted to the Hon. Mr Campbell, and legislators such as he, in quite another manner, and we fully believe the debt will yet be remembered.

The Town'Counoil held a lengthy ipeeting on Friday evening last, 12 o'clock being the hour at wbjph.thoy nad to adjourn 1 a host of business until this evening. A report will be found on our third page. , The Rev. Mr Drake performed a ceremony daring service on 'Sunday evening which has, been performed but once before in Otago, we believe; namely, at Tuapeka, by the Rev. Dr Copland; 'The cremony referred to is the baptism of a Chinaman into the Christian faith, and was performed in an impressive manner by Mr Drake'ou Ma'Hoey. This man has been for the last four years-learning the English language With the rev. gentleman, and is a very intelligent member of the, race. What is the meaning of. the following paragraph? We- take it from the Grey River Argus:— "The Good Templars have struck a patch at last according to the Dunstan. Times, which announces in its issue of August 7 that a Good Templar Lodge. was opened at Cromwell, and among the officers installed the name of Brother E. A. Drnry is given as being invested on the occasion with all the dignity of W. F.S." Diggers are to be specially provided for in the matter of plum-puddings, it appears. The Daily Times says :—" We scarcely know whether to consider the manufacture of plumpuddings on a large scale a ' new industry' or not. An enterprising firm at Oamaru, who have large and well-conducted meat preserving works at that town, have turned attention to the supply of plum-puddings for the gold-fields. It appears that a very great deal of fine suet is obtained at these works, and it is thought that it can be better turned to acount in the manufacture of puddings, to be tinned and cooked, only requiring ten minutes' boiling over the camp fire to give off the actual being and full aroma of the Christmas plum-pudding. The experiment made turned out a complete success. Whether it will be followed up on a large scale we cannot tell." ; ' In our issue of the l-Bth ultimo, we inserted a paragraph from the Wnkatip Mail, respecting Mr Pyke and the amount of honorarium to which he would be entitled as a member of the House. The. Mail, we understand, was wrong in its statement. Absence by leave is not equivalent to. attendance, and all that Mr Pyke or any other member will receive, will be a daily allowance for aetual attendance proportionate to the actual length of the session. A meeting of the Hospital Committee, for the purpose of dealing with the tenders sent in for the construction of the Hospital building, ■was held on Wednesday evening last. Present: Messrs Goodger (chairman), Arndt, Starkev, Gudgeon, Jolly, Marsh, Johnson, and Scott. Tenderers had been required to put in tenders for two descriptions of buildings, or rather for one building, but according to plans of two descriptions ; one having greater irajmcMements and conveniences than the other. The following tenders were opened:—William Grant;'.£ll2B and. £945; James Taylor. £1135 andC£9BS£ Heron and iMiihmy, £1221 and..£llll ;;Joins M'Donald, £1275 and £1125. Mr .Maifehtpror posed, and Mr.Scott seconded, that the,,; tender of Mr James Taylor, for £1135, be accepted". An amendment by Mr Gudgeon, seconded by Mr,Arndt, in favour of Mr Grant's tender'being accepted, met with no support, and the motion was carried almost unanimously. The architect was therefore instructed to accept Mr Taylor's tender, and the meeting then closed. The law in reference to impounding has recently been laid down by Mr Warden Beetham. "We quote from the Arrow Observer:—" On Monday last an action for damages was decided by Mr Warden Beetham, and the law was very plainly pointed out in the judgment, which expressly lays down that every cattle owner is responsible for any damage done by his stock to a neighbour. The proper mode of obtaining redress appears to be by sueing for damages, not impounding, as this cannot legally be done, with the object of recovering damages, unless the land trespassed upon is fenced in accordance with the Fencing Ordinance. The schedules to this Ordinance, defining what is a sufficient fence, should be abrogated, and the Ordinances made to more generally suit the requirements of the country. At present they are a dead letter in this district." The Moonlight correspondent of the Wahqtip Mail says :—" As an incident showing the value of some of the ground in this locality, a party of Chinese (nine in number) gave £IBO for a claim in Jones' Creek, some eighteen months ago, and they have just left the district, en route for the Celestial Empire, with a sum of £IBOO amongst them. This speaks well for the perseverance and energy of the Celestials—the previobs owner not being able to make it pay. At the same time, it strikingly shows that they do not form an eligible acquisition to the Colony, as most of them take their departure as soon as they acquire two or three hundred pounds." Captain Fraser, in the Legislative Council, made the following observations in reference to the Volunteers the other day :—"With regard to the Volunteers, it had been said that they served their country without recompense. That was a mistake. No hon. gentleman in that House, who was master of the Darwinian theory, could be ignorant of the fact that all male birds delighted to flaunt their brilliant plumage before the eyes of their females. Surely when a volunteer buckled on his sword and helmet, and strutted before his sweetheart or his wife, in the full blaze of his uniform, the expressions of admiration of his martial bearing were sufficient recompense for half-an-hour's drill on a fine moonlight night. He said of the Volunteers, and particularly of the Volunteers of Wellington and the Middle Island, that the movement was a contemptible sham. They were of no more use to the country than the toy volunteers in a child's play-box. He had heard that the Inspector's report was a very just one, but a very damnatory one to the Volunteers. He travelled lately with one of the best Volunteer officers in New Zealand —the oldest in drill and the oldest adjutant—who told him that the best advice he could give to the Government would be to at once disband the Volunteers, and organise a smaller and more efficient force, £25,000 a year was being spent' on a huge shim."

The Arrow correspondent of the Even-, ing Star, speaking of mining matters at Cardrona, says :-" Ton miles below the township is the special claim, of one mile in length of the flat, of Me3Brs Mackiu and Bond, who have not been able to mise the capital required to test it. They endeavoured float-a company of £SOOO capital, but as only 800 shares were applied for, they returned the deposits, and intend to try to raise the capital by means of a company on a novel principle, which I am not prepared to disclose just now. There is every probability that the lead of gold will continue down the flat, through this grant, and on to the junction of the Cardrona Creek with the Clutba, sixteen miles below the township. There is considerable fall all the way, and it would be a feasible project to sluice the flat right up from the Clutha. The tributary gullies all the way have proved auriferous, which is* good evidence in favour of the continuation of the lead down the flat, and I firmly believe that this field will be the beat piece of alluvial country in the Province, and consequently command more attention than has over yet been bestowed upon it."

Major Atkinson has joined the Ministry in place of Mr O'Rorke. The statement that Mr Stafford had been asked by Mr Vogel to take his position in the Ministry is contradicted. We hear that Mr Stratford will return to his duties in this < district within the next fortnight. His presence will be warmly welcomed by the residents.— Arrow Observer. "Augur" writing in the Australasian says:—"l saw bo.h the New Zealand horses, Lurline and Papapa, in their boxes on Thursday, but owing to the crowd surrounding the door it was impossible to get a good look at them. Lurline is a dark bay mare, with a white blaze down her face. She stands about 15.3,1 should think, has a nice intelligent head ; though, owing to the prominence of her powerful and wellplaced shoulders, she appeared to be a trifle short in the neck as she stood in her box. She has a good middle-piece, deep through the heart, and shows wonderful power across the hips, drooping remarkably from the croup to the tail. Taken sideways, she looks a little deficient in her gaskins, but she is a grand mare to follow, and looks all over a weight-carrier. If she stands a thorough preparation it will take a first-class animal to dispose of her. From what I could see of Papapa he struck me as a very evenlybalanced colt, with plenty of power behind, and one likely to do credit to the Colony from which he comes. In the betting market Goldsborou :h is in the proud position of first favourite for the Cup, and 100 to 12 would be eagerly accepted, but the bookmakers have stopped laying against him for the present." Tea a la russe is becoming quite fashionable in London. For this novelty society is indebted to the Duchess of Edinburgh. It consists in the substitution of slices of lemon for cream, and no tea-tray is now sent into a fashionable drawing-room without a small glass dish containing slices of lemon cut with the rind on. Care must be taken to mix the beverage with a due observance of the northern custom, which is thus described:—The sugar "dropped into the cup must be of the smallest size, lest the flavour of the lemon should be destroyed. A slice of lemon is then to be plaped on the sugar, and the tea poured in.