CROMWELL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 308, 20 March 1868, Page 2

CROMWELL.

(from our own correspondent.) March 17. It matters not to the dead where their remains may find rest, whether enwrapped in a shroud within a woodden bed or in the hidden depth of the sea; but, in anticipation of death, it does concern the minds of all men, except those whose feelings have become hardensd to a degree highly

discreditable as. responsible beings. To manifest disrespect towards the dead is to manifest indisputable proneness to harbor thoughts bordering on reckless infidelity, and is a proof that possessor has but few characteristics calculated to make him a desirable member of society. It is much to be regretted that Our reckless mode of living ™n the goldfields has almost annihilated the finer feelings which most of us once possessed in the mother country, and which were not only a credit t» ourselves, but of unquestionable pleasure and benefit to others. Every reader of the "Dunstan Times doubtless bears in remembrance that, on the evening of Christmas Day last, a miner named Anthony, residing at Eendigo Gully, left the Ferry House at Rocky Point, three miles from his home, and has never been heard of since, and that the dog of the missing man was found strangled on a terrace within a quarter of a mile of the missing man's residenceevery search within tbe probability of success was made - for the body, but the searchers eventually ceased their labors, and arrived at the conclusion that the unfortunate man must have walked into the Clutha and got drowned, and such an opinion seemed exceedingly feasible, as Christinas night was exceedingly daik, and the man was to some extent under the influence of liquor when he left the ferry house. About three weeks ago a paragraph appeared in the "Dunstan Times," stating thatsomd Chinamen had given information at a store at the Fourteen mile Beach, below Alexandra, thut the body of a man was wedged among some rocks on the banks of the Molyneux, and that it had been thero for three or four weeks. It was also stated in the same paragraph that some Europeans had seen the body, but had allowed the fact to remain unreported to the police. The owner of die store referred to sent to the police at the Toviot. Since those particulars appeared in your jeurnal, not a single word further relative to the affair has been heard by the public, and as it is presumable that an inquest was held on the body at the Teviot, the officials at that place were culpably negligent of their duty in u«it j making known, through the public press the result of such an inquest, if ! held, and as to whether the I odv was identified or identifiable, cither by it* ] features or its clothing. During a visit I yesterday paid to Bendigo Gully I was assailed on all hands by queries relative to the body found at the Fourteen-mile Beach, a- d not ■ being able to state whelhrr the police authorities at Cromwell had taken any steps towards ascertaining the particula s relative to the finding of the body or not, the miners expressed much dissatisfaction, as they are very anxious to know whether it was the body of the missing Anthony or nor. Every right-minded man will ho ! d that every possible publicity should be given to all the facts connected with the finding of bodies in similar positions to the one under r.ote, and j as the police are not over-taxed with work they certainly neglect t'.eir duty | when they do not to the utmost exert ; themselves to find out the friends or acquaintances of any unfortunate who may have met his death by drowning or otherwise. The police, however, are not the only parties to be referred to on the question. The miners are ofttimes apathetic in tracing out the connexion or identification of men | found drowned or otherwise acci- ! dentally discovered defunct. Some two year* ago two sluicers were drowned in the Kawarau, about five miles above Cromwell, and soon after I wards a body was seen floating in an i eddy at the Twelve-mile Beach, below Alexandra. Although it was seen early in the day by some miners working in the locality, they did not trouble themselves to take it "out until late in the evening, and even then only landed it a couple of yards from the water's edge. During the night the river rose and carried the body away before it could bo identified. Another body, about the same time, was found in the Molyneux, at the mouth of the Teviot, and was quickly buried. It is not in the least improbable that the todies were those of the two men lost in the Kawarau, ana, through carelessness, wore not identified. Three years ago a body was caught floating down the Molyneux at the Alexandra Ferry. The medical testimony produced at the inquest proved incontrovertibly that the man had been murdered first, and then thrown into the river. However no attempt was made to discovei who the murdered man was, but the body was buried and the curtain of silence was drawn over the melancholy scene. It appears that bodies found n the Molyneux, and even in other rivers of the province, are as little headed as the countless bodies seen floating down the Ganges. When we are to become a little mora civilized is not easily calculated, and there is one, sure sign that the Cromwell district is likely to have its inhabitants left to harden in their social and moral feelings. It appears that Clyde and Alexandra are to monopolise the services of the Kev. Mr. Ross, and that Cromwell was left out of consideration when Dr. Copeland lately visited the Dunstan district to in duct Mi*. Ross to the Churches of Clyde and Alexandra. Whether such monopoly arose from selfishness on the part of the two town* men-

tioned or from indifference on the part of Cromwell I cannot undertake to say, but to allow the latter to be without the occasional services of a minister is discreditable and dangerous to our moral and social well being. An Alarmist signing himself "C'olonus" occupied a column of your journal last Friday in dealing witli a vague rumor that a number of the ratepayers are about to memorialize the Government to aliolish the municipality. What breeze of wind wafted this rumor into the ears of Colonus it would be difficult to tell, and therefore the only way of creeping out of the difficulty without much labor would be to believe that the alarming rumor was engendered in the fertile brain of Colonus himself. The municipal institution here is 'in tolerably good health, and is likeiv to survive any fits of sickness which may assail it during the nineteenth century. It would be well for Mr. Colonus not to all»w a mere vague rumor to shake his nerves, as nervousness brings on indigestion, and indigestion the nightmare, and ihe nightmare, if often experience, a general debility of the constitution, and debility of constitution brings on death, and what would the municipal institution do for a champion then ] In order to be truly prosperous the municipal boundaries must be extended so as to include Gorgetown, and as the bui ding of villas at Cromwell is fast stretching towards that place, to ha v e it closely embraced in the arms of the Cromwell municipality would l.e a wise act, and not imp easant to theGorgites, as they would then have an opportunity, of electing a ('ouncillor, and, as the clement of ambition is not wanting in many of the residents, some one of them might'become Mayor. To have the (forge within the municipality of Cromwell is, beyond all doubt, a consummation most devoutly to be wished, and will most like y tend to settle the disturbed nerves of Mr. Colonus.