THE LAKES

Dunstan Times, Issue 346, 11 December 1868, Page 2

THE LAKES

(from our own correspondent.) Arrowxown . Dee. S. Old Boreas has been excessively rude of late; a tine genial day has been quitoout.of th question for this month past. I presume, however, that the strong windy weather has not been confined to the Lakes District, the Dunstau and other places must have leen equa’ly inconvenienced. Fortunately wo have had numerous showers of rain, which have, in a great measuto, compensate ! for the drying winds, ami vegetation non djugt look finer, Thu ' crops ptcnin.'O to bcua abvtuthAt as

last year; the wheat looks splendid and the grumbling farmers ought to teel themselves satisfied with the prospects before them.

There is much dissatisfaction fe't about the price of flour, here it is 27 1. per ton, while the same article from the Friuktou Mills is selling at Clyde and Cromwell for 23L It seems a strange anomaly, but I suppose the difference his something to do with the laws of supply and demand. When the new Mill gets into operation doubtless the price, of flour will be better regulated. Th<> new building for the Arrowtown Public Library is approaching npidly towards comp!eti"ii; it will be opened to the public with a Ball on the 28th inst. The inferior of the building will lie a large hall, twenty ' by forty-five feet with two anti rooms, to be used as a receptacle for books, 'and the other as a n a ling and committee room. The building is a bold venture on the part ol the Committee, btu its being successfully cirried to a conclusion there is no doubt. The Government gave assist mce to the tune of 1001, and I most consc’eniously believethat they never subsid zed any undertaking where the money was more judiciously expended. On Saturday last, the Coroner, Biclttnond Bcetham, Esq., held two in quests at Queenstown, upon the 1 odies of two mm tound dead in their beds the previous morning having died during the night from the effects of brink, appoploxy being the immediate cause of death. One of the deceased was Cook, a saddler, well known at Clyde and Cromwell; the other was Bich, a phot'grapher and artist, who had acquired consideral-L celebrity on the Goldfields. Some views lately executed by him of Lake Wakatipu were admirably executed and found ready purchasers. The occurrence filled people wi r h horror, tk> men in the prime of their lives falling victims in one night to intemperance was amply sufficient to create a consternation a mong a sma 1 and isolated community. The tele gram in the Wa 7 catip Mail of Thursday—that the Government inten led proceeding at once with the erec ion of the bridge at Forster’s Ferry—created livol}’- satisfaction: this is a w irk that sliou cl have been completed long since, a very large land revenue has been received from the district, and the Government arc in honor hound to complete this work. The fording of the Shotover, even at the most favorable seasons, is a dangerous under aking,human life on several Decisions hasbeen sacrificed in crossing, while the number of horses drowned and the amount of valuable property lost is something very Luge.

Mess I'd. Robertson a"d Go., the enterpvi ing firm, at whose head is the wor liy Minor of Queenstown, are petting on rapid’y with fixing the engi -es in their new steamer the “Antrim” which will be ready for her trial trip up the Like hv the end of the present month. This steamer will beau immense addition to the trndeof Lake Wakatipu; the high rate for fright, let al me the dan r f, r ai d uncertainty of the sailing vessels has very much interfered wi lithe development of this part of the district. For er traffic the “Antrim” will supnlv a long felt want, the little cockleshells with a boiler inside, called steamers, which ti’l a short time since used to ply up and down the Lake Imt have now fortunately gone to the regions below were positively unsafe, and passengers had a, constant and well-founded dread of becoming food for the monster eels with which the Wakatipu is frequented. The trial trip of the “ \ ntrim’’ will extend to the Saw Mills of Messrs. Robertson and Co., at the head of the Lake. Those who have never beheld the will mountainous scenery of New Zealand will he amply repaid by a tr'p tip Like Wakatipu in the “Antrim.” The land slip which occurred at the Nevis Bluff on the Ist instant, haforhmately in no wise damaged the roadway, the debris merely Rocking the way Men under the d rection of the Road Engineer are busily employed removing the fallen earth and meks, and it is expected, that waggons will be enabled to pass during the dav. None of the rocky formation of this precipitous Bluff has given way, the slip is confined to • sort of heavy gravelly drift, which the floods of past ages have deposited against the smooth face of a rocky cliff. The slip appears to have been occasioned by the water percolating efween the earthy matter and the smooth face of the rock, causing the latter to become detached, and to slide gradually away. From Clyde to the Nevis Bluff, the road in places, is in a very dangerous state, from overhanging rocks and earthy projections, and which should he removed ere something serious happens.