The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1869.

Dunstan Times, Issue 356, 19 February 1869, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1869.

BeneaththcEulcof MenEXTir.ELY just the pex is mightier than thcswor.n.

The necessity for securing easy communication between Dunedin and the north western goldfields is .becoming every day more and more apparent. In a few short months the winter will be setting in upon ns, and again like a beleaguered city encompassed by hostile armies, we stand the risk of being cut off from all communication with the outer world, and driven to depend solely upon our own resources for subsistence, such was within an ace of proving a reality last winter, stocks of flour run short in the stores, the roads were blocked up with snow, and many families were compelled to have recourse to meal, wherewith to make their bread ; and had it not have been for the timely arrival of ■sundry loads of flour from the mill at the Lakes, something like a famine must with certainty have overtaken us. It is true that we possess a road from Tuapeka to Alexandra, via the west bank of the Molyneux, but, at the same time it is scaicely a vailable for heavy trafiic during the inclement season of the year, and when it is most required, leaving out altogether the serious drawback there exists in the shape of excessive rharges for

crossing by the punts at the Beau mont and Teviot ferries. The rates at Alexandra, thanks to the enterprise of Messrs Duley and Mackersey are somewhat within reasonable bounds, still they are far too high, and when we consider that between Tuapeka, Alexandra or Clyde it is necessary to cross the Molyneux no leas than three times, the question of expansive ferryage becomes a serious obstacle. "We heard some short time since, that the goldfields’ Municipal bodies were about to make a joint movement and secure the opening of what is by nature their main artery of communication, as by the valleys of the Molyneux and Kawarau there exists at all seasons of the year easy access to and from the principal goldlields townships and the seaboard. The present is a subject we have often times written upon, and feeling assured as we do that direct and easy communication between Tuapeka, Dunstan, the Wakatip, hence to Martin’s Bay on the west coast of the Province, will confer a lasting benefit upon the residents of t he goldfields generally ; we again urge upon the Corporations of Lawrence, Alexandra, Clyde Cromwel 1 and Queenstown to look well after their interests and waste no time in securing to themselves the advantages which are within their reach. We lose by Jiving in isolated communities, because our interests are identical, and such being the case, free intercourse with each other and an assimulation of ideas becomes absolutely necessary to existence; expert ence gained by one must be rendered mutually beneficial to all.