THE LAKES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 365, 23 April 1869, Page 2

THE LAKES.

(from our own correspondent.) y Arrowtown, April 20. Winter is beginning to set in very fast, the nights are very' cold and frosty, and the peaks of the high ranges are gradually putting oh their white mantle of snow, still the weather is very agreeeble, in fact all through the Province, the autumn months generally comprise the most pleasant season of the year. A young man named John Baker, well known in Clyde met with what might have resulted in a fatal accident at the Big Beach, Arrow River, a few days since. He appears to have gone up upon a high terrace to turn the water off his sluicing claim, and upon reaching the “ face ” over which the water was tumbling, the earth suddenly slipped in, and aker was carried with the debris to the bottom of the paddock sixty feet below, he luckily escaped with some severe bruises, he is now a patient in the Wakatip Hospital and in a fair way of recovery. In mining matters there is nothin® new worth reporting, in fact there is really such a sameness in mining operations in New Zealand, that even at the best of times but little can be said about them ; a sluicing claim is a sluicing claim from the Ist January to the 31st December. A little fresh V ground about the lower part of the Arrow River has been opened lately with very good results, the new comers say they are all making waxes. The Queenstown Library funds are by no means in a flourishing position, and the Committee have been compelled to curtail expenses and close the reading room, this seems a great pity, but it requires a mining population to support Libraries and reading i-ooms, and Queenstown is much in the same position as Clyde, there is no immediately resident mining posßktion. The Arrowtown flourishing and its usefulness is daily being extended, even commercially it is a good speculation, the occasional renting of the Hall pays more than the interest of the money expended upon the building, this however must be solely accounted for by the number of miners residing in the immediate vicinity. The New River Maories, says the Southland News, arc likely to relieve the Queenstown Corporation from their “ duck catching ” difficulty • that Journal recommends that those dark skinned gentry be applied to as they are constantly in the habit of ensnaring ducks “ all alive ” Without either the use of powder or shot. It is said that the Town Clerk proceeds immediately to fraternise with said Maories and enlist their sympathies in the cause of his Corporation, but 1 find by the Wakatip Mail that I am treading on dangerous ground, you know what Sidney Smith savsA

talent for observation is dangerous.” Every thing is dangerous that has efficacy and vigor for its characteristics; nothing is safe but mediocrity. With this, I think I may leave the Town Clerk of Queenstown,