THE LAKES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 376, 2 July 1869, Page 3

THE LAKES.

(rKOM OUll OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Ar; rowtown, June 28. One may almost as well be killed as frightened to death. Such was about the state of affairs on Thursday last, for never in the memory of that •orthodox and vemr.b’e individual, the

oldest inhabitant, was such a shock of an earthquake ever felt, and a tolerably good many are felt in this mountainous district. Your correspondent never having telt the effects of one before—that is to say very perceptible effects • —-was quite satisfied with his experiences upon this occasion. The shock, or rather the three shocks, which followed each other in rapid .succession, occurred somewhere about half-past eleven o’clock, or, perhaps, a few

minutes before, and lasted for fully half a minute. The first two shocks made a sort of rumbling noise, and then followed another, partaking of something like an underground explosion, when the earth actually rocked to and fro from south to north, the undulation being plainly perceptible. I was standing on the edge of a terrace overlooking Lake Hayes at the time. Cornstacks and trees seemed positively to be lifted out of their places, and I really fully expected to see the e.arsh open, so violent was the convulsion. To tell the truth, it made

me"fttivlv tidily, and when I recovered «ckening sensation which m, and which lasted some , I looked about to see ,if cliffs had fallen into the lie water was placidly still, ception of a long rolling wave, which followed the direction of the earthquake. I have not heard of any damage being done. Of course the earthquake was felt more acutely in some places than others. On precipitous banks and hill-sides the violence of the shock was experienced ‘with the greatest intensity. There is a regular hubbub in Queenstown about some charges of serious mismanagement in the matters of the Hospital, made by some scribbler in the Wakalip Mail, under the nom de

plume ot “ Argus.” This gentleman, after making the most illogical and unsupported charges, claims a public investigation, and asks that witnesses may bo examined on oath. I have visited the Wakatip Hospital a number of times, and never saw anything approaching to mismanagement. In fact, I consider it one of the best conducted hospitals on the goldfields while its Resident Surgeon enjoys the confidence of eveiybody. The Committee publicly deny the whole of the allegations. My opinion of the matter is that Argus is insane, or he could not have written such a letter,

while as to the editor of the Wah til ip Mail I will charitably suppose. .that he kept high holliday upon tlie day of its receipt, leaving that Satanic imp, the Printer’s Devil,” in charge |of the editorialjchair. A few expressions of publicopinion is one thing;but a few expressions of illogical and unsupported calumnies of a public institution is quite another.