THE LAKES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 421, 13 May 1870, Page 2

THE LAKES.

(m:om our own correspondent

Queenstown, May 10.

Winter appears to be setting-in in real earnest. In the day time it is fine and warm, but at night the weather is excessively cold. The Martin’s Bay- excitement still continues, and numbers of miners are proceeding towards the head of the Lake and the West Coast. A Mr. Burleigh, who has been prospecting some deep ground near Glenorchy for ten months, came upon payable gold a few months since, but of course it would be premature for any rush to set in yet. I have not heard that Fox ami party or any of the other prospectors have succeeded iu finding anything beyond the color ; yet there is very little doubt but that something will turn up soon, as so many are loolung after the coveted metal. On the coast itself there appears to be a number of mining parties scattered about, and a steamer from Hokitiki makes it worth while to take a trip, with provisions and passengers, once iu two mouths. If miners can afford to pay tor this, were provisions more readily and cheaply obtainable, a considerable population could doubtless make a living. All accounts agree that the forests about Martin’s Bay- contain valuable timber, aud that a large export trade in that material is sure to spring up, not only w Ith New Zealand hut with Australian poits. The land is excellent, far better than any about this district, while the climate is more dry than that of Southland. Considering the prospects for new-eomers, the settlement ought to go a-head. Over twenty miles of u. the tx'ack is already eat, and six. mon:hs hence w ill place ua within one day’s ride of Lake M ■ iverrow from the Wakalip. The Shotover Bridge is nearly finished, aud me structure dues great credit to Mr. .Aldrich, the contra itor. The formal opening, I hear, is likely to be delayed for a day or two, but of this 1 will not be certain. It will be a good job for the public when this bridge is completed, as the fording of the river is frequently attended with great danger.

At the A rrow mining matters ilre pretty brisk, and every where the population find profitable employment. We have a large Chinese population now on the fiat up Bash Creek, a little above the township. These industrious people have erected a row of twenty comfortable sod huts, all with windows and doors, fit for any Euro pean to dwell in. They possess a store and a restaurant upon an enormous scale, the cooking apparatus of which is the most complete I ever saw. The party working the river bed are getting gold in old ground in sufficient quantity to pay expense, and are very sanguine of results from the solid. Their pumping machinery is vepy complete and elaborately perfect. Every working pait is in duplicate, and consequently stoppages from breakage are of short duration. Here again Europeans have something to learn.

Great dissatisfaction is expressed at the Government not rewarding Police Constable Hunt for his gallant arrest of a tautderously inclined lunatic some time ago, at the Cardrona. It certainly might not have been more than the duty of Constable Hunt to arrest a lunatic defending himself with a long spear, but When we come to consider how the Constable was so badly wounded, his services deserve to he recognised. Mr. Colclough, who assisted Hunt, received a gold medal and £SO, and did not suffer half so much in the affray.Public servants, when they peril their lives in the exectiou of their duty, surely deserve a public recognition of their services. This is a matter which it is to bo hoped the member for the Lakes will attend to.

The fanners are busily engaged ploughing and putting in their seed wheat, while others ore busy threshing out last season’s crops for the mill. The price of wheat is 4s. 6d. per bushel. Large parcels are being bought up on speculation, and Bs. 6d. has been paid for them oR the gtourid. Considering our short crop of this cereal and the prospects of the West Coast, there is much room for improvement