FOURTEEN MILE BEACH.

Dunstan Times, Issue 514, 23 February 1872, Page 2

FOURTEEN MILE BEACH.

— o — a correspondent.) Matters of interest about here are very scarce, and we have nothing to relieve the dull monotony of onr lives, hut an occasional glimpse of some overdue newspaper, or a gentle remonstrance from our Commissariat officer that the amount of our last litt e account is anxiously expected, and will he most favorably receiver!. Want of water is the general complaint, for, although we had a copious days rain on Monday lost, the supply was not a lasting one—and the scarcity is as much felt as before. It is a mattsr of surprise that your Teviot correspondent did not give or send you an account of the interesting proceedings in connection with the opening of the the Hercules Water race, nor of the speeches, and the ladylike manner in which Mrs. Frank Tubman performed the duties allotted to her of christening the race, nor of the graceful case with which she broke the bottle of champagne, (which played Old gooseberry with the water), nor various other matters connected therewith ; that a work of such importance to the Mount Benge? district demanded. Of course we have seen and read the provisions of the Money Loan for miners who wish to avail themselves of the very liberal (?) terms upon which the government will advance them cash to carry out any paying water speculation they "may wish to indulge in ; and I need not say that the general feeling about hj re is that the whole affair is a grand piece of humbug, and in just keeping with the rest of the hood winking policy we have been accommodated with, by those who have had the misinan. agement of the Otago gold-fields. People do not object to the Commissioners taking every reasonable precaution for the safety of the ironies entrusted by them to the men who may wish to use-it, nor do they thhik the government is wrong in placing themselves in a position that will ensure the repayment of the loans, by which borrowers may wish to benefit themselves, hut they never imagined that the highly enterprising, enlightened, ami public spirited Government of New Zealand would have Incorporated themselves into a limpid Limited Liabilities Company of water Shylocks which the terms of the regulations necessary for procuring a loan seem to bear out. The whole arrangement reads like a well got up farce. ■ Imagine one having to pay seven per cent per annum for the cash, besides having to deposit as security two and a half per cent of his own capital, so that ho is actually paying for the use of his own money in proportion. The Government likewise take the whole of the works as an additional security, this with the increased revenue which will be derived from an increased amount of gold being unearthed, through a greater supply- of water being at the command of the miners, is not a bad rate of interest. It is what “Wittles” ironically calls a paternal way of overloading the family donkey with obligations, only it is us he says, liable to induce “plum bago.’’ It is my impression that the Commissioner will not he inundated with applications for loans from the “Water Supply fund”, and his billet will be a sinecure with travelling expenses added. Messrs. Macandrew and Co., promised that the rate of interest to he charged for Water Schemes monies should not exceed five per cent per annum-, with as few restrictions as possible; but, undi r the present regulations,-parties who may want to borrow are completely hemmed in with them, and can only ret one third of the amount they may require at that. There is no doubt that, in mining, land, and railway matters, our legislating numskulls are trying to solve a problem that the older gold producing colonics will reap the advantage of at our expcncc. This last sop.to the sluicing “Cerberus’’ is too highly seasoned, and the old dog will have none of it, rejecting it with disdain and the whole affair will ultimately prove a failure) owing to the extreme terns de* L ... \ »- <

manded for the use of the money that may be required by the miners. It is perfectly true as Wittles says,'that Mr. Macandrew told the Committee on the Moa Flat question, there is always agitation going on at the gold-fields, thereby comparing with the man who, after he had devoured as many fritters as he could drive adiarpnon through, contmued calling out to his “missis” for “ More pancakes Sarah."