THE LAKES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 558, 27 December 1872, Page 2

THE LAKES.

[FROM OUR CORRLSrONDDNT.) Arrowtown, Dec. 23. The approaching holidays form, the chief topic of interest. Of Christmas sports we are promised a plethora. There are,to be Coledqnian games, horse-racing,’iballs and concerts at the Arrow ; athletic sports and concerts’ at Queenstown. ’ Subscriptions;-- in each instance, have come in liberally, and the only difficulty appears to me—where are all the people coming from to patronize them. The Library Hall has been greatly enlarged. A new stage, reading . room, and book room have been erected, and no difficulty now presents itself against the getting-up, iu first-class stylo, of public amusements at Arrowtown. In mining miters there is much cause for congratulation. The Christmas washingsup have, with very few exceptions, turnedout equal to expectations j and, as 1h re has been ample employment during the last - few months for everybody; the pleasures of this festive season of the year will bo very generally enjoyed by all classes. ■. ’ - The Arrow River Water Race Company have completed their race to Whitechapel I lat, and the ground to be operated upon promises to yield exceedingly well. . Some of the water is let; the remainder is used by the Company- The quantity brought iu is about twelve beads, but the race is constructed to carry twenty, which quantity will be put in as soon as the earth-works becoule sufficiently solidified. This is the Company who applied to the General Government some nine mouths ago for a subsidy of 500/., uud-’r the Public Works Act. Their case was recommended by the district Warden, and. in May last, they received a telegram from Mr. Haughton to the effect that the money would be furnished without delay. But, strange to relate, it has not come yet, and the party has been put to the most uuheard-ofjtroubla and expense They have been compelled to twice register the Company ; to havo two surveys made by the district surveyor, with reports of the works done and quantities, and these reports have been accompanied by reports from the Warden. Now the Chief of the Gold-fields Department requires the Surveyor’s certificate that the work has in reality been done, and what more afterwards time alone can tell. To obtain this 5007. loan the expenses have been enormous! What with Surveyor’s fees, lawyer’s foes, telegraph charges, and horse hire to Queenstown, the cost will be at least 1007., besides the loss of time and’ sufficient annoyance to drive any mining company mad. The party are very sorry they applied to the Government for. help, more especially as money could have been readily obtained from private sources at a few days’notice. This is the first case in which assistance has been sought by the miners in the Arrow District- under •* Tae Public Works Act," and bow shamefully they have been treated it would take a column of newspaper matter to relate. When obtained, the history of this loan will make a good incident for some fiction relating to gold-mining, I f the utter incompetency of Mr. C E. Haughton for the position ha now holds as head of the Goldfields Department your readers will he able to judge, and it shows how necessary it is that there should bo some “ responsible” head of that department. This Tit Barnacle of the Circumlocution Office is completely out of place. He was considerably more at homo as a mountebank in an itinerant theatrical company. If ho would only come again and amuse us as “ The. Old Man" in “ The Serious Family,” we might, perhaps, ho induced to laugh. The history of the Arrow River Mining Company’s application for a loan is worthy tho study of miners in your district. A rather interesting water-rr.ee case was heard at Queenstown, before the Warden, on Friday last. From tho evidence it appeared that Mr. .1. W. Robertson, of the well-known firm of J. W. Robertson and Co. purchased, some two years since, the right to a certain water supply at the One and Two Mile Creeks, near Queenstown. This water Mr. Robertson has since been in the habit of renting to miners at a very nominal rental, it being that gentleman’s intention to ultimately conduct the water to a reservoir on bis private property in Queenstown, there storing it, and afterwards using it for sluicing some terraces at One-Mile, and divert a portion to drive tho machinery for the intended woollen factory. Since Mr. Robertson has constructed bis reservoir, and is within a few days of filling it with water, the Corporation havo discovered that it would be the best means of supplying Queenstown with water, in direct opposition to the opinion of their own surveyor, to whom some two years ago, they paid a considerable sum for a report of the proposed water-works, and who recommended that the supply should be drawu from the Town Creek, which flows down the Shotover Gorge. A Mr. William Level Davies, of the Queenstown Brewery, a member of tho Corporation, and who, as leported in the proceedings of the Council, is acting on their behalf, has applied for a mining lease at the One-Mile, while he at the same time seeks to have Mr. Robertson’s water-rights cancelled, and objects to tha granting by the Waste Lands Board of a grant of land as a site for the proposed woplleu factory. Mr;, navies, while giving evidence on Friday last, astonished the C6urt by acknowledging there was.-so supervision of letters written by the Town Clerk, that functionary writing them tha day following the meeting ; he believed the Town Clerk was responsible to the Mayor ; correspondence despatched by th® Town Clerk were not always read at tha next meeting of the Council; and as a climax astonishing the Bench, lawyers, and those present in Court—acknowledged that theConncil were sometimes “screwed" when "hey nut. This tatter