QUEENSTOWN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 689, 2 July 1875, Page 3

QUEENSTOWN.

(FROM mm OWN CORRFSPONDENr.), After a long and weary period of almost absolute prostration the reefs at Skippers are beginning to look up again. The new find at the Phoenix Mine promises to outrival anything that has ever been discovered in quartz mining in Otago as yet. The leader struck coming in from the hanging wall has developed itself into a well defined reef, and there is between ten and twelve feet of solid stone, rich in the precious metal, in fact considerably richer than anything that has ever fallen to 'the lot quartz miners delving in the reefs in Now Zealand. Verily tbo Phoenix tributors are lucky men. They have grassed a paddock of some forty tons of gold-bearing stone, suchasisseldom seen, and when Isay that it will yield between fifty and sixty ounces to the ton, if crushed by itself, I think that I am within the mark. Rumor says, that when old Peter Sorensen, the proprietor of the reef, lost the run of golden stone that it was never found again by his successors, and the present discovery is the stone that be lost. Your Cromwell discoveries are thrown completely into the shade by this. Of course the ground is all marked out in ■eveiy direction. One party of three hold mrnongst them something like seventy acres, and there will he some nice rows about it. Both quartz and alluvial mining leases appear to have been granted indiscriminately in the Upper;Shotovor district, and unless our sleepy Goldfields Department do something to bring the labor clauses into operation, and give holders to understand that they must comply with the conditions of thoir leases, the good fortune which promises to be on the point of falling upon the district will be considerably shorn of its advantages. Large leased areas are productive of more harm than good, and there is no mistake about it that monopoly of ground in this quarter has always kept the place in the background when it should have been in the front. I fancy the coming summer will prove that as Skippers was the richest alluvial field ever found in Otago, so in its quartz reefs, it will also be at the top of the tree. 'The effect of this discovery has been most beneficial in a commercial sense, and desponding storekeepers are now somewhat inclined to the belief that things will mend. So far as I can see, I feel assured they cannot help it. Weare on the eve of a quartz mania, as .sure as fate.

At the Arrow mining matters are making a considerable stir. The Nugget and Cornish Beef, on the Crown Terrace, has been taken up and is being worked by a co-opera-tive party. The Criterion has suffered the same fate, and its eight long years of inactivity will soon he activity again. The Sons of Fortune (alluvial) are now in their tunnel 280 ft., and have struck a fine looking wash showing gold. As soon as they reach the bed reek there is very little doubt of the long sought favorable, result. In agricultural matters there is but very little moving, and with wheat at 3s Cd, and oats at 2s fid farmers arc not likely to be very lively, especially, when oven selling at these low prices a system of barter has to to bo issorted to, unless some Cromwell or Dunstau buyer is in the field. Local storekeepers believe in farmers exchanging all their produce for tea, sugar, trousers, and sundry' little snio-nacs for the women and children; but, as to pay money for what they buy they would rather keep their stores empty. I should not at all wonder that, when the quartz fever is at its height, the demand for saddle and pack horses will . be so great that all the oats will have left the district, and wo shall he buying them back again from people down in your quarter, or bo required to import them from Southland. There is less land than ever under cultivation this season. Three years ago fields of wriest might be distinguished on all sides ; now you may' look a long while before you can discover one. Orr largest grown crop is now the inevitable sorrel. With a favorable re-aclion in gold mining the farmers may reasonably hope for better times, and I think they will not be .disappointed. Your old Dunstau resident, Mr William Jackson Barry, was hauled up before the Court on Wednesday last, on a fraud summons for some L 22, amount of verdict, and LG costs, making in all L2B. This suit had reference to the late suit of Powell v. Barry. When called upon by His Worship Mr Richmond Boetham, R.M., to show cause why the money should not ho paid, or J. B. committed to durance vile, Mr Barry pleaded—he in fast took an objection to tho whole proceedings —alleging that tho day of hearing was not a regular Court day, and it appeared to him (J. B.) to have been c died purposely because ho (J. B.) had an important auction sale coming off on that particular occasion, AVcdncsday not being tho usual Court day for holding a Court. This objection availed him nothing, as tho Magistrate decided that ho was compelled to hear the case it having been postponed for some time previous. Mr Barry then proceeded to state that he had no money ; that since commencing business as an auctioneer he had earned nothing, his sales not having been concluded yet. Amounts for verdicts recovered against Powell and against Lancaster had all been annexed by his solicitor Mr Wesley Turton ; he had also given that legal gentleman his books, witli L4OO worth of debts on them to collect, hut had received no returns. Ho had property in jewellery, &0., worth Ll7O, de-

posited with Mr Malaghan for a debt of L 33, but that was not available ; believed ho could pay 10a or LI per week. His Worship suggested L 3 per week,’.but Mr Barry declared his inability to pay so much. Inspecting the LSO paid for hisjauctioneei ’s license, that was subscribed by 4 hisjfrionds solely for that purpose. Ho had collected L 29,' and the balance was made up by Mr W. L. Davis, of Queenstown. His Worship ruled that J. B. should have paid his debts with.the L 29, instead of devoting it to the purposes of an auctioneer’s license, and committed J. B. to two months’ imprisonment failing immediate payment. In twenty minutes after leaving the Court poor J. B. was in the hands "of the guardians of the public peace, and duly incarcerated. Some of the public, however—and there are some few kind-hearted Christians in Queenstown—concluded that the case was a hard one, and the money was paid by Mr W. L. Davis. Several others, 1 learned, had cheques for the amount ready, besides which a number of odd notes were being subscribed. Of course no one could blame Mr Powell for pressing the case, as Barry, in the late ever memorable suit, had pressed him to the utmost ; still, the verdict of the Court appeared rather harsh towards a man upon a small scale, who was only trying to make a living with nothing to live upon. It is greatly to be hoped that wo shall hear no more of these abominable Queenstown faction fights. The golden geni which has touched the reefs at Skippers with its magic wand will dispel also, we trust, the dark cloud that has hung over society here for some time past, when all will bo bright and sunshine again. Following Mr Harry’s case, on Thursday, a very amusing one was settled by Mr Beetham, in the E.M. Court—extended jurisdiction. It was Roach against White, and 'White against Reach, each claiming LSO for trespass of cattle and damages to crops and fences, a sort of internecine war upon a small scale, and, no doubt the litigants meant it. as each provided himself with a formidable array of witnesses, while they were also armed with the necessary legal combatants to lead the fight. Soon after the case was called on I was about to go inside the Court and listen to the bearing, but as one of the witnesses informed me that it would last all day, and probably the greater part of the next, I altered my mind as 1 thoroughly object to long-winded law suits. But, judge of my surprise when scarcely two hours afterwards 1 learned from the disputants that their cases had been adjudicated upon, and that each one had obtained all that he asked for. The fact was the magistrate had seen through the whole affair, and gave each a verdict for the full amount claimed and costs, which were very nearly equal on both sides. Talk about the fable of the oyster, it was never more beautifully realised. The law awarded Messrs Roach and White a shell each, and no mistake.

The dispute of the islands appeal’s as far off being settled as ; before. Our worthy Mayor’s ideas of arcadian bliss, when he became the leasee of the I/u.g and Pig Islands, two of the most beautiful spots in Lake Wakatip, has never been realised. First, the Corporation cannol fulfil their portion of the contract for a lease of fourteen years, for want of a proper title themselves, they only having an occupation license from year to year, and it is not likely Mr Betts will pay LBO per annum rent for feeding ground for some 40 head of cattle and 200 sheep, unless he can improve the property. Then another difficulty crops up in the person of Mr Patrick Yail, better known as tho “Fenian,” a very industrious wood cutb r, who has lived on the Long Island for years, and likes his home there so well that he declines to leave it, unless, as a matter of course, upon being properly compensated. Mr Vail is summoned every now and then to Court by the Corporation ; hut the more he is summoned the stronger his case appears to grow, and I should not at all wonder that if they persistin going on summonsing him that he will be declared the veritable owner of the islands, His Worship’s sheep and cattle included. Tho Mayor and Corporation of Queenstown must have read a great deal about Fenians and Fenianism, but they never experienced some of its effeots before, and this Fenian is in the right after all.