ARROWTOWN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 790, 8 June 1877, Page 3

ARROWTOWN.

(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.) Things have been very quiet here since the winter set in, and were it not that the farmers are in good spirits respecting the high prices for wheat, our position at present would be by no means an enviable one. Mr Warden Stratford is now fully installed into his old position again of Resident Magistrate and Warden. It must be a great relief to Mr Warden Simpson to find the extra work of attending to the affairs of this district taken off his hands. It was really too much for one man to perform, even in the matter of travelling to and fro, let alone any judicial business. Those parties who are dissatisfied with Mr Warden Simpson’s 'decisions 'should ho sufficiently charitable to allow that he was overtasked, while, to preserve a clear head the body must not be weary from travel. I hear that Dooley’s coal pit at Tucker Flat, on the Kawarau Flat midway between the Bluffs, has changed hands, Mr R. D. Owens, of the Morvern Ferry, being said to be the proprietor. The coal is of a very fine quality, but when it reaches the Arrow it comes very dear, cartage and punt charges bringing up the price from ten shillings per ton at the pit’s mouth to two pounds ten shillings here, and the distance only ten miles. Our County Council do not appear in very good odour amongst the Arrow people, who complain that everything is done from a Queenstown point of view, the Arrow ropresentatives being in a minority in respect to voting power. In the election for officers last week, it is said that there was no end of corruption. In the selection of Clerk to the Council, it was well understood that Mr P. B. Boult, a well known Queenstown man, would be elected, and this was allowed to pass over, Mr Boult being an old resident in the district and much respected. In the matter of Clerk and Collector, the affair is considered to bo altogether onesided, as, out of nineteen applicants,—some of them highly competent persons—a mere youth was elected, whose only claims and qnlifications wore that he had been for some time engaged as bottle washer in a brewery and ginger boor factory, and had in addition acted as a go-hotween for certain influential parties in taking tip agricultural areas on the Crown Terrace. Our County Chairman

lias his salary fixed at L 250 per annum. Of course it is hard to say what the services of a county chairman are really worth, but I am of this opinion, that if serving in that capacity at Lake County is worth L 250 per annum, tho salary you pay Mr Vincent Pyko is money well laid out. I have not heard of any rumors of cecession or separation lately, but 1 mjposc, as a matter of course, that will come in due time. The district roads are in a pretty good state of repair, never having been out of it since they were given over by tho provincial authorities. Of real improvements there are none ; still, as tho Council are taking some steps towards bridging the Kawarau at tho Morven Perry, wo must not bo rash in blaming them. The want of this bridge is a very great tax upon the industry of the Arrow district, it’practically interrupting free communication with Cromwell, which should be our chief market. In mining matters there is not much to report. 1 hear that some shares in the Tipperary and Victor Emmanuel have changed hands at good figures, and that some excellent stone has been discovered in these mines.