ALEXANDRA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 935, 19 March 1880, Page 3

ALEXANDRA.

On Wednesday evening the Opera Bouffe Company gave their Hist peifounance in the Town Hall. There was a fair attendance, which would have been largely in creased ha I greater publicity been given beforehand. It is unnecessary to criticise the various parts of the performance, which was marked throughout by a degree of excellence to which up-country residents are seldom treated. In fact tire unanimously expressed opinion was that the Company is beyond all comparison the best that has ever visited the township The audience seemed completely taken by surprise, and were so persistent in their encores that it was nearly 12 p.m. before the final fad of the curtain. The Company play again on Thursday and Friday evennrgs, when it is to he hoped that they will he rewarded with the bumper houses that their talented performance so well deserves. Nothing particularly startling has occurred hero since rny last. Things are keeping on the level even tenor of their way, and I may fairly assume thit while, if there are no special causes for rejoicing, there are none for despairing. Taking things all round affairs are prosperous, and when considering trial with but very few exceptions every one are profitably employed atone thing or anolhea it can not well be otherwise. I do not hear of any p irticnhrly large finds being made by the miners, hut as a rule all are getting more or lessof the golden metal The farmers have overflowing granaries, the harvest having been exceptionally abundant, the oolj thing wanting to fill their enp of joy, being a ready market and good pric-s, while the artisans, mechanics and laborers are all in full work. At the bridge works a large body of men are employed—all told some forty—and as the rate of wages paid them is high, those alone keep things stirring. M ‘Kerzie, Fraser and party are making good headway with their new cur-rent-wh el dredge, the which is expee’ed to be in working order in a few weeks. In the neighburhoo I of the Teviot there are three dredges constructed on the same principle as this one, and all paying handsomely, and 1 fail to see any reason why there should not lie an equal, if not a greater number of them on this part of the river. lam conconfident ill rny own mind they would prove good investments—the seven miles of a stretch of river between here and Clyde, has been proved over and over again to contain any quantity of gold, and why such a mine of wealth should he allowed to remain unproductive is one of those questions this “ fellah ” cannot answer. Tiro description of dredge I should like to see would be on the bucket and ladder principle, hut with steam as well as the current wheels combined as tbe motive power—the object to be gained by the double power would he that the dredge could be worked in the eddies as well as in the stream, and moreover, the steam power would he a great assistance in moving the dredge about from place to place, thus effecting a saving on all sides. The question is one, deserving of more than passing notice, and I recommend it to the serious consideration if all concerned.