COUNTRY NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2190, 14 May 1870, Page 2

COUNTRY NEWS.

Mr Wilson, surveyor, and staff have proceeded to the head of the Lake to lay off a new township at the mouth of the Dart River, The Mayor of Queenstown, telegraphing to Mr Haughton, M H. R., as to certain wants of the district, aiys;—“ Never did theWakatip look so well; the earliest miners are returning. Moke Creek and Moonlight, which for four years had only tnirty miners, now nearly maintains three hundred. At Skippers and Head of the Lake population is increasing fast. If we get LIO,OOO spent here, it will be less than ever in proportion to the revenue which I say will he derived from the Wakatip in ensuing year. Seventeen thousand acres of land are now held by agriculturists. See Gillies aboqt throwing open more land, as promised by him. About pun's and other matters' will write. See that subsidy to Corp 'ration is continued. The benefits to be derived from the Martin’s BayRoad to the whole Province can hardly be estimated” l: The news from the Matatapu is most encouraging, and some f. rty miners are said to be located there. As supplies are drawp from here, a little money pxpepded upon making a track up the Arrow River as far as the Roaring Billy wou'd prove of great public benefit. Drc Iging is quite a success oil the ShoU over. The party at the Upper Shotover are obtaining from 30 to 40 ounces of gold weekly. The Queenstown Borough Council at its last meeting received the following letter “Dunedin, 2Sth April, 1870. Sir,—l have to thank you for your kind invitation at the opening of the Shotover Bridge, and to express my regret that, as the Provincial Council is likely to be in session for some weeks, it will be impossible for me to be with you ou 10th May, I regret tiffs the more as I should have fe t honored at taking part in a ceremony which will mark an important epoch in the history of your district, and which, I trust, will be the prelude to the effective opening up of the whole of the

Lake country. I should have been pleased to have had the opportunity of publicly expatiating upon the expediency and the practicability of a cheaply-constructed railway from Dunedin to Lake Wakatip, and thence to Lake M‘Kerrow. lam convinced that some day this will he done, and that the money we are now expending on main roads is in a great measure money thrown away. A railroad is in reality the cheapest road, and I am sure that it only requires public opinion to be thoroughly bent upon it in order to its accomplishment. Hoping to have an early opportunity of paying your district a visit—l have, &c., J. Macaxdrew, Superintendent.”