MOUNT BENGER.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2656, 22 August 1871, Page 2

MOUNT BENGER.

(from our own correspondent.) Sleepy Hollow was nothing to Mount Benr ger. A solemn stillness pervades the whole district, unbroken by aught of novelty or excitement. Under these circumstances I am bound to dilate upon the weather, which, in this delightful country of ours, is always changeable enough to supply a paragraph. A fortnight ago spring appeared to have set in in earnest. Combined warmth and moisture led tp a considerable gtir in tbe vegetable kingdom • but, alas ( all the hopes then formed were cruelly nipped in the bud by the frost and snow which have formed the bill of fare for the past few days. Mining, I may remark, is absolutely at a stand-stil 1 , the river not being far from its usual summer level. This sentence you may keep standing for the next six months under the head of “Mining News from Mount Benger.” On the 9th inst. the Scott Centenary was ce'ebrated at the Teviot by a concert and ball. I did not attend ; but, judging from what I have heard, believe the “celebration ” to have been chiefly noticeable from its rigid exclusion of everything in the least relating to Scott. The storekeepers are makjng desperate efforts to raise an excitement against the surmised sale of 50,000 acres ou Moa Flat run ; but with very little success. In truth, no more judicious selection could be made by any Government than the alleged block; and this fact makes me doubt the truth of the report, ou the principle embodied in the question, “ Can any good thing come out of Noodledom ?” Seriously speaking, the peculiar physical features of the country make it, to say the least, highly improbable that Moa Flat run will ever be required for agricultural purposes ; and anyone in the least conversant with the fundamental principles of geology would as soon think of looking for honor and honesty in the present Executive as for gold behind Mount Benger. My own sympathy, I must say, is entirely with the unfortunate niuholder, who is, in a manner of speaking, coni| elled to purchase 50.000 acres of valueless land at a price of at least LI per acre. The proceeding smacks of the “ Money or your life” process adopted by bolder members of the same fraternity as Messrs lleid and Co. Let me refar seriously to a serious subject. Probably you are aware that such an institution as the Tuapeka Hospital exists, and that, although bearing the name of the “ Liberal Capital,” it is chiefly supported by the adjacent districts. Well, sir, I am sorry to say that this institution, whioh ha* for a long time been a source of pri ie to all up. country residents, is likely to be ruined by the cheeseparing economy of the Govern, ment. The reduction of the subsidy has given an opportunity to the poJiousa politicians and envious gutterbloods of Lawrence to make a dead set at the unfortunate sur.

geon, who 8 urcly can no t help the misfoitune of being born a gentleman. Under the pretence of economy they desire to pay him laborer’s wages, and at the same time to prevent him improving his position by piivate practice. These insolent little pett loggers appear to forget that other places besides Lawrence have a say in the matter, and I am glad to say that Mount Benger for one is likely to make its voice heard, ihe indignation at the manner in which so popular and attentive a surgeon has been tro ited is rapidly spreading, and I expect a considerable number of our more prominent citizen* will attend the next general meeting, to the utter discomfiture of the old poultice confederacy. I trust 1 may be there to see- in the meantime au recoir.