COUNTRY NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2678, 16 September 1871, Page 3

COUNTRY NEWS.

MACKAIW. Minin" operations during the woek have been pretty brisk. A general washing up has taken place, owing to an abundant supply of water. The Taieri river beach claims are at a complete standstill owing to the flood in the river. Good wages have been obtained by several parties during the past three mouths, but this branch of mining will soon 'have to be abandoned, Giving to the advanced period of the season. The last np-journ y of the Mount Ida coach from Dunedin seems to have been attended ■with unpleasant circumstances. It appears, upon this occasion, there was rather more than the average nuinberof passengers booked through to Naseby. When the coach was within a few miles of Macraes, it met with the severe snowstorm mentioned in my last, and from that time made little of no progress towards its destination, which was Macraes, for that night. In the face of a blinding snow-storm, right in the face, what was to be done? To the credit of the coachman let it be understood that he did all that was possible to be dene. In vain he turned the horses’ heads to the blast: it was no use. After many vain attempts he had to give it up. Ultimately it was decided to take out the horses from the coach, and for the passengers to pass the night inside of it. The coachman is highly spoken of for the manner in which he exerted himself to protect the m- • mates of the coach from exposure. Any one look’ll" inside the coach the following morning would have seen nine dejected looking persons, looking rather down-hearted, but not much the worse for being a night out in a snow-storm. TUAI’L'KA. A’ Chinaman obtainedjhalf an ounce of fold by washing the sweepings of one of the ,awrencc banks. MrJ. G. F. Coyle, C. E., has joined Mr Adams in surveying the proposed line of railway between Tokomainro and Lawrence : the object in view being to get the survey completed, and plans submitted and passed before the end of the present session of the Assembly. Ihe survey will bo completed in about a fortnight. A petition against the further influx of Chinese 13 bein'* circulated by the Waipori Winers Association. The sum of 1.200 has been piomisxl towards Iho erection of a new Fpisco pal Church at Mount Benger, plans were approved of at a meeting of the parishioners last week. The proposed edifice will be of stone, and the design is similar to that p.f the Church of England at Lawrence. It is apticipated that Mr Dews will be located at Roxburgh as lay reader during the period prior to bis ordination as clergyman. A half share in the Perseverance Claim, Blue Spur, was recently purchased by Mr Harvey, late of Waipori, fj r LBOO. On Tuesday

last the Tcviot district was visited by a storm almost unprcc.dentedly violent. The wind blew a perfect hurricane in the afternoon, and was accompanied by an exceedingly heavy fall of snow. ’Towards evening the storm moderated and a heavy frost sot in. About ten at night, however, snow again commenced to fall, and continued doing so almost without intermission until about 11 o’clock next day. On the flat the snow was six inches deep. At Spcargrass Flat the storm was even severer than at the Teviot—a considerably greater quantity of snow also falling. —Tuapeka Times. TIIK LAKKS. The committee of the Wakatip Hospital have decided that should their inahi ity to meet the expenses of the institution be the result of the reduction of the subsidy, they will immediately hand over the Hospital to the Government The Mongolian difliculty at Lake Wakatip turns out to be a creation of the distempered would-be agitators. The Europeans certainly do not fraternise with the Chinese, hut they do not in any way interfere with them, nor is there any likelihood of their doing so. The opening up of the’ trade between Invercargill and the Lakes has caused great dissatisfaction to the owners of “ vested interests” along the Queenstown and Dunstan road. One individual instances as a foretaste of the disastrous effects likely to ensue from the diversion of the traffic, that oats this winter were only 3s Cd per bushel, whorcas the price last year was 7s fid. 'lhe good people of Arrowtown expect Bennie, of Clyde gold robbery noteriety, in their midst again. Bennie, who is at present in Dunedin, is, it is said, trying, with every prospect of success, to obtain the reward offered by the banks for the recovery of the stolen gold. CROMWKIL. The reefs at the Garrick Ranges are yielding well, and fresh discoveries are being mr v de almost daily. It understood that an attempt will' be again made to wrest the Golden Link Mine, Bendigo—the richest quartz claim in Otago—from its present possessors. The matter will 1 e brought before the Supreme Court. The first crushing at Ivesen and Company’s reef, Conroy’s Gaily, resulted in 40 ozs.- showing a yield of little more than 3 ozs. to the ton. A foot race of 100 yards f r LlO a-side, between Harry Hudson, of Dunedin, and Mr James Tennant, of the Nevis, took place at Gli de on theflth, and was won by the former. A telegram was received in Cromwell on Sunday, stating

■ that Mr Michael Courtain, a farmer, residing iin the rrow district, had been killed by a I all from his horse. A destructive whirlwind ! was experienced on the Dunstau Flat about 11 a. m. last Friday. It came sweep ng down the gorge to the north of Monte Christo, and we regret to hear that Mr lerauds farm beddings suffered considerable damage from the invisible devastator. The large barn —4oft. by 20ft.—was completely demolished, and some of the men’s huts were wrenched from their foundations, and carried for some distance into the orchard. Large pieces of timber, and iron, kerosene tins, and even stones were whirled up to a height of sixty or seventy feet in the air, and carried long distances across the llat. At Clyde, a leanto adjoining Mr Johnson’s stable was unroofed, and the sheets of iron carried hundreds of yards in the direction of the Police Camp. At the Hospital an empty dray W'as turned over and over by the force of the wind until it same in contact with some of the out-buildings, which arrested its fuitnci progress. Dr Burrov/s fctJiblc was CcUiicfl into the river, and not a trace of the building remains. Some slight damage was caused to other premises in the neighborhood of the towm, but not such as to invc.lve any considerable outlay ror reconstruction or repairs. — Aryus. _____________