OVER EIGHTY YEARS AGO

Lake County Mail, Issue 14, 27 August 1947, Page 11

OVER EIGHTY YEARS AGO

(From the Files of the Mail)

January 6, 1866,

The postmasters at Arrowtown and Queenstown received £SO and £4O per annum respectively. We learn that potatoes are A’ery dear, at the Dunstah and Nevis. At the latter place they are reported to be worth £24 per ton. In Queenstown they are Avorth only £2 to £3 per ton, and for Avant of roads we can neither supply the Dunstan nor the Nevis. In the Resident Magistrate’s Court, before R. Beetham, Esq., Maria Ingram, alias Airs Smith, was convicted of stealing a hen, the property of Sarah Turner, and Avas sentenced to three weeks’ imprisonment. The Queenstown Town Committe resolved: “ That a manifesto he drawn up shoAving that Queenstown is the true and natural key of the Wakatip district, and that care be taken in the address to the Superintendent of the Province to point out a Liliaceous statement and misrepresentation concerning’ this town and suburbs.” A monthly summary of current mining events gives the gold yield in the Arrow district, which comprises the 12-mile Cardrona and the Lower Nevis, as 18,202 ozs. The population for the year, including the Cardrona, is 700, of whom 500 are bona fide miners. The quartz reef on the Arrow Flat is a promising one. The shares in one company on it, the Criterion Company, have risen during the year from £5 to £45 or £SO for about £6 paid up. Queenstown contains three sub-districts; viz., the Upper Shotover, Head of Lake, and other diggings of considerable importance. “ Being the chief town,” says the report, “ its buildings are of a superior class, and contains three banks, three churches, a public school, a Toavu Committee, and many other useful institutions. The average population is 1130 souls, of whom 550

have been miners. The amount of gold produced was 36,3100zs for the year.” January 13, 1866. A heavy flood occurred during the past week. The lake rose and it Avas possible to row a boat through Rees and Beach streets, and back into the lake again, some distance below the Wakatipu Hotel. The ShotoA'er and Arrow rivers choked up the Kawarau on 10th July, 1863, and blocked off the lake. The sufferers Avere Messrs Hallenstein and Co., Mcßeath, Eichardt’s Hotel, Fitzgerald, R. Burns, Duncan and Lamb, and Bullen’s empty store. Also the major part of Messrs Rees, Williams, J. Dohey, McLarn, G. Atkins, Goldstone, Spragg, Fraer, Black, Manders, Tyree, Malaghan, Huff and Coy., Cameron, Robertson and Coy., Keay and Coy.’s premises. Not one jetty Avas left. Many businesses Avere carried on in temporary places. At Arrow the flood is said to have carried away all the mining Avorkings. January 27, 1866. The timber for Messrs Robertson and Hallcnstein’s flour mill at Kawarau Fajls is being cut, and the building avill shortly be in course of erection. The Frankton road, in course of construction, is breaking doAvn in many directions. It is said that a dispute betAveen the Government and Mr Frondfoot, the contractor, is the cause of the non-completion of this Avork. February 2, 1866: The Queenstown Town Committee receiA r cd' a letter from Air Miller, the Provincial Treasurer, regarding the formation of a.Municipal Council for QueenstoAvn, and Avhcther the inhabitants were desirous that the recent petition should be considered under the amended municipality ordinance. The shares in the company lately formed to work the Skipper’s Reef adjoining the Great Scandinavian Company’s claim were over-subscribed, the whole number of 1860 being equitably divided.