The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 1863.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume I, Issue 40, 16 September 1863, Page 4

The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 1863.

Our duties as journalists compel us to do many things against the grain. The public cannot be more sick of hearing, than we are of writing, about the many absurdities daily exhibited on the Wakatip field. It is dreadfully annoying that the weaknesses of small men to whom the field seems to have been handed over, should put us so much out of temper. The thing, however, ceases to be a joke when Pvke 6c Co. (we think in all honesty that the Superintendent is only a junior partner) deem the "private" matters of a young Warden of more importance than the public service. W T e say a young Warden advisedly, for he is hardly yet warm in the seat from which another man was ousted. In the public service in other countries it is generally considered the proper thing to apply for leave of absence after three, or at least two, years hard work. Public servants are generally taught that their " affairs of importance" must yield to the demands of the public, and esprit de corps proclaims aloud that such is right. Notwithstanding this, however, we find that Mr. Richmond Beetiiam has left his district upou personal grounds, and the result is that the people of the Arrow are getting dreadfully vexed because their business is at a stand-still. The people of the Arrow must be taught, however, that they are acting in a very insubordinate manner when they venture to complain of these things. A series of sketches of the Northern Island are perhaps required to embellish the album of some lady in Dunedin. Who so tit to make these sketches as a man born and bred an artist 9 and what is the consequehce of a few vulgar Arrow diggers and traders compared with the " urg nt private affairs" of a W r arden who has seen five months hard service ? Of what value are the third and fourth resolutions oi the Arrow Township Committee ? In all probability, if presented to the Superintendent in the form of a memorial, they would be rejected as impertinent, and perhaps one or two of the Members of Committee might, under the influence of soft sawder, be induced to repudiate them. We have seen such things done in Queens town, and although the miserable renegade who acted such a wretched part sutiored deservedly the contempt of the public tnerefor, yet we cannot tell that the bad example will not be followed by some other individual at the Arrow. It is, to say the least of it. rather a good thing for the

Arrow people to say that the Government have done wrong in overlooking Mr. Schau. He did his work to the satisfaction of the public, but is that a reason why he should be rewarded? Under the able management of Pyke k Co. a Warden can be made out of a linen draper s shop-boy in the course of a few weeks, and it is absurd to suppose that services rendered faithfully and skilfully are to compete with the desire of patronage. We recommend the people of the Arrow at their forthcoming meeting to make common

cause with the rest of the Otago diggers, and : o oo 7 to pass a resolution requesting the General Government at once to take matters into their own hands, and thus for ever get rid of the miserable shadows of politicians who are doing their very utmost to ruin the interests of the goldfields.