THE ARROW.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume II, Issue 80, 3 February 1864, Page 5

THE ARROW.

(from our own correspondent.) The following memorial has been signed by nearly 400 miners and inhabitants of the Twelve-Mile district, and was presented on Tuesday morning to his Honor the Superintendent of the Province, at the Arrow Courthouse. The deputation, consisting of Messrs. McDougall, Canovan, and Scanlon, were most courteously received, and his Honor assured them that their appeal should have the same consideration as promised to that of the Arrow people, and that he had already given instructions to the mining surveyor to at once commence another survey for a bridle track between the two places. To His Honor the Superintendent of the Province of Otago. SIR, —We the undersigned miners and residents on the Twelve-Mile creek, Arrow district, availing ourselves of the opportunity afforded us by your presence in this district, beg respectfully to bring before your notice, some of our most urgent requirements, as embodied in the following memorial, and which we trust will obtain your favorable consideration, as also that of your Honor's Government As miners and inhabitants of one of the most important gold-producing districts in this Province, we submit that we have a right to expect that your Honor's Government should adopt some measures for making more easily accessible our communication with the other and more central goidfields. We regret that we are compelled to express our disappointment thathitherto all our moderate demands on your Honor's Government have met with no response, save a few vague and unsatisfactory promises; even our most urgent requirements, namely:—The formation of a bridle track between that place and the Arrow township has not yet been commenced, and the continual expense entailed on us by the high rate of carriage on our dangerous mountain tracks is burdensome and excessive, and more than we, as hard-working miners ought to bear. We therefore most earnestly and respectfully request that you will, as also your Honor's Government, see the necessity of at once commencing the formation of a good bridle track between this place and the Arrow Township, for the following reasons: — t In a few months, or it may be only weeks, the season will have passed away in which such work can be cheaply and efficiently done, and if not done before the approach of winter it will then be impossible that it can be done, the surface of the country in this mountainous district being *> deeply covered with snow, and hardened by the severe frosts which prevail at that season of the year; consequently many of us though having great faith in the resources of the district will, through the high rate of carriage on the necessaries of life be compelled to leave it for a more genial and favored country. Also the important and gigantic works now completed, and in course of construction in this locality, we consider has a right to be fostered by your Honor's Government ; and likewise we consider that the inhabitants of this district have for the past twelve months contributed an equal, if not a larger amount, to the general revenue of this province than any other gold-producing district of equal area on the goidfields of Otago; and on which there has not yet been a shilling expended. We also consider that the construction of the road by way of the Kawarau, which is to connect Queenstown with Dunedin,

without coming by way of the Arrow, will be a serious loss and injustice to us, and to all the residents and miners on toe Upper Shotover and Arrow districts, we having to pay from four to six pounds sterling, per ton, additional on all goods we require, which would bo avoided were our supplies landed at the Arrow instead of being taken on to Queenstown and then carted back to the Arrow again. In conclusion we beg to express a hope that you will, as also your Honor's Government, favorably consider and promptly grant the request of your humble petitioners as mentioned above. The storm which raged here on Monday night caused some considerable damage to many of the calico habitations on the Arrow river. The roofs of the Prince of Wales, Shamrock, and Imperial hotels were carried away by the gale, and many minor casualties occurred throughout the township and on the river. At the Twelve-Mile diggings the monster flume, known as the " Niagara," was blown down, and much of the woodwork destroyed, which will entail a heavy loss both of time and money to the company; they propose now to amalgamate with parties constructing another flume across the creek, and construct one sufficiently strong enough to carry a water supply to both claims.