SERPENTINE.—June 15.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 173, 28 June 1872, Page 3

SERPENTINE.—June 15.

OB"rom our own Correspondent.) The winter has now fairly set in. A fall of snow commenced on the 10th, and continued with slight intermission till the 15th. The snow now lies to the depth of 18 inches to two feet, which has put a stop to all mining operations. I expect and hope to see the snow melt, and all hands again at work soon. Should my anticipations be correct the water which the late fall will supply will be a real Grod-send to the miners, and be a great benefit to the district. Those who were able to wash up their summer paddocks before the tsnow fell did so, I understand, with very satisfactory results. Our postal arrangements are still so unsatisfactory that, though I write, I hardly know when my letter will reach you —-the whole system being one of pure volunteerism. The population on the Serpentine at present amounts to about 160, Europeans and Chinese, and I think that it is high time that the promises made with regard to the mail from the Linburn should be fulfilled. When the Government derive a large amount of revenue from any place they shonld be honest enough to make some return by expending some portion thereof upon the district within which raised. An annual subsidy of between dG4O or £SO or thereabouts would place the matter in proper train, while the expenditure of a similar sum would render the road passable for traffic. At the present time the state of the road between this place and the Black Ball is such that the last team that came up here was fairly bogged, and unable to proceed for several days. Hence it is that we Serpentinites have to pay more for carriage than other sgg m S s or 50 miles further from Dunedin. I think that this being a portion, and not an unimportant portion, of the Mount Ida district, that the people of Serpentine have a claim upon the c Chronicle ' for support, and the advocacy of their causes and grievances, be they mail or be they other.