NOTES FROM ST. BATHANS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 218, 2 May 1873, Page 3

NOTES FROM ST. BATHANS.

Rain has fallen at last, and in sufficient quantity to fill the whole of the races. The drought may now be pronounced at an end. The last four months has been a trying season, and has taxed alike the patience and the pockets of both miners and business people. Happily it is now 'over; and, with a plentiful supply of water, all hands will go vigorously to work and make up, if possible, for lost time. A public meeting for the purpose of taking steps to form a Miners' Association for the districts of St. Bathans, Welshman's Gully, and Blackstone Hill, was held in the schoolroom on the evening of the 22nd inst. Mr. W. M. Wade in the chair. There was a large muster of miners, and considerable interest in the movement was manifested. After some discussion, it was agreed, on the motion of Mi*. J. Ewing, that an Association be formed, to be designated the St. Bathans District Miners' Association. The annual subscription of members to be ss. The following gentlemen were appointed an Interim Committee : For Blackstone Hill: Mr. W. M. Wade; for Welshman's Gully : Mr. W. Williams; for St. Bathans: Messrs. G. H. Smith, J. Ewing, and E. Wood. It was agreed that a meeting of members be held about the end of May, when the election of a Permanent Committee would take place. A meeting of contributors to the Public Channel was held in the schoolroom on Saturday evening, for the purpose of devising some plan for the future maintenance of the Channel. After an acrimonious discussion—which, by the way, is characteristic of'the meetings of this body —-it was agreed that Mr. Thomas Hanrahan be employed on the Channel for a fortnight. The Channel is now in a very bad state, and is silted up nearly half way from the tail end. The Flushing Channel also requires immediate and extensive repair. The meeting would have shown a disposition to grapple with the difficulty if they had authorised the employment of a dozen or twenty men, in order to put the Channel in working condition. The employment of one man on a work of such, magnitude is a perfect farce, and will prove as futile as the efforts of Mrs. Partington to keep back the tide with her mop. It is high time that such tinkering with a public work, on which the future prosperity of this place depends so much, was put a stop to, by the adoption of a code of rules which would ensure the future maintenance of the Channel.