LAKE WAKATIP.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 238, 26 September 1873, Page 3

LAKE WAKATIP.

(Prom our own correspondent.) I would like to see a more free communion indulged in by the miners of Otago; through the many local papers which are just now being published in our centres of population. The miners are evidently good readers and good subscribers, for wherever there are three or four hundred of. them they can always support a local paper; but, I am sorry to have to add, that years of observation has convinced me that they are very meagre contributors. JSTow, I regret this; for, as steel sharpens steel, so does the exchange of ideas create mutual extension and improvement. As it is. on all sides admitted that practice is better than precept, I purpose. to trouble you with a little ' * occasional" yarn about the doings of this wild Wakatip District. You have some old acquaintances of ours amongst you, whose faces are pleasantly photographed on the memory of your humble scribe, to whom it will always afford very considerable pleasure to think that any news he can furnish may be read with interest, by friends, for the sake of "auld lang syne." But—■ But what?' Why, sir, a difficulty exists: where am I to begin? From Kinloch, at the head of Lake Wakatip, to Kingston on the south—from the head of the Shotover to the mouth of the Cardrona; thence to Roaring Meg; thence to Kingston (as they say in ' Gazette ' parlance), are the bounds of the Wakatip District; so it is no great wonder that I should be struck with the idea of the difficulty of knowing where to commence first.

But Again! That difficulty vanishes before memory, like light dew before the sun's rays, and forces my rather festive spirits into one of sober sadness, whilst I record the death of an old and respected resident: Mr. David Blair, of Spring Bank Farm, Lower Shotover, who died at his residence on Monday, the Bth inst. Many will thankfully remember hiß services as ferryman on the Lower Shotover, prior to the ei-ection of the present bridge.

The increasing interest which i 3 being taken in public matters by the inhabitants of this district in general is very healthy, and promises well for the future qi the place.

We have about seven Miners' Association-; aiid Improvement; Committees in the district., besides one established Municipality, and, [ believe, another about to be so; for it. is tumored that the people of the Arrow are endeavoring to form one, having found out that it does not pay to buy township allotments and give all the taxes arising from them to the Government, without any return for even a tithe of them. Poor people! they must have been very confiding to allow that sort of thing to go on so long. "lis no wonder they found it out, especially as I hear the revenue'of this township amounts to between two and three hundred pounds per annum. In mining, everything is war. " The winter of our discontent is made glorious " by the approach of summer, with plenty of water and soft weather—all in the favor of miners, except in river or creek beds, from which, in spring I can only say, deliver us. Our farms are looking well, and advantage is being taken of good weather to complete the spring sowings, while autumn-sown crops are springing " fresh and green;" and the grass keeps on the increase, notwithstanding the busy teeth which browse it. Planting is on the increase, especially in the penological department; although, I believe, the inhabitants of this district are viewing arboriculture with much more favor than heretofore, giving ground for the hope that we may some day see our waste made profitable and beautiful by thousands of plantations, which, I feel certain, would prove a splendid investment for anyone who may have anything to invest. From what I remember of your district, I think that a few thousand acres of good plantation would be highly profitable and j truly beautiful.