LAKE WAKATIP.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 252, 2 January 1874, Page 3

LAKE WAKATIP.

(From our own correspondent.) Arrow, Dec. 22,1873.

The visit of the Provincial Secretary and Treasurer (Mr. Turnbull) and the Secretary for Works and Goldfields (Mr. Bastings), which occurred last week, has been the all-absorbing topic in the district. There is much credit due to those honorable gentlemen for having taken so much trouble to learn the rights and wrongs of a question enveloped by conflicting interests in such a fog of misrepresentation, as was the case in reference to the depasturing at the! Wakatip. But, thanks to the officers of the Miners' Associations, and to Mrs. M'Dougall, of the Arrow, who, armed with a petition bearing about 600 signatures, represented the depasturing interest, this fog was most effectually dispelled; and ample proof was furnished that the population of this district is so disposed and located, and its resources are so extensive;-whilst its peculiar geographical feature is such that intimate acquaintance alone can prove to any men what would suit or be adverse to the peculiar circumstances. And thus it is that the members of the Provincial Executive who have just left us have merited and received the hearty thanks of an appreciative community, for their honest endeavor to judge for themselves what was tV.e best policy to pursue iu initiating a system which, once started, must, for weal or woe—for a time, at least —remain unaltered. Of course, the exact programme of the Government, as to what will be done, could not- be given until such information as the honorable gentlemen collected has been considered by his Honor the Superintendent and the other members of the Executive, but they have taffc us under the impression that a terrible blow to the future settlement of population in this district, and to the future development of its vast' resources, has been averted. ,

I am sorry to have to report an accident at Arthur's Point, on the Shotover, by which a man named Katton —the father of a family of six children—got killed, and another man, named Harrison, got his leg broke. It is said that the sad accident occurred through; a shot hanging fire, probably from bad fuse. It is to be hoped that our large-hearted public Trill sympathise with the bereaved widow and orphans, to whom the Christmas of 1873 is rendered sorrowfully memorable. The mining prospects of the Upper Shotover are very promising, while those of the Arrow are healthy,; I am sorry to say that some of onrcompanies have suffered from false reports and misrepresentations of. fact, which nave got into circulation no one knows how. However, I am happy to be able to say that, on whatever mischievous imp the onus of misrepresentation rests, he will soon be dismissed to the- dark regions of oblivion by the success which will so certainly be shown in the happy results attending the only company in the district which is ready for thetest. Of course I allude to Grace and Eager's claim, of the Upper Shotover. N"exttO follow will probably be the Arrow United, and the Sons of Fortune, or Arrow: Palls—than wliich no better speculations can be offered to the mining share mai-k.ets —the heavy yield of gold being in both cases followed up to the very boundary of the claims, so that failure would seem impossible. Our local Sports.Committee are determined to ensure us a merry Christmas ; and that such may be the lot of all your readers is the sincere wish, of: your faithful scribe. [Our correspondent's letter, we regret, was delayed, and only reached us on the 27th ult.]