LAKE WAKATIP.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 253, 9 January 1874, Page 3

LAKE WAKATIP.

(From our own correspondent.)

* .December 29th, 1873, ; Christmas has come and gone, and ere this scribble reaches > you the year itself will have fled, and our:deeds be matter of history. Sport has been the order of the day since the world - wide holiday began. Horse-racing, athletic sports, regattas, balls, and bazaars have formed one;continuous whirl of pleasure, which was some-, what cheeked by Saturday morniugturning out very wet, wjien heavy rain cooled the spirited merrymakers, and flooded creek beds cut ofi'communications. But the mid-day sun dispelled the mists, and their sombre pall giving plaje to golden sunshine, setting nil right again. - Some nice finds of gold occurred just as Christmas drew iiigli,' -if report speaks truly. Matliieson and party,, of Whitechapel Flat sold 1240z5., the proceeds of one months' work ; while a party of Chinamen are said'to have sold lllbs. of I gold got on the Bush Creek, which falls into the Arrow Kiver United Company's claim, so.it looks well for that company. Some of our wheat crops aro laid by the heavy rain, bnt crops generally look well. It is expected that they Will be equal to last season. For grass'aid growth generally this has been one ofthe best seasons experienced in the district. The feeling which wai so freely expressed agaiust the sale of the runs lias now taken another is tliat of intense anxiety. No doubt-exists that the Provincial Executive meat well, but the questions which are constantly put show that people are doubtful of the result. It is asked—l- Must fences le erected on the richest alluvial ground; in the Province ? 2. Will our unsuryeyed townships be fenced in ? 3. If Sovernment rent our timbered land, what rnusfc we do for timber? and'so forth. All sorts and conditions of men are alive tdthe importance of what might be appropriately called tie Wakatip Land aid Timber Question. It is the preiudiceto freedom of occcupation of land for houses: and claims, and to the free use of,timber and other necessary privileges, vhich cause the miners and settlers of th> district to! complain of the creation of a iew class of tenants of the Crown; and i; is univer.sally felt that the present Prdrincial Executive have more power, for veal or woe, over this district than any of ;heir predecessors; and should they cotie to a just and good conclusion, they fill be the means of initiating many a lappy Tear for the (future of the Waiatip, whiclu I now wish them, yourself] and your readers. ' ' . \ . S'