LAKE WAKATIP.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 284, 14 August 1874, Page 3

LAKE WAKATIP.

(From our own correspondent.) July 31st.. Is it true tliat the longer we live themore we learn? It would almost seent as if It were so, for that be-writed individual, " the oldest inhabitant," has not before observed such a long, strong winter as the one we are enjoying at presentOne old lover of whisky thinks that the sudden spread of Good Templarism hassomething to do with it, for he had heard,, in the old country, of " them teetotallersdying with their stomachs full of snowballs and tea-leaves," and so he thinks it is possible such cold subjects may haveaffected the atmosphere; but, however it. may be accounted for, the fact remainsthat the prolonged frost is intense. The valleys of the Wakatip district are like ice-houses. It is an awful time for newspaper correspondents, through their ideasgetting frozen together, and requiring to--be thawed out ere they can be separately; expressed. Mining, sir? Well, Mr. Editor, I amnot equal to the task. After seeing the (at. least, original) effusions of the Lakes cor- - respondent of the ' Daily Times,' I dare - not venture—with my shallow knowledge - —upon a subject which, it appears, is in. such a different state to that in which I should have expected to find it; for theLakes district is one of the last places on, earth where I should have expected theminers to knock off working their aWttw in order to float them in joint stock conrpanies, seeing that there are only twosuch in the whole of the Wakatip district, and they are only on their trial. The effect produced in those cases by foreignmanagement is not such as to encourage the floating of many more, although thedistrict fairly teems with good bona fide speculations. It is not for want of good subjects for investment that people aiedeterred from seeking to invest in miningin Otago, but because land, buildings, and other business is much more certain than mining; and, until this state of things issomewhat changed, capital—neither local nor foreign—is likely to find its way into mining specs, and therefore the fears of the ' Times' correspondent must be groundless. So the Government do not intend tobring in a Bill to regulate water rights in this Colony. I wonder will any private member be equal to the occasion, and it for them; or will the Colony bestartled by the miners repeating the lessons of Ballarat, by cutting the gordian knot for them, and settling the matter in a manner that will admit of no dispute. But this is an unwholesome subject, sowe will not pursue it further.