LAKE WAKATIP.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 407, 11 January 1877, Page 3

LAKE WAKATIP.

(From oar own correspondent.) The elections for this new County Council are over, and the responsibilities of the uninviting position of Couuty Councillors are thrown on the shoulders of many untried men, and the term for which the first Council sits, or holds-of-fice, is too short to school them to their work. Notwithstanding this, it is. more than possible that much of the blame •which, by rights, should be fathered on the. paternal Government, and others, will be placed; to the credit of the Council of each County by those of their constituents who can see no reason why the County Councils should not in each case do more work for the respective districts than has been done heretofore by the defunct authorities. This is likely to be one of the most unpleasant sequences of the labor of Councillors, and it is to be hoped that Couuty electors will be cautious to find out the true cause of the paucity of works achieved in each district before they choose their party to blame, and be quite sure that^ they father it on the right one. Those sentiments h ave been frequently expressed in the hearing of your correspondent by parties who were solicited to stand for nomination at the late election, but refused the honor, very often for unexplained reasons; and it is quite possible such expressions were common elsewhere, j If County Councillors deserve fair play anywhere it is certainly in the Lake County, where people and leaders have been alike clamorous for local self-govern-ment, little dreaming that with the independence for which they so longed would corns a nakedness of which they would be not less ashamed than.frightr ened, and which is rendered doubly bitter by the knowledge of the fact that it is the price of luxuries in which they have had little indulgence. However, the toll of the bell for the death of 1876, and the peals for the birth of 1877, will i see us like the forcibly emancipated negroes—in the enjoyment of a "terrible liberty," one sometimes heard about, but never realised with pleasure, viz., liberty ! to go without clothes, when they cannot be procured. Jt is quite certain that the pea is not under the thimble'of our choice, I and it boots not to blame anyone for the [ results of a game in which we were willing players ; but some are sure to indulge in recrimination, however useless. It is to be hoped they will grapple the proper parties. The miners are quite alive to the fact that their tramm-ls are heavier, and tighter, and the only hope of miners, as a class, is, that other interests may exert themselves for the miners' sake, when they find out, as they must do eventually, that for every penny of special taxation paid by miners in New Zealand other portions of society lose two. When the eyes of statesmen are opened to this fact, then, and not till then, will special taxation be removed from the mining industry in this country. If any correspondent has stated that the miners of this district " are content to bear their share of taxation," meaning the present share, it is but right to state that , the author dare not come amongst the miners of this district, and make that statementfete-a-fete Your correspondent has known scores of able and experienced miners who have left this country because they could not hope to make headway against such fearful odds ; and it is a wel! known fact that one argument which' was used to support the introduction of Chinese gold-seekers into this country, was, that they would work for less than the European miner, and would not therefore refuse to pay the.special taxation. Perhaps the 'Star's' Wakatip correspondent may remember something of this. The past Christihas has been less brilliant in this district than, some of its predecessors, but still we have had some good sport, ana much to be thankful for. There is little to report in mining, beyond the Macetown reefs. The Homeward Bound cleaned up after crushing some forty odd tens of stone and produced a cake of eighty-six ounces of gold. Some very poor stone went through, while- some was good ; but prospects are improving in this company. Altogether the field looks healthy, but it is fearfully handicapped with difficulties. The All Nations Company have nrdproH a ninfhine ' of tour .sUiiups, to be ready iu three

months, for cruahing, • so that they will jast be at Id to lest their claim by winter. That is slow work, but it tnay be consid-j ored fast under such difficulties as are ex-! perienced here;