Contributor.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 19, 4 August 1894, Page 6

Contributor.

THROUGH THE OTAGO GOLDFIELDS ON A BICYCLE.

[By Roadster,]

The bicycling fraternity in Cromwell was represented by Messrs Jolly and Mitchel, who both rode cushion tyre machines. They had been deterred from getting pneumatic tyres from dread of puncture, and were much surprised to hear from me that the risk of puncture 'was so slight. My business in Cromwell being completed, I girded up my loins for departure, and in the course of an hour and a half had run through the Cromwell Gorge to Clyde—l 3 miles —on a fairly level and good conditioned road. Clyde is the country town of the Vincent County, has some imposing County offices, and a fine bridge over the Olutha. It is claimed that Clyde possesses the finest climate in New Zealand perennial sunshine and clear atmosphere—but for my taste the sun sank behind the mountains far too soon, and King Frost clenched his iron hand until the thermometer was far below the freezing point. The Clyde coal did not possess great combustible qualities, and to go to bed was a purgatory each night. I stayed two nights in Clyde : —the first, my only companions in the sittingroom were two Assyrian hawkers, from whom I gathered some information of their country. I found that they were both fortified with letters of naturalisation, taken out at the suggestion of some gentleman in Dunedin. The second night was spent in the company of. several other commercials, under the presidency of genial Warden Wood, and we enjoyed the “ feast of reason and the flow of soul.” The whole company seemed infected with humourous vein ; quip and jest ran high, and we dispersed at a late hour after a merry evening. Clyde is the point to which those who advocate the

OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY aim at having it completed to, prior to carrying it on to Ultima Thule — Lake Wanaka. The Otago Central Railway is a topic of much interest in all the country I traversed, and he would be a bold man who would venture to advance the contention that the railway was not urgently needed. I saw for myself some portion of the land through which the railway is surveyed to pass, and it struck me as appearing arid and unproductive. Yet, on the other hand, I was assured by those whose opinion I was bound to respect that the land only needed irrigation to be highly productive. I saw also fine‘turnips at Lowburn, and below Clyde a couple of farms with a good sole of grass, carrying fine sheep, the result, they told me, of irrigation. That the climate is an ideal one for fruit growing, has been proved beyond question. The champion apples at the Dunedin show came from Cromwell, and the potentialities of the country for the production of wealth from this source, if transit could be obtained at moderate rates, are very great. Let me wish, therefore, “ God speed ” to the Otago Central Railway. After leaving Clyde I bowled down the long Elat to Alexandra, about seven miles, passing on the way seven gold dredges on the Clutha, all getting good gold and contributing to the prosperity of the Alexandrans. I found Alexandra a somewhat straggling but busy township on the junction of the Manuerhika with the Clutha, the latter river being spanned by a fine bridge leading out of the township. I put up for a few days with Mr L. Ryan, at the Bendigo Hotel, who is justly reputed to keep the best table on the goldfields. During the bitterly cold weather which 1 experienced, it was pleasant to be catered for in such style and -to secure the best of all

antidotes to external cold—the internal warmth df good living. The township impressed me as the busiest I had yet visited. The proximity of the dredges, with the consequent increased impetus to the coal output, added to the ordinary business of a goldfields township, made things pretty lively. The impending election also added its quota of excitement and the event of the day, the arrival of the coach, acquired an additional interest as the mail brought in news fiom the other centres. The respective merits of “ SCOBIE ” AND “ LaBNACH,”

their sayings and doings, meritorious and otherwise, seemed to be as household words, and I could perceive that the day would neither be lost nor won without a gallant struggle on both sides. I regretted I was unable to turn from Alexandra off to Blacks, Naseby, and so on, but Time was inexorable. I contented myself, therefore, with having a look at the dredges clanking away in their herculean efforts to drag the precious metal up from its hiding place twenty odd feet below the surface of the swift-running Clutha, and leaving the refuse of the struggle heaped up in mounds of tailings, and the spoils upon the various gold-saving appliances employed. I saw also some of the fine fruit gardens of this district, and then, my time being exhausted, I prepared for a speedy return home.