THE KAWARAU.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 96, 2 October 1863, Page 3

THE KAWARAU.

(From the Correspondent of the Wakatip Mail.) 26th September. A few days ago a storekeeper residing at Gentle Annie Creek ■ — the same Gentle Annie the witness told Mr Judge Richmond in Dunedin ifc won Id take him (ihe Judge) six. hours to cross— was engaged packing jjoods to bis store ; and when trying to avoid one of the dangerous landslips in tlie road, the pack unfortunately struck against a projecting stone, precipitating the poor animal a distance of twelve or fourteen feet, and jamming it between two huge rocKs, in such a way as to render its master's assistance useless. Tn a few minutes after, a party of six diggers were passing, whose aid Tait earnestly solicited • but unlike the old Victorian diggers, af] help was bluntly refused. Thus for thp sake of a few minutes' delay and labor Tait was compelled to lose a horse worth £80, his principal stay, nor was he able to remove the goods for some little time. On Saturday, the 19th instant, between eleven and twelve a.m., a miner named John Hens was engaged paddoeking in Copenhagen Gully, near its junction with Smith's Gully, when the face of ihe bank slipped; the falling earth struck liim on the legs, bending his knees, and squeezing him against the opposite bank, completely covering bim. One of his mates, Kaspar Hoggeman, was working with him at the time, and was covered to bis arm-pits ; he called for assistance, when a number of diggers at once removed the earth and took out the men. Kaspar Hoggeman was more frightened than hurt, but John Hens was quite dead. One of the diggers who came to render them assistance was their other mate, who, having heard the call in the hut, where he was attending to culinary matters, ran off immediately and in the hurry of the moment forgot to remove the frying-pan, which took fire, and caused the tent and two others which were close by to be consumed with all their contents. John Hens was a native of Prussia, district of Coblentz, about .'l2 or :-;3 years of age, by tirade a tanner, has been gold mining in California, Victoria, and in Otago since the lirst rush. His friends at present keep large tanneries at Coblent-. A magisterial inquiry was held on the 21st instant, by Jackson Keddell, Esq , R.M,, at the Kawarau Hotel, Kawarau Junction, when a verdict ot v Accidental Death " was recorded. A few days ago a party of miners were obliged to wade across the Nevis River* the weather being cold and severe, from three to six feet of snow on the ground ; one of them named £be Nelsein, a native of Sweden, aged twenty- three years, caught a severe cold, and died ou Sunday last of inflammation of the bowels. He was attended by Dr Har. is. There are a great many miners going to these diggings, but at present there is no encouraging report from there, the weather being cold and too much snow on the ground for all the miners to work with success. There are six or seven stores of various dimensions, and a baker's shop, about to be erected — a great desideratum on a new rush. Population between 300 and 400. A new chum met one of the Dunstan camp officials the other day in the street, and enquiied where the diggers got their claims. A resident of the Kawarau posted a letter in that town the other day in time for the mail going to Q,ueens(own, to which place he had written to a friend whence he could have had an answer by return mail from the latter place. Instead of sending it direct from tho Kawarau the letter should be forwarded, according to regulation, hy the Dunstan, via Dunedin, to Queenstown, thus-making the time of communication between Queenstown and Kawarau, a distanceof thirty miles, in four teen days. This is decidedly rapid pro- • gress with 8, vengeance in the nineteenth centuvv, Our Postmaster-General is n groat stickler for the old circumlocution school, wlieq he would not hUqw letters to

be forwarded direct from one posl town to the other. •When-: public convenience is not a matter ;forythat gentleman's consideration, he tnight take into account the very had state of the roads, and save poor horse flesh. A few- days ago a baker's cart was stopped near to "the Molyneux Gorge by the men at work on the public road, to get bread at two shillings per loaf, the menacing exasperated atbeing charged two shillings and sixpence per loaf for their bread by a storekeeper not a hundred miles from the Kawarau Junction, merely ' because they had not the ready cash, although none of their cheques were as yet dishonored or questioned when tendered for payment. This is the wrong way for a business man to amass a fortune by so .Severely taxing the daily bread of the poor unfortunate laborer. This is a little matter tinder the rose, the bud of which we will destroy, if people do not mend their ways.