The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1878.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3043, 15 November 1878, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1878.

Thx Karaka and Tararu Tunnel Scheme is not likely to remain much longer a mere proposal. The prompters are taking active steps to giro practical shape to their views, and we may shortly expect to see the prospectus before the public. At yesterday's meeting of the Committee appointed to arrange the preliminaries, a sub-committee was delegated to lay the scheme before some of our prominent mining men, and ask their assistance in framing a prospectus. To carry out this idea the following circular was to-day sent to several gentlemen resident here, and also telegraphed to town to the gentlemen whose names were suggested at the meeting held yesterday :—

Sir, —The Government having made a grant of 640 acres of the Goldfield, free of rent, for the purpose of enabling a company to put in a tunnel from Karaka Greek to Tararu Creek, and to work any reefs intersected, and the promoters being desirous of forming a company to carry out the scheme, I am instructed to request yonr assistance and co-operation. I enclose a copy of the letter from the Under Secretary for Goldfields setting forth the conditions under which this valuable concesiion is granted to the promoters, and I may inform you that it is the desire of the promoters to combine capital and labor in carrying out the scheme. Knowing the interest you have always taken in the goldfield I should feel obliged by your giving this matter your consideration, and favoring me with some suggestion or a draft prospectus for carrying out the scheme not later than Monday next. I have the honour to be. Sir, Your obedient Servant, Wm. MoCviiLovtm. The Under Secretary's letter we have already published, and it is not necessary to refer to it further than to say that it lays down the conditions which the Government exact for putting the company in possession of the land. When this scheme was first mooted we went exhaustively into the question, and pointed out what the promoters had in view, namely, to enlist both capital and labor in a judicious combination for carrying out a grand work. This simply means to give miners an interest in a great company, or what will, we have no doubt, turn out to be a great company; at the same time interesting capitalists to an extent that will involve them in very trifling liabilities. As the promoters will lay the whole scheme and details before the public shortly, we will not enlarge further upon the subject. We

see in the scheme the elements of

a great thing. It will, ..if prosecuted energetically, inaugurate quite a new era in mining affairs, and possibly be the means of giving a new direction to energy and capital at present being expended in a way that does not bring commensurate returns.

Some months ago a resolution was passed in the Borough Council—on the motion of Councillor Ehrenfried,if we remember rightly—the purport of which was to i establish baths and washhouses in the Borough. We had previously advocated the question so far as a public bath was concerned, and naturally endorsed the movement in the Council. No steps appear to have been taken to give practical effect to the resolution of the Council, and we are now arriving, or have arrived at a season when a public bath would be most appreciated by a majority of the male portion of the community. Considering the magnitude of the works undertaken by the Thames Borough, and the extraordinary facilities which exist for promoting such a scheme as a public bath, it seems strange that this motion of the Council's should have remained so long a dead letter. If it has been overlooked, or quietly shelved by Borough Councillors, the public have not lost sight of it, and although no great stir has been made in the matter, many burgesses have come to the conclusion that the Council have been remiss in not carrying out the spirit and letter of the resolution. Of course it is admitted that too much time has been allowed to pass to expect that the Council could entertain the matter so as to furnish the desired convenience this season, but it is perhaps advisable to remind the Borough Councillors that, having affirmed the desirability of such an institution, some steps ought to be taken to give practical effect to the same. To meet urgent requirements, however, and to place at the disposal of the people tome form of a public bath, it is within the power of the Borough Council, in conjunction with the Harbor Board, to utilise the baths erected by a private individual, namely, the establishment belonging to Mr C. Curtis, until lately lessee or owner of the, Albert street wharf. We understand that Mr Curtis is willing to dispose of his interest for a very moderate sum, and the Borough might fairly become the purchaser. Under arrangement with the Harbor Board an agreement could be come to for the Borough to take over these baths and put them in repair, and if the Harbor Board would relax the toll as far as bathers are concerned many parsons would at once avail themselves of the opportunity thus afforded for " a dip in the briny." We throw out the suggestion, and we hope the Councillors will not be slow to investigate the plausibility of the scheme, and supply a great want.