FOURTEEN MILE BEACH.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 118, 12 May 1870, Page 5

FOURTEEN MILE BEACH.

(From our Own Correspondent.) May 2, 1870. In mining matters I have not much to remark beyond the fact that parties hereabout are making every preparation for working their winter claims. Messrs. Quayle and Co. have their fluming across the river completed, and the long span of wire and hose presents a very prominent feature in our landscape. Messrs. Heron and Nott are at work stripping ground preparatory to getting in their wheel and pump, and I have no doubt, with a fair season, the above-mentioned parties claims will yield satisfactory returns for trouble and outlay. Not least to be recognised is the fact that Mr. Warden Borton has declared the ground between the Twtlve Mile and the Roaring or Gorge Creek, into acre areas, a distance of five milts on both banks of the river. This is a move in the right direction, as it gives claim-holders a chance of recouping themselves for too heavy expenses that are. now necessary for opening fresh workings on this river. , At the Gorge too, Mr. John O'Brien has completed his extensive range of stabling, haying made it one of the best finished affairs of the kind in the province. It is a great accomodation for travellers -on the new line between Tuapeka and Alexandra. So that parties travelling the road can procure everything they require from Johnny O'Brien at the Gorge. In matters political we are all on the gui vive for the coming man as Superintendent. Votes have been registered, and the political antecedents of the supposed candidates, closely scrutinised arguments pro. anl con. have been heard anent this or that one, as the case may be ; and each of us, like the celebrated Abbe of Avignon, has his thirty-two constitutions in his pigeon hole ready for any political emergency. Already some very quiet moves in favour of Mr. Macandrew are being made in tliis district, but from the tone of the majority in this part, I'm thinking his chance of being re-elected is a very remote one. I have heard a whisper about bringing Mr. J. C. Brown forward to contest the election for the Superintendent's chair, in the event of Mr. Wilson Grey or Mr. Pyke not being put in nomination. Ido not know where we could get a better man to occupy the position, for besides his place in the Legislation, his always having advocated the policy of. throwing open the waste lands for settlement, and his thorough acquaintance with the wants of the outlying districts, render it not unlikely that he would command the greatest amount of support from all classes up here — but one. Ourconstitutionmongers also look forward to the ensuing elections for the realization of their fondest hopes, which will convert New Zealand into a modern Utopia, of which Otago is to be the cornucopia. Each individual to be a freeholder or squatter, and the remainder

to be J.P.s or guagers. Auctioneers shall have nothing to sell but themselves, and no person shall undergo the whitewashing process unless he can pay twentyone shillings in the pound, free of income tax. Business is at a standstill with us until the river retires within its winter limits, which cannot be long, as the Old Man is already provided with his winter costume, and very heavy frosts have put in an ' appearance, so that very soon we may expect some of the shiny metal that lies in the river banks and beds, to find its way into circulation, gladdening the hearts, and filling the purses of miner, storekeeper, and in fact all classes of the community, not excepting " Your Own."