BALCLUTHA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 141, 20 October 1870, Page 5

BALCLUTHA.

( From our own Correspondent. )

In this district at present the latest and most engrossing topic of conversation is the recent discovery made that we are in the vicinity of a splendid goldfield. A few diggers have been steadily working within a couple of miles of Port Molyneux for some years back, and although owners of private property there have occasionally interrupted and compelled them to leave for other if not better fields, a few have obstinately continued to prospect within or along the forbidden ground. The result is, that several have succeeded in unearthing large quantities of the precious metal, and a rush on a small scale is taking place. Large uumbers of people are daily visiting the favoured spot, and are thu3 helping to stir up the decaying and dormant spirits of Port Molyneux and its environs.

The public mind, imitating, according to a recent correspondent from the hills, has been much engaged of late with intemperance. Meetings have been held, and societies formed in almost all Otago's towns and villages. In Balclutha there has been no public meeting held and there has been no society formed, yet, I am informed that upwards of seventy individuals have, during the last few weeks, pledged themselves to abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors. This is private enterprise and perseverance exceeding all your public demonstrations, and, for my part, J like it best. I never admired the taste that leads people to proclaim from the raised platform their former failings and vices : their sudden conversion and gigantic efforts to appear as wonderful, is frequently but the stepping stone midway to deeper- and f order deptlis .

The Tuapeka steamer plies her old vocation on the Clutha, and although late for the last season's produce, there is abundance of traffic to ensure a steady and regular trade. The Wallace has made three trips from Dunedin to the Port during as many weeks, and always with a good cargo. Oats are receding in price, and are quoted at 2s 6d ; barley unsaleable at about the same figure ; potatoes 30s per ton, and very plentiful. In the " Evangelist " for this month, I notice a sketch from the city of the plains, which reflects very bad taste on its insertion. When the dead and gone are charged with! villany, the charge ought to capable of being substantiated. But in this case, a paper which might read very creditably at a mutual improvement association, is altogether out of place when it receives the stamp and authority of the Otago Presbyterian Church ; making the gravest charges and the most severe and harsh assertions without occasion or authority. Whatever may have been Bruce's merits as a student and a Christian might well and ploquently be told without charging Logan with unpardonable sins.