SWITZERS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 199, 23 November 1871, Page 5

SWITZERS.

(From our Own Correspondent.)

November 11th.

I know you are wearying. You think perhaps "our own" is gone. lam still in the vicinity slowly taking stock of events. The population has scattered very much of late. Though still in the district, old ties are broken ; other associations are formed. The small amount of gold obtained in the immediate neighbourhood of the township has been the cause of many prospecting parties starting out, and in some instances the result has been favourable. Good prospects have been obtained about twenty miles up the Waikaia River in shallow ground. One of the prospectors informed me that the sinking was from four to five feet. The ground is taken up all round him. The prospects generally are thought payable. There are also a good -many prospecting at Muddy Flat for a rich lead of gold that is supposed to run from Penny's claim (in which there is payable washdirt twelye feet thick) in a south-easterly direction^ under the low end of the terrace

into the flat towards the Waikaia. From the position of the parties that have got payable gold, it is likely to be traced for considerable distance. I hear to-day that two more parties on the lead have struck gold. The good weather that we are having, though favourable for prospecting, is drying up the water very quickly, and many of those persons who depend on surface water for sluicing are having to protect there claims. The Break-em-all claim in the fifty acres that is causing so much bother, is giving payable returns. The prospectors expect when they get the main drives in and commence blocking out, that it will give handsome' returns. Almost the entire block of fifty acres is payably auriferous.

The Miners' Association is kept very busy trying to prevent auriferous land from being alienated. The fifty acre 3 sale has been a caution to it, and has put it on the que vive. The memorial praying for the cancellation of the above sale was forwarded to the Colonial Executive by the last mail. There were about one hundred and fifty signatures attached to it. A public meeting was held last Saturday evening, under the auspices of the S. M. A. to oppose the sale of an acre and ahalf of land in Happy Valley by the Waste Lands Board to the Presbyterian Church Committee. Mr. Armstrong was voted to the chair. After a few introductory remarks by the Chairman, Mr. Chamberlain was called upon to state to the meeting what action the Miners' Protection Committee had taken in this matter. After the explanation, Mr. Gwynne proposed that a pc ition be sent to the Waste Lands Board, Dunedin, seconded by Mr. Chamberlain. There being no amendment, it was put to the meeting, and carried almost unanimously. The petition was laid before the meeting for signature — twenty of those present signed it. This is rather a peculiar case, as the manse is already erected on it, and also because it was erected on it in opposition to the united voice of the miners. It is . opposed not merely because the ground is auriferous, but because it will prevent a large block of land on the Long Spur, immediately behind it, from being worked, as there is no other outlet by which it can be sluiced away. There was a Miners' Protection Committee at the time it was first applied for, some eight or nine months asjo, opposed it on the above grounds, and offered to select a suitable site clear of the diggings, which the Minister agreed to accept, but some of his committee overruled him in the matter. Notwithstanding the opposition, a residence area was granted — the thin end of the wed»e was inserted, they now want to drive it home.

The requisition that was sent here for signature by our Teviot friends was returned numerously signed to the place from whence it came. I hope our member may not suffer serious inconvenience from the fearful reverse. Cni bono ?

The agricultural products make very slow progress this season.

The frosty nights and mornings have done a great amount of harm. Fruit blossomed abundantly — nearly, one-half has been destroyed, and unless the weather be more propitious, the fruit will be very scarce.

We have had a great cattle muster by Mr. Swanston, who has been very lenient hitherto. An occasional complaint about damage done to fences, &c, and a threat now and again that if the cattle were not removed from his run, they would be impounded. Of course words do very little harm in a case like this ; the people got rather used to it. Like the cry of wolf, wolf, it was heard unheeded until one fine morning sure enough the muster came. A rough draught brought nearly a hundred together, at 10s per head, which was about £50. The game has been going on for nearly a fortnight, and the result has been a nice round sum of money. No one can blame Mr. Swanston, but the commonage is small, tlie feed is bare, the tutu springs faster than the grass, cattle are dying from the effects of it. What is to be done 1 Ask the Government for room to exist. Petition for that block from whence the cattle were driven. Mr. Swanston would give it up for reasonable compensation. Ask for it !