FREE AND EASY NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume IV, Issue 221, 25 April 1872, Page 7

FREE AND EASY NOTES.

BY P. TBNAX,

So Tuapeka is to be visited by his Illustrious Highness, Brogden, Prince of Contractors and Companion of the Most Noble Order of Speculators. Doubtless, the great man will find many thing's to interest him, and, perhaps^ be induced to embark in some enterprise in thiß district. 1 understand, that some of our quartz and slniceocracy have several "good specs," ready to submit to him-, which should he undertake them will be productive of great benefit to himself and the Tuapeka Goldfield. I suggest that the Gabriels' Rock Quartz Mining Company gfrve him the sinking of their shaft, as local contractors seem unable to accomplish the task.

Anbnt the Moa Flat sale astain. It will be recollected that the Waste Lands Board allowed^ Clarke two shillings per

acre for the cost of surveying the land purchased by him. Included in the area, there was a block of 5000 acres intended for agricultural settlement, 2000 acres of which were afterwards withdrawn, the balance of the block being retained by Clarke. Now, this 3000 acres was previously surveyed by the Government, and does not require re-surveying. Clarke, however, is permitted by the Waste Lands, Board to draw two shillings a a acre, or £300 for surveying, which has not been done! "Unto him that hath,'* &c.

" The claimant to the Tichborne title and estate, is in Newgate." This is a not altogether unexpected, though startling piece of intelligence. The claimant, or rather ex-claimant, has evidently been proved to be Arthur Orton. If so, a good many of his remaining years will be spent in prison. It is not improbable that the real Roger Tichborne, may yet be in Australia, A story was circulated some time ago, to the effect that the " Arthur Orton," advertised and searched for, was undergoing a long term of imprisonment in- a New South Wales goal for bushranging The non-production of this man was acconnted for on the ground that the claimant was so seriously implicated in the crime for which Orton is suffering imprisonment, that the production of that individual would lead to his being tried for bushranging. Is it beyond the bounds of possibility that the man in the New South Wales gaol is the real Sir Roger Tichborne ?

That the mining magnates of Tuapeka are not enterprising, has several times been stated in my presence. I consider that statement a foul libel, and that the gentlemen alluded to are exceedingly enterprising, sometimes to the verge of rash speculation. The Gabriels Reef, for example. A number of the " magnates," including amongst them some of the wealthiest claimholders in the district, took up -several goldmining leases along the Hue of that reef. In order to trace the course of the reef, three of the companies, holding in the aggregate fifty acres of ground, and whose claims adjoin, amalgamated. They pnt men on to search for the lode, and although scarcely any encouragement was afforded by the prospects found, they plnckily kept them on for the lengthened period of one fortnight. All this time there was a heavy and continual drain on .the pockets of the leaseholders going on. lam informed that each shareholder actually expended the enormous sum of twenty shillings in trying to find the reef. Yet the men who incurred this vast expenditure are accused of want of enterprise \

The Goldfields of Otago are not worked out yet. In the " Wakatip Mail," I see that at Skipper's a dozen men have divided within the last two or three years, gold to the value of £100,000 to £150,000. If it was announced that a dozen men in the centre of Africa, or in the vicinity of the South Pole had netted that amount of gold in ihe same space of time, tire mining community would-be in a state of mad excitement ; the name of the El Dorado would be on everyone's tongue ; and there would be a general stampede to it. As; however, the locality iskin Otago, its wondrous richness excite little notice, and but ephemeral interest.

The only difficulty that I see in the way of the Lawrence Criminal Sittings — which I believe are to commence in June — proving a complete success, is that of obtaining a sufficient and regular supply of criminals. The perversity of human nature is shown in the fact that, despite the elaborate preparations made in Lawrence for the trial, conviction, and punishment of evil-doers, up to the present time men have obstinately reframed from breaking the laws of the cauntry. This is really discreditable to the district, and likely to be disastrous to its reputation as one of the most important portions of the province. I fear that a Lawrence petty jury will for some time to come be debarred from enjoying the exquisite pleasure of returning a verdict of "guilty." lam afraid to speculate how the Bar will fare if the district keeps in such a frightful state of morality. Probably they will prey on each other. If the absence of crime should cause them to do so, I shall b?gin to believe in the possibility of the Millenium.