NEVIS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 190, 1 July 1873, Page 6

NEVIS.

(from our own correspondent.) Since my last the changes of weather have been so frequent and varied that only a shorthand writer could note them with anything approaching to accuracy, and as I have no pretensions to that accomplishment, I will just let them rip ; but on the whole we cannot complain, for although it has been somewhat moist—after the Scotch mist fashion—it has been (considering the time of year) favourable to the prosecution of our labours. The damages done by the late flood are being rapidly repaired ; and should the weather continue moderately favourable, all will soon be got right again, and the miner, animated with fresh hopes and forgetful of past disappointments, will court the smiles of Dame Fortune once again. Good luck to him ! say I. Whilst cruising round about Stewart’s Gully and the neighbourhood thereof the other day, 1 was rejoiced to find that some half-dozen of my old acquaintances had set in afresh there ; and notwithstanding the habitual caution which miners (especially Scotch ones) display when talking about their prospects, I learnt enough to satisfy me that they were all, or nearly all, doing pretty well. This Stewart’s Gully has been and is a wonderful bit of ground ; it is more than ten years since it was opened ; it has never been deserted ; many thousands of ounces of gold have been taken out of it, and it appears that there is some in it yet. Some time when I am in a cheerful humour I will go to the trouble of estimating the revenue which Government has derived from this gully since it has been occupied by the miner and compare it with the revenue which would have been derived from it if it had been occupied by the squatter. I think the comparison will be startlingly in favour of the miner, as there are only some three or four acres in the gully. From an account of the proceedings of the Waste Lands Board which appeared in the Witness of the 7th inst., we learn that Mr W. J. Harrison is trying to come to some arrangement as to the purchase of his preemptive right on Run 354. This run, let it be known, embraces a portion of what is termed the Upper Nevis, where gold-mining has been pursued remuneratively for the last ten years ; where at the present time some of the best claims in the district are working ; where the most experienced miners predict good claims will be found for many years to come ; and from whence Government will derive a large gold-fields revenue in the future if it keeps it in its own hands. Mr Harrison knows all this ; he is a shrewd man, and the possession of (540 acres of auriferous ground on Run No. 354 would suit his ideas to a T. We, all of us, wish him well —venj well ; but at the same time we do not wish him to become a thorn in our sides, as he certainly will be if he becomes the owner of G4O acres of auriferous land on the Upper Nevis ; therefore we are taking steps with a view to oppose the granting of his very modest (() application. The election is a thing of the past. We have played our part—and what a miserable part ! As 1 write, thoughts of that evermemorable election which took place at Eatanswill possess me, and a vision floats before me of Mr Pickwick looking beuignantly through Ids spectacles at that paragon of valets, Sam Weller, as he tells him how he had pumped on thirteen of the free and independent that morning before breakfast. But away with such thoughts : let me record the sad fact that out of 70 or 80 electors only 17 presented themselves at the polling-booth to register their opinions as to which was the best of the two candidates who solicited their sweet voices. There can be many reasons given to account for this diminutive number of voters : among others, the execrable state of the roads; the fact that many of the holders [of miners’ rights are disfranchised through

tlie non-attendance of the Warden or his clerk ; that many voters, with an enthusiasm which in one respect may be deemed laudable, but which I am inclined to think was foolish, went to Clyde to support Mr Hazlett—who, by the way, did not need it. But the chief cause for the contemptible show we made in regard to numbers was apathy —the wet blanket that has stifled this district all along. Let me say no more about it: the election is past, and I hope the best man has won, and that the electors have exercised a wiser discretion than they did on the occasion of the last Provincial election. It will be recollected that a very short time' since the residents of this district sent a petition to his Honor the Superintendent, pray-* ing that a Warden or Warden’s Clerk should visit this place on the first Monday of every month. An answer favourable to the petition was received, and many of us were so utterly given over to folly as to imagine that the instructions which the Secretary for the Goldfields said he had given anent the matter would be attended to ; and some of us—forgetful of the wisdom contained in the saying that enjoins us to put not our trust in the sons of men —trudged through dub and mire for long distances, on Monday, the 16th, in the confident expectation that we would find either of the before-mentioned officials waiting at the place of assignation, ready and willing to transact our business oft’ hand. But, alas! for all human expectations, (more especially when they are founded on the promises of Provincial Government officials) : we found no officer at that place ; and so, after deriving what consolation we might from the utterance of many curses loud and deep, and the imbibition of a few nobblers, we took our roads home, sadder and wiser men. Now we want to know the meaning of all this. Has the Government of which the Superintendent is (or is supposed to be) the head, become so abject that a person holding the very subordinate position of Warden’s Clerk can venture to treat its instructions with contempt ? or is the official to whom the duty of visiting this pdace has been allotted unequal to the performance of it 1 If the former of these suppositions be correct, then it is the duty of the Government to dismiss him from a service which he treats with contumely ; but if the latter be the true one, then it becomes Government to remove him to some other place where the work required of him will be less arduous. For it is wholly unreasonable that the affairs of hundreds should be incommoded by the caprice or through the inertness of one man. The only course left us to take is to petition the Government to remove or dismiss the offending official, —and that person cannot blame us in doing so, for we have borne much at his hands, shown him every indulgence, and given him every warning.