TELEGRAPHIC NEWS

Cromwell Argus, Volume II, Issue 99, 3 October 1871, Page 5

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS

PER GREYILLE'3 TELEGRAM COMPANY, REUTER’S AGENTS,

D U N E D I N, Tuesday, 10.45 a.m. Mr Smythies has been further heard at"the bar of tlie House. Mr Travers addressed tho House in opposition, and suggested the appointment ot a select committee. Tho second reading of the Otago Waste Land Bill was carried by 20 to 24. ft is generally thought that the Bill will not pass. The Goldfields Bill has boon road a second time. Several members urged the excision of all clauses relating to Waste Lands. Mr AV. H. Shepard, proprietor of theAVanganui Coach, has been killed by a coach accident. Ho was at one time very well known as driver of Cobh’s Coach to the Dunstan, and later lie was proprietor of the AVhito Horse Hotel, in Dunedin. The barque Zephyr, after having been 24 days off the bar, grounded whilst being towed into Hokitika harbour. She lias since been got off.

The barque Premier floated off the rooks at Oatnaru on Saturday ; but before the arrival of a tug, she became water-logged, and is now a total wreck.

Reicheldt’s second jury were looked up for three hours, and then brought in a verdict of acquittal.

In the case of Houghton and another v. Tall, the master of the s.s. Taiavoa (which was wrecked a short time ago at Port Molynenx), some very extraordinary disclosures were made.

The Guiding Star has arrived, with 199 Chinamen, who have been placed in quarantine. There wore twenty-seven deaths on the voyage from scrofula and dysentery, and at present there are twenty cases of sickness.

A Chinaman nttornptcrl to commit sni- 1 cide at Tuapoka the other day. I to told those | who were working with him that he had seen the | ghosts of two of bis acquaintances, who had j died recently, and that they informed him ho was wanted in the Flowery hand immediately. He enquired of them the host road thither, and was advised to jump down a hole. This advice he followed hy throwing himself in a hole about 40 . feet deep. He was rescued, however, and | conveyed to the Hospital, and thus his attempted journey is interrupted in the meantime, j

THE GARRICK RANGE QUARTZ REEFS. —o — The crushing of sixty-five tons of stone from the Heart of Oak claim was completed at the Royal Standard Battery on Saturday, the result being 240 ounces of retorted gold, i or an average of very nearly four ounces per! ton, A quantity of stone from the Star of the ■ East will next be subjected to the action of! the stampers ; and, judging from the appear- i ance of the stulf as it lay in the paddock at | the mouth of the shaft, it seems quite likely ! the result of the crushing from this claim will be equal to that above recorded from the j adjoining one—the Heart of Oak. It will be observed that applications have been made to register the Star of the East and Heart of Oak Companies under the Limited Liability Act, Mr James Marshall, i a principal shareholder in the first-named : company, has been appointed legal manager' for both. | The crushing-machinery for the Elizabeth | Company was despatched from Dunedin eight days ago, and its arrival may therefore bo 1 hourly expected. A contract for driving fifty additional feet of the tunnel has been entered into. Fresh air will be supplied to the workmen by means of a tube attached to a fan, — the latter to be worked, in the meantime, by ' hand-power. The Duke of Cumberland Company (ad-1 joining the Heart of Oak) have put down a shaft to the depth of fifty feet, but, so far as j we are aware, have not yet succeeded in i striking the reef ; indeed, they could hardly i expect to do so, unless the Heart of Oak reef followed the contour of the surface-ground, i for the Duke of Cumberland shaft must be at I least forty or fifty feet above the top of the ! Heart of Oak shaft. A small race (supplied from the right-hand ! branch of Smith’s Gully) belonging to Han-1 cock and party,—who have been for many i months sluicing in the gully between the i Elizabeth and Star of the East tunnels, —is ; carried across the Duke of Cumberland and ; Heart of Oak claims by means of iiumin", I The average quantity of water flowing in tins j race probably averages less than a sluice-head-j throughout the year ; but the opening-up of : the reefs in the immediate vicinity has had the efleet of enhancing the value of the water j very considerably, and this tiny rivulet is I now worth £fl or £7 a week to its owners. I There are several other quartz claims situ- 1 ate in the same neighbourhood; amongst: which are the Rob Roy, adjoining the Duke ; of Cumberland ; the Matchless and the Ex-' colsior, on the same line of reef ; the Black | Horse, adjoining the Star of the East; and : the Colleen Bawn, further up the range. ! Neither of the claims mentioned, however, J have yet been sufficiently developed to enable I us to report anything definite regarding i them. The ridge on which the Heart of Oak, Star of the East, Duke of Cumberland, and other! claims are situ ited, would, if followed down,! lead to the Border Chief claim, which can I also be reached by crossing the deep ravine (left-hand branch of Smith’s) at a point about; a mile from the Royal Standard battery, and ! following the track leading from the bottom | oi the ravine to the claim on the summit of a ! lofty peak. The Border Chief is so difficult 1 of access from any direction that only those j immediately interested in the claim can be; expected to undertake the toilsome journey. The prospecting claim granted some months ago to Aitcheson and party on a spur between \ Pipeclay Gully and the right-hand branch of '■ Smith’s, is still being worked, but with what; results wc have not heard. An encroachment dispute between Thomas ; Bane and party (Nil Despevandnm claim) I and George Fauvol and party (Excelsior claim) j came before the Judge of the Warden’s Court■ at Cromwell on Thursday last. The evidence ' showed that neither party had strictly com-1 plied with the Regulations as regarded mark- : ing off their claims; and this circumstance! caused the Judge to express his surprise that i those having valuable claims at stake should j by their own negligence imperil their right of i tenure through non-compliance with the law. ! Mr Pykc decided in favour of the plaintiffs on the ground of prior possession. For the in-1 formation of miners generally, wc may hero | mention that corner pegs should he at least; thirty inches high, and four inches thick, with trenches five feet long and j six inches deep. If stones are 1 used for marking boundaries, they T3EHSH J| j must ho built in cairns to tho | j height of at least two foot and a “I J half, and have trenches cut as be- a fore described. Pegs or cairns should also | he placed at 10!) feet distances along the j centre of tho claim.