GENERAL MINING NEWS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 235, 12 May 1874, Page 7

GENERAL MINING NEWS.

• Thd total Receipt* from tha Palmer Goldfield, Queensland, since the establishmentME the township, aro.stated to have beon 20,000 ozs.lpfgold, , Ail explosion through fire damp occurred in the Tivoli coa| .mine at Ipswich, Queensland. Two men were blown 30 yards in the air. The tunnel was badly injured. A Reefton: paper ; says that the contract for bringing in sixty heads of water to tho Inanjgahua Quartz Mining Company's claim has jbeen let, the price being £787. This work wheja .completed, will give employment to over 100 men,' in opening up and working [ground in the' vicinity. '• J The Maryborough Standard reports that an jotd Chinaman named Ah Ooy, whilst washjing some surfacing ground on the Church Hill recently, dropped on a nice nugget ! weighing 28oz. ,Ah Coy had been working jon the same hill for some time with but very little success till he got the above nugget. | By late advices'we learn that the Govemiment of Western- Australia had received a Ireport from Mr M'Lean, the leader of No. 1 prospecting party, notifying that he had removedib Victoria Plains, where jin the first ;hole.fiunk,,some gold was found, i'He reports that the country pleased him much, as it'looked like the Gtago, gold-fields. j /'Bonfires were blazing on the hilltops around Nelson 4 'Creek (says a Grey paper), shortly after the glad tidings reached that jplace that the tenders for making the Hochstetter water-race had at last been accepted. Old miners and- other residents who have j waited patiently foryears for this good news, became jubilant at Once, and carried out the jubilee;Ni&h a vigour 'that £ew could excel' till daylight next morning."

The news frpm, the Palmer diggings is worse than ever."' Heavy rains have come on again ; traffic between'-the diggings and jCooktown suspended'; the little town is "jfaphndjiiii|T ryithirvitfHH)u?it?SQ ra j m o st of. them on the way to the Palmer, but unable to proceed, and fcßeresVon their return, disappointed and unable to get any farther. It idoes appear that we; shall before'long get iri'telligence of a very distressing state of things Ifrom the Palmer river. And still the disjposition to rush there is not altogether ex:tihct!iri the miridsof miherd. U '"' <>The..BaUarat miners do queer things,.at I times; ! The other day the North-West Company at :Kingston. ! fired f a keg of gunpowder under Clarke's Freehold drive, after having placed a number of stinkpots in it. Clarke's Freehold' men'were below at the time, and drove back their assailants, giving them five minutes to clear out. • When they got below again the North-West men found their shaft seriously damaged. Very bad feeling exists between the miners. There were no police present during the disturbance. The NorthWest Company had previously turned;into Freehold two streams of water to flood them out, but did not succeed. The miners employed in the Caledonian Mine have lately made a presentation to one of their number for an act of unselfish bravery, which in this selfish age deserves special comment. The Thames Advertiser says;—" Vipond and his three mates were working together in the Caledonian mine when the carbonic acid gas, peculiar to this district,, came into the mine inconsequence of water having been turned down the Tookey shaft. The four men rushed up the shaft, but before reaching the level two of the.'m became quite insensible, and the third nearly so/ Vipond, who had climbed to a place of'' safety, where he was above the gas, returned to his mates, and at imminent risk to his own life brought them to a piaco of safety, where they recovered their senses. The men determined to recognise his noble conduct.in a suitable manner, and after consultation amongst themselves decided to present him with a suitable token in jewellery:" Gold has been discovered in large quantities at the Cape of Good Hope. The diamond mines are deserted. One party in an hoUr took out 13|lbs of gold—one nugget weighed 41bs, • This gold was brought down to Kimberly diamond-fields on Christmas Day and has excited much admiration. A correspondent writes to the Louion Times saying : " I know as facts of the following finds :—ln one week a party dug out 15 ozs. next week 34 ozs. ; another party 100 ozs. in four weeks, and so on. The present number of diggers is about 500, and fully 800 are now also on their road from Kimberly. At Pilgrim's Rest there is also a rush of a highly satisfactory character. As showing what is 1 thought of the gold-fields here I will give you a few facts which will servo to confirm what I have stated. Persons in England can have no idea of the furore. Many of the diamond, workings are being deserted. Waggons worth £IOO a year ago are now bringing £l7O. Household goods are sacrificed at any cost. Ladies, children, and men, all have got the gold fever. Diamond claims are almost unsaleable, The newspapers teem with advertisements relative to sales of goods belonging to parties who are off to the gold-fields. Passenger carts, fare £lB 10s, are fully engaged for many weeks to come ; in fact there is a regular rush from all parts." — Home News.

There is considerable misapprehension existing on the gold-fields as to the necessity of men working for wages in mining claims having miner's rights. It is widely supposed that if the employer be in possession of a right, the workman in an ordinary claim, or in a mining leasehold, need not have a miner's right. In a case tried at the last sitting of the Warden's Court at Ahaura, a man sued the holder of a share in a leasehold for wages, while working in the mine, but when the plaintiff appeared, it was found that lie

did not hold a miner's right, and tho. -Court ifuled that ho had no lociu* standi, and moreover that tho plaintiff and defendant had rendered themselves liable to a penalty, for n the hired man had no right, it was the fluty of tho employer to see that he was provided with one. His \Vor3hip related a iurious case he had to deal with at Oobdon some time''before, where, a man feued for #9O p wages, but he was nonsuited .through not jiaving a minor's right, although it was shown that ho had actually given his employer £1 to take out a right for him, but the employer neglected to do so. Lessees of mining leaseholds need not possess miners" rights; but their representatives must, for no one can mine on land under the jurisdiction of the Gold Fields Acts, without being the legal posscsors of a miner's right. It was incidentally mentioned that tho holding of a share in a mining leasehold does not entitle a person to vote at elections, although a person can claim to be placed on the electoral roll through being a leaseholder.— Greylliver Argus,