MINING INTELLIGENCE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 216, 15 June 1866, Page 2

MINING INTELLIGENCE.

(from OUR own correspondent.) CuOJIWELL. ■ In the mining world two items demand prominent notice, inasmuch as one bears considerably on the future of the district of Cromwell specially, and the other not only on Cromwell, but on every district where mining operations may be carried on. The former is the great water-race of Edwards, Kelly, and party at Hatter's Gully, some seven miles east of this township. The fact of that locality being highly auriferous has been long known, and a large amount of surprise expressed that mining capitalists have not paid more active attention to it. Nearly all the high terraces extending between it and and the Luggett, a distance of some fifteen or eighteen miles, are sufficiently auriferous to remunerate handsomely for* sluicing if water races were constructed and brought to bear on them. There are several streams a convenient distance from each other, travelling from the ranges of Mount Pisa to the Clutha, and intersecting the golden area referred to, and nothing is wanted to open a new sluicing district of uncommon value but enterprise and capital. The above-named Company prior to entering upon their undertaking had fully satisfied themselves of the payable nature of the ground. The race tales Farmer's Creek as its leader, and the source at almost any season of the year will afford from five to eight sluice-heads of water. The length of the race will not probably bo more than six miles, but the company have hail difficulties to contend against of no ordinary ehai-acter, A tunnel of nearly three hundred feet in length lias had to be blasted through a very unyielding rock, and a considerable extent of fluming has been erected. However all the chief difficulties are over, and we may expect that sluicing will be commenced shortly. This undertaking once in remunerative operation, other capitalists will, no doubt, follow the example, and construct capacious races, as to avail themselves of the valuable resources of this locality. The next item of intelligence is, perhaps, of more general importance, as it may affect other districts than this. At Smith's Gully, about live miles west of Cromwell, some valuable sluicing "round is at present being worked, and gold to a payable extent is found from the <n-ecn turf to the bed rock, a depth of from thirty to forty feet. Adjoining this a piece of ground of considerable altitude stands, and occupies towards its summit what may be termed an isolated position. It is, like the neighboring gro, ml, auri-

ferous to the very surface, but, owing to its peculiar position, no water-race could, by ordinary means, Le directed to it. However, through the agency of bitunienised pipes, and by the system of hydraulic pressure, a stream of two sluice heads is How conducted to its very summit. Dining the past week sluicing has been carried on, and the effectiveness of the water-power exceeds the most sanguine expectations of all concerned in the undertaking. A water-race has been constructed from Pipeclay Gully to a hill opposite to the one forming the claim, and a capacious reservoir is formed thereon, from which down into a low saddle the pipes are laid, and then up the elevation to the summit of the auriferous hill. The inverted arch is about eight hundred feet in length. The pipes are exceedingly light, and yet are capable of resisting an immense amount of pressure. In the locality of Hatter's Gully there are numerous auriferous terraces which could not be reached by an ordinary water-race, but the system adopted by M'Pherson and party would deal with them effectively, and at a very moderate outlay of capital. Most of your readers are aware that when the rush to Picton took place a party of miners, known as the Ilomewiod Bound, weie enguged in sii.kiug a deep plot peeling shaft, at the rear of the Kawarau Hotel, Cromwell. lor some i-eison or other the work was hastily abandoned, and the men made tracks for Picton, and no further steps were taken by any one towards testing the ground satisfactorily. However, some few days past a party of Nevis miners took possession of the abandoned shaft, and are determined to give it a thorough trial. They have already tried the ground some distance from the bottom, and the prospects obtained show that their predecessors have passed through ground of a payable nature.