CROMWELL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 270, 28 June 1867, Page 3

CROMWELL.

[from our own corresponpext.] A rather unsatisfactory decision has been lately given liy the Warden, and which has caused considerable comment. Tt appears that on Monday the tliird hut. Messrs M'Gregor, Barnard, and Johnston took uj) a " beach claim" on Cornish ileaoh, at which time, most of the claim was free from water. The ground adjacent thereto was occupied by Mr Scaoltz, the owner »f a dredging machine, and tlto <chiim taken up by M'Gregor and party bad been registered some time ago by Sehu tz with a view of placing a dredge upon it when a subsidence of the river sliould take jJacn. The legal protection to the ground had run out on the Monday when M'Gregor and party took possession but Schultz told them that the groui.d was a "riverclaim" and not a beach «lahn, and that it was useless for thorn to take it up. On the next day, (Tuesday) Mr Warden Stratford granted a protection for the claim to Schultz, although the ground was perfectly workable at the time M'Gregor and party took possession on the ■previous day. The wjrdeu was asked to visit the ground, but instead of attending ■at once, he kept a considerable number of men for a full week idle waiting for his appearance. When he did appear last Monday wee'-, he was requested to define the boundaries of a " beach claim " but re fused to do so, and ordered both parties to appear at the Warden's Court on Saturday last. It must however be slated here that, Schultz and Co. erected a stone dam some time ago to turn the force of the river Horn their dredge. Last Saturday, both parties appeared at Court, but'ins'tead of hearing evidence pro and con, Mr Stratford announced that he had made up his mind on the subject, and delivered judgment accordingly. Mr Stratford considered the dam erected by Schultz had been the means of exposing the beach in dispute, and such being the case, he did not consider it a " beach claim " and therefore gave a verdict in favor of Schultz. " Fair play is a jewel " is an old and common place aphorism, but it contains mttch more worth, than the loose use made of it amongst the public genera I !}'. Had M'Gregor and party been allowed to call witnesses, they would have produced evidence of the most substantial character that the beach under note was more extensive some four years ago than at the present time, and of course, before the present dam was erected, or Mr Schultz known in the district. Mr Stratford was decidedly wrong in keeping a number of miners for a fnll week waiting his attendance, and refusing to giv« decisions on the ground, and in Court stating that he had made up his mind at the fcene of dispute, let alone bringing M'Gregor and party to the Court, and refusing them an -opportunity of proving their case. The party that have taken up the beach in question, number about thiriv, and the. conduct -t>f the Warden in

keeping these men idle, waiting for Lis decision (at any rate, many of them) for such a length of time was most discredit able, and to grant protection to ground workable was contrary to ordinary justice. The dredge owners should certainly be encouraged in every sense consistent with their rights, so also should the beach claim holders, and rights be granted to them wherever and whenever a beach is woikable. There is a most amusing contrast in the feelings of the mining imputation of the districts surrounding Cromwell and Clyde, the river men pray for drought and the sluicers for rain, which party will win, remains a problem to be solved by the solver of all problems, " old time " At Bendigo Gully, Quartz Reef Point, Poison Creek, Pipeclay Gxilly, Bannockburn, Smith's Gully and Adamsou's (a'l in the Kawarau district) the want of water causes a great decrease in the weekly earnings of the miners. The Great Westmoreland Canal, from Lochart Creek, to Cromwell, will in all probability be completed in three months hence. The banks of the Clutha, and those of the Kawarau, will be sluiced by it, and at least forty hands will be employed profitably in sluicing various claims with the water brought by that leviathan race. The readers of the Dunstan Times no doubt, are aware that, some three years ago, a large and enterprising party undertook to turn a branch of the Clutha at Quartz Reef Point, and that when the work was near being completed the great flood in January ISOG destroyed the works ; the Company, in consequence be" came dispirited, and abandoned the undertaking. A r.ew party, consisting of fourteen men has been form ed, and owing to the present low state of the river, they are working a branch of the river across which a portion of the dam still remains ; in some instances, two pennyweights to the dish are obtainab'e, which fact proves unmistakably that the speculation in erecting the dam was a perfectly sure or:e.. A t the Kawarau Gorge, the sluicers are making their piles, Knndsen, Taylo-, and party washed up last week and rcn'ised between 350 and 400 ounces for four months labour. The new race of Messrs Kichinglmm and Robert?, is a credit tothe district, ard the largo dams erected bv these gentlemen add greatly to the mining resources of the (Jorge ; the race has bee.i named the " Lord Byron''