CROMWELL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 316, 15 May 1868, Page 2

CROMWELL.

(from our own correspondent.) May IK The Goldfielcls Commission having lately described Clyde, as the chief seat of commerce in the up country districts of the Province, jour correspondent is disposed to allow that place, all the commercial credit to which it is very justly entitled, and also to claim the Nevis and Potter's gulley as the outskirts of the Cromwell Goldfield, therefore a few lines relative to the mining doings of those places may not be out of place, At the early part of last week, I paid a visit to the Nevis, and found tho miners, Europeans and Celestials infinitely more prosperous, than current reports had led me to believe. Tho Chinese are with very few excep- 4 tions doing remarkably well, and they seem to feel, as if they were the on Illegitimate mineis in the district. On my arrival at the Nevis Ferry, I had to inquire of an intelligent looking Celestial, as to whether there were any Englishmen working near the crossing, instead of being answered with a " no savey, " John promptly said "yes" and pointed to a tent in which Englishmen lived. Being rather doubtful as to his understanding me, 1 repeated my question, and this time placed double emphasis on the word " Englishmen, " John again said 'ves' Englishmen, and added the word " foreigner " as a proof that he undoubtedly understood what nation of men I was in quest of. From this fact, your readers may safely conclude that the Chinamen consider themselves now the established population of the Nevis. It is anticipited that next spring will see a Chinese population, numbering no less than from six to eight hundred at the Nevis, and as they find gold in spots never valued by Europeans, the Escort from Clyde and Cromwell will take down next year a much larger quantity of gold than it does at the present time. Some months past a considerable portion of the European population evinced a most selfish and unwarrantable antipathy towards the Chinese, «u who first ventured to earn their liv- w ing in that district, but nearly all the ungenerous minded miners have left-, and the sensible men who have remained arc treating the Chinese with all the courtesy necessary to make the strangers feel at ease in mind, and in full assurance that no molestation of them will take place. The European miners are also doing sufficiently will to make them feel perfectly satisfied with their lot, and their future is stronger than number of men I at present could find in the various mining localities in the Cromwell district. M'lntyre and party are at work on the Nevis-flat, and near the banks of the river; their claim has paid of late as much as £l2 per week per man, and the Company have every reason to anticipate a similar handsome weekly return for a lengthy period to come. The adjacent claims are also realising large returns, although not so sunny asthose of the clan M'lntyre. At Stuart's gulley, the various claims are yielding on a very large scale, and the companies are now reaping a rich harvest in return for a long period of weary la. bor in making their way to the deep hidden washdirt. M'Leod and M' 4 Lean and party through. ih« agency of 7

an overshot water wheel are enabled to work effectively deep and wet 'ground. The adjoining claim, that of Redden and party demands a large amount of labor in its workings, but despite the large extent of time necessary to run off thirty or forty feet in tlepth of stripping, the wash-dirt when reached proves a most liberal paymaster. The claims in the gulley are likely to require at least from two to three years to be worked out, and the shareholders in all the claims mention ed are I am given to understand men of sober and persevsring habits and 'calculated not only to better themselves every Week in the year, but a 1so to benefit the tradesmen There can be no question as to there "being hundreds of acres of valuable auriferous ground as yet untouched, and why the gold is -allowed to re- " nain in the ground is a mystery even the keenest observers.