The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, MAY 15, 1868.

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

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 1868.

Beneath the Rule of Men entirely just the pen is mightier than thes\Voß».

Mr. John Millar, M.P.C., and Civil Engineer, a gentleman not much distinguished in politics or known to other than his most intimate friends, (bnt however, who has acquired considerable fame as a designer of ugly lamp" posts for the use cf the 'City of Dun" edin, which posts have been erected to his imperishable memory at the various street comers, appears to have been ruralising lately among the hills at Tuapeka at the expenseof the Provincial Government, getting rid of the £IOOO voted at the last session of the Council for surveying the "water sheds" of the Province, with the view of increasing the supply of water avail able for mining purposes. 'We have ] many times during the lastnine months I been anxiously locking for the appearance of Mr. Millar at Clyde, on his way to make a survey and report upon the piactibilty, and probable cost of constructing water-races from the head-waters of the Clutha and Lindis rivers with the view of utilising those streams in the reduction of the vast auriferous "terraces" in the val leys of the Manuherikia and Moly neux. We thought that at least this should be d< ne as our share of the expenditure, and we imagine that a large section of the public hold similar views; but, we are grossly mistaken. No such practible scheme as that indicated was ever contemplated by the Government, and all that has been done with the £IOOO has been a survey of the hills round Tuapeka for the storing of water to supply the sluicing c laims at the Blue Spur and adjacent places. The report of Mr. Millar's untiringexertions to expend the £IOOO vote has been laid upon the table of the Council, and from the great promenance given to it, by our contemporary the " Daily Times" who devotes a leading article upon the practibility and gen" eral success that must attend Mr. Millar's scheme, we arrive at the con. elusion that that gentleman has made a great impression upon the gullability, and want of knowledge of mining matters, of not only the members of the Council, but, the Editor of the leading journal himself, For our part we think that Mr. Millar is more at home among his "lamp-posts" engaged in the benificent work of enlightening the benighted citizens of Dunedin, than in devising 'schemes for increas ing the supply of water to the miners The peregnations of this gentleman amongst the Tuapeka ranges have culminated in f-his recommending the Government to construct one reservoir, and to purchase another already constructed by private enterprise. The .first recommendation is Quixotic in the extreme and it will require quite a number of Mr. Millar's lamp-posts with their accomparying illuminating appendages, to induce any practical miner to arrive at any other conclusion than that the £IOOO vote,

has been completely thrown away; and a nice little job perpetrated at thepublic expense. Mr. Millar in his report says': He has selected a spot which may be designated the Tuapeka Basin, at an elevation of 200 feet above the Blue Spur, wnere, at a-comparatively small expenditure, a reservoir of from 100, to 130 acres in extent, by a depth of 45 feet might be constructed. This reservoir, Mr. Millar says, when full " is capable of supplying 217 sluice heads ot water, during eight hours for 75 consecutive days (exclusive of Sundays), supposing no rain to fall during a period of three months." The construction of this work,thiseminent and artistic designer of lamp-posts calculates, would yield to the Treasury, supposing the water to be sold to the miners at one half the present prices, an annual revenue of £IO,OOO, a sum sufficient to defray the interest, and extinguish the capital required for construction in a very brief period. Mr. Millar's second recommendation is, that the Government should purchase at the cost of about £4,050, the Dam of the Phoenix Water Race Company late the Weatherstone's) and iucrease its carrying capacity so that the Township of Lawrence, simulta neously with the diggers at Weather-, stone's whom Mr. Millar grandilo quently pictures would derive equal advantage. However plausable these schemes may look upon paper, they are at the same time never likely to be carried into eftvet. and no miner of any-expe-rience in the matter of water supply would do otherwise than condemn the whole affair as an absurdity. In the case of the reservoir to be constructed without a very large sti-eam of water was constantly flowing into it, we can not see how it could be filled in anything like a reasonable space of time and when such was the case, a daily di s charge of 217 heads of water, let alone the quantity that must be lost by evaporation, even supposing that there was no soakaa;e, the reservoir would be very soon emptied of its contents, for however insignificant Mr. Millar may consider a stream of 217 beads of water, we can assure him that such would be a moderate sized river in itself, and to keep up a constant supply of this magnituda, even foR eight hours a day, the mere rainfall over twenty square miles of country notwithstanding Mr. Millar's elaborate calculations would never maintain it for a tithe of the required time. To bo of real advantage to the miners it is imperative that the supply of watershoU'd be continuous and reliable therefore to, secure such, it would require an unceasing fall of rain, equal to the quantity to be drawn from the reservoir, to ensure which Mr. Millar must secure a special atmosphere for this said twenty square miles; (but we should hope that ho would-not inflict upon any other part of the Province a fall of so much water) or else propitiate the rain clouds by means known solely to himself, to send down the required quantity, for however wet the very wettest part of New Zealand may be, it would be as nothing to what would be required in this particular instance. With respect to the proposed purchase of the Phoenix Company's reservoir, we think that the Government will scarcely venture to comply with the recommendation. A large expenditure of the public funds ostensibly to supply the Township of Lawrence with water, would be unadvisable, and we are decidedly of opinion that, if the shareholders in the Phoenix Company saw their way clear, to supply such a large additional number of miners, including the Township of Lawrence, they would have increased the carrying capacity of their reservoir accord ingly, and provided they did not possess the necessary capital to have done so, such a feasible and remunerative scheme as pointed out by Mr. Miller, could not have remained long without supporters, and in all probability the works would have been long since constructed. There is no necessity for the Government of this Province to emulate even if they possessed the means theGoverument of Victoria in the con-

struct! on of water reservoirs. Water iu unfailing supplies can be conducted in acqueducts to almost any given part of the Goldfields, the only difficulty being that of expense. The construction of reservoirs for the storing of rain-water would be only so much money thrown away, in the first place ( Tuapeka and Weatherstone excepted,) the nature of the ground is much too porous, and even were such not to be the case the supply of water would be too desultory be of practical service to the miners. What is re quired is, and we believe that such was the original intention when the money was voted that the smaller streams being all taken up, “ a survey of the head waters of the great rivers should be made, so that miners in the construction of races from these main sources of supply, might have some data to guide them in making their calculations, of the length of cuttings inquired, and probable expences to be incurred, thus placing them in a position to lay before capitalists something tangible and reliable, sbonld tbeir assistance be required- It was never supposed that the Provincial Government possessed the means to construct water-races, nor was such expected, but it was thought that they would not object to the expenditure of a few hundred pounds to assist private individuals willing to do so. This a survey of the head waters of the large rivers would have accomplished, and the thousand pounds mis-spent by Mr. Millar been devoted to legitimate purposes.