DUNSTAN MINING DISTRICT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 323, 3 July 1868, Page 3

DUNSTAN MINING DISTRICT.

(TO THE ED?TOR 0» THE “DUSSTAV TIMES”) Si' - , —While taking a ramble over the sub Vurbs of Clyde my attention was directed to a number of miners, busily at work within a short distance of the town, and after conversing with the miners referred to and viewing the prospects of the locality, it struck me that the following remarks would not be deemed out of reason by the readers of your journal. The chief deterrent in developing fully the auriferous resources of any locality is, beyond doubt the proclivity of the miners generally to place implicit credence in glow*n?Wdorts from distant goldfields, whether they ife old or new. From the Dunstan district hundreds, within the last four years, have left in quest of a more profitable field of labor in soma other distant district, without testing the value of likely flats and gullies within a rifle-shot of the town of Clyde. They have gone to distant localities, and there met with the most soul-sickening disappointments, and have been necessitated to endure hardships extremely fgrevious and productive of lasting ill health. It may be stated without hesitation, that the miners who have remained on the Dunstan goldfield, comprising the districts of Cromwell, Clyde, Alexandra, and the Nevis, are at the present momont among the most prosperous of the whole mining population of the of New Zealand. When their old > claims are worked out new ones are opened and so near at hand as not to require the removal of tents or any other kind of habi-j tation and scarcely a single miner can he

found at a loss to know where to occupy payable ground at any period of the year. Some couple of miles eastward of Clyde, a number of miners may now be seen at work in the g lilies heading from the Dunstan Ranges to the Wai Keri Keri Valley, and no sooner is one locality worked out by them than another is opened. The chief gully at present being worked, has received from the miners the appellation of ;'Hopeful" and as a proof that the termis not a misnomer, the following facts may be stated. The sinking in this gully ranges from three to ten feet, and gold in payable quantities is to be found to the width of from twenty to thirty feet, and the ground is of the best description- for ground sluicing. Hitherto cradling has been the only " modus operandi" in securing the gold, but the miners are most hopeful that, at no distant date, water in large quantities will be brought to that districtto sluice, not only Hopeful Gully, but dozens of other gulllies on either side of it from Clyde to Chatto Creek. The gullies in close proximity to the farms of Mr. Kenny, Mr. Connew, and others have been proved highly auriferous by the miners now as Hopeful, but owing to want of water such gullies cannot be made to yield their "yellow dirt" and the question which consequently demands an answer, is,—by what means the liquid element can be procured to this newopene I aud promising locality? All the water of the Wai Keri Keri Creek is taken up, some of it being directed to and for the town of Clyde and the rest for sluicing purposes on the banks of the Molyneux at Muttontown Point and near the Dunstan District Hospital. The miners suggest that the water directed for sluicing purposes at the spots mentioned near the source, of the creek to the gullies between Kenny's farm and the source, and after sluicing in such gullies, be directed to its present channels below the Dunedin road, or a little higher up as circumstances may adm t. That portion of the water needed for the use of Clyde could be allowed to run in its present pellucid state, and the water after sluicing in the gullies could be bridged over the Clyde stream and therefore no impurity could be conveyed to the town. One head of water would be quite sufficient to ground-sluice in any of the gullies under note, as the fall is grand and the false bottom on which the wash-dirt is found as smooth as glass; consequently a considerable extent of ground could be efficiently made productive, even by the limited supply of water that could be procured from the Wai Keri Keri Creek. Tue parties having a prior right to the water in question, could in all probability, be induced to enter into amicable and reasonable arrangements with a company which would undertake to cut a conduit from the creek to the various gullies and guarantee that nearly the full quantum would be returned into the races conveying it to the claims on the bank of the Molyneux. Such a guarantee could be safely given, as most of the gullies have a small quantity of water coursing down them, and to which the holders of rights in the main creek are not entitled, and which is at present absorbed by the ground for want of a properly formed channel to conduct it. The miners of Hopeful Gully are desirous of making it publicly known that, to grant agricultural leases to Cockatoo Squatters or any other land cultivators, in any part of of this tract of country at the base of the Dunstan Ranges near Clyde would be an act most prejudicial to the interest of the miners, and calculated to retard the opening up of the largest and most productive auriferous area as yet found in the Dunstan District, barring the banks of the Molyneux. The duties devolving upon the members of the Town Council should not be confined to the formation of foot paths and tax-levy-ing, but they should extend to the furtherance of the general interest of the district, and as a step in that direction they should at once see that no land be sold or leased in thelocalityof Hopeful Gully until the gullies are fully worked out by the miners. Let the Council instanter turn its attention to the matter, and let the men of moderate capital do likewise to the promising prospects to lay out their money in bringing in; water and thereby create in a few weeks a new and prosperous "Clyde goldfield. I am *c, REVIVAL.