BLACK’S No. 1.

Dunstan Times, Issue 359, 12 March 1869, Page 3

BLACK’S No. 1.

(from a correspondent.) By the silence I have maintained for some time past the readers of the Dunstan Times will doubtless have 'concluded that a vial screw is loose in the machinery ‘f Black’s, or that some great and dire calamity has Overtaken us, or, lastly, that your occasional correspondent had in his prosperity forgotten his old friends. Now allow me to settle the muchvexed question that must have been harassing your already troubed breasts, and state, for your particular edification, that Black's is still holding its own very respectable position among the gold-producing districts of Otago, and that your humble servant is a« well as poor mortal can expect to be who has plei ty to eat and dri' k, and plenty o’f time to overtake the amount of work he is called upon to execute. My duties, I must inform you, are numerous and onerous, com raencing with rising at 9 a.m., and terminating by retiring, to give fa'i-ued nature the rest she Requires, when it pleases mo. As for what oo copies mem the interval uiy natural modesty insists on me being silent; in fact, 1 might as well tell you my name as give you that explanation, and, as that is the rem itest of all the ideas I am possessed of, I will say 116 more, but give you some nfonnation r specting Black’s and its surroundings. The mining prospects are in as a state as ever they have been since gold was first discovered.lnstances of individual success doubtless were moi e frequent but, collectively, I affirm prosperity never ranked higher than at the present time or during the past season. The water races have all boon well . supplied with water, and the ground in possession of the various pu-tios has realised expectations The accounts from Dry read, Tinkers, Devonshire aid the other diggings jmiqtdisteJy under the-Dun-fctau Kange tire satisfactory, but water is getting active, and v ithout wt have a toj ions fall of rain, the escort roturtts.viillffie scuuv.liaf diminished. Thiilve ftog, v Inch bar. been under %t’Cx 0 h for the p .si four weeks, is prcity well ovet, with, lam pleased to tiny in nlmdvt every -instance, splendid

results. • The crops of wheat, barley,, and oats, travellers from down country say are unsurpassed, I doubt much if they are equalled, as there are paddocks of wheat that' will yield from forty bushels to the .acre, and others of barley from fifty to seventy with in most instancesa fail-quantity of straw. The oat crop is also good forty bushels to the acre being look forward to by all. 'J he potatoes as a whole do not look first-class, hut I think a fair yield will be obtained Next year under any circumstances, there will be some five-hundt'ed orsix-lmndred acres more under cultivation than this, and there is hot a question but that the whole of the two thousand five hundred acre block that has lately been thrown open for selection in the Tiger Hdl district would be taken up and under crop if a flour mill was erected- The existence of such an adjunct to the prosperity of the whole district, Clyde Cromwell, and Alexandra included, is undeniably needed, and I think the present is the time to take (he matter up; the little local jealousies that exist on the question of site musthedropped, and one and all who have an interest in the District, must join hands and settle down with a will to carry the affair out. I feel assured a committee of six gentleman representing the various parts of the District could be chosen, whose decision in the arrangement of site and other details would give satisfaction, and further, who would for the common wea give their time.