CARRICTON.

Dunstan Times, Issue 525, 10 May 1872, Page 2

CARRICTON.

—o—(from our correspondent.) May 7. We have got our first annual coating of the “beautiful snow.” Came in the night like the dew—vanished during the day likewise. “ The beautiful snow” presents different aspects of beauty to dwellers in tents and those who reside in good strong atone houses. When it inserts itself through the fissures of your calico dwelling, forms bn embankment some feet deep in front of your tent step forces you, to turn out in the night to shovel it away from your frail roof, you are more apt to anathematize than to apostrophise this white robe our old earth loves sometimes to wear. Pisa, The Remarkables, and several other surrounding hills have donned their winter raiment, and the “hard times,” for these crests seem drawing nigh. We have the consolation of knowing that those who live at a higher altitude, will be more uncomfortable than ourselves. It appears to your correspondent that this region is not exactly an enviable place to winter in:—and that even listening to the platitudes of Provincial Council utterances, with short adjournments to Bellamy, is still preferable to dwelling in tents on the Garrick. One can stand a lot of abuse even though it be of a scathing and not scurrilous nature, better than frostbitten toes, rheumatism in the joints, or chilblains themselves. The man who invented living in frosty locations should have taken out a patent for it. The railways certainly should be made, if for no other purpose, to carry tho inhabitants of Otago to a more genial clime when freezing time is at hand. Soda and seltzer used to he called for on this township some months since, and obtained not; while rum hot and such other stimulating beverages seems to he the correct thing at the present time. Should 1 survive the winter I shall be enabled to inform yon what it is like. The Standard Company’s battery and lower claim has been placed under the management of Mr. Reid. The Company have published a list of prices per ton that is suited perhaps to the district—and have formed • a road across Pipeclay Gully, to enable the parties in Pipeclay who may want to crush stone, to avoid the Ion" circuit by Halliday’s Hotel. The Elizabeth Company have crushed some two hundred tons of stone during the last month, yielding about 7 dwts. to the ton. This is the largest‘amount yet crushed by this battery, in an equal portion of time since its erection. It will yet succeed in putting through about sixty tons weekly. The yield has been poor—the stone having been principally taken from the -surface, consequent on sinking the underlaying shaft to cut the tunnel at’a low level. In the perpendicular shaft, some eighty feet in depth, tho stone is hard and com-pact-full of pyrites and of that dense blue colour quartz at a depth exhibits, possibly the result of its being free from oxidization. The Star continues to still further develop itself, and gain favor with tho public. The last crushing going some 15 dwts. to the ton, with water of tho consistency of gruel, was taken from the reef where two leaders ran into it. . Tho lode where the stone was taken out and sent through the mill averaged from sixteen to twenty two feet in thickness. The claim shows four or five years steady work ahead—at present levels reached—and stone in sight at present rate of crushing. It is only fair to add that this permanence of the Star heightens very materially the value of the Oak. The Star claim has been put to a very heavy . outlay—and as its expenses have been heavier, its stone has also been poorer. It is not too much to say that these claims ns yet are almost untouched—and only a tithe of their value estimated. The Welcome is still sinking, and fresh contracts are out to carry the shaft down to a depth of ona hundred and fifty feet. Whether the Company will succeed in cutting the reef or not, the expenses incurred in sinking the shaft will not be all on tho wrong side of the ledger, as the Oak Company would purchase it, at a reasonable price, for ventilating purposes. In the Rob Roy and Duke of Cumberland affairs are in their usual chronic condition. Pipeclay way, tho John Bull still raises stone of a superior quality, while the leader or lode presents no fresh indication of going down. The Robert Burns Company crush some fifty tnns of stone at the Standard Company’s machine this week. The Nil people are still rooting away on. the surface ; and the Gate Company have got at present in ttieir tunnel only some half a sluice-head of water instead of their reef. The Garrick Water-race is being surveyed hy Mr. Wilson—that is from the Nevis Saddle to its termination. We shall thus ho as ignorant as ever whether the water can he brought over the saddle or not; what its cost will he ; or receive any enlightenment whatever. It is a curious cab dilation—-what amount of brains and ability it takes to compose an animal qualified to act as manager or secretary to a joint-stock company.