NOKOMAI.

Dunstan Times, Issue 531, 21 June 1872, Page 2

NOKOMAI.

(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.) The late rains have clone some good to this district, and most o£ the claims have at any rate a little water, for the want of which we have been frightfully dull for so long. The company formed for the purpose of working the flat intend to commence operations, and have called a meeting for the Iflth of June instant, for the purjiose of electing Directors, framing rules, &c. The venture is considered a good one. The leads on all the terraces and spurs, on which heavy gold was got some years ago, and many of which are even now paying wages, have been traced into the ground now intended to he worked by the company. The Chinese muster in great force on this field, but are, so far, very quiet and well conducted. They have almost the entire creek claims to themselves, and have certainly done a great deal of labor, and, report says, earned largerwages than the Europeans ever did in the same ground. One party of twenty have a capital wheel, about three miles up the Nokomai Creek, and, while watching them at work, one is reminded of a heo-hive. The old Wakatip Company, formed for the purpose of working ground at the old Wakatip, above Rogers’s station, have, after a great deal of labor, succeeded in puddling back the water, and are now down between ninety and one hundred feet, with no sign of bottom. The shaft sunk some years ago was, I believe only some fiftyfive feet in depth. Our School Committee, notwithstanding the smallness tf the European population, have derived some considerable benefit from the concerts now given monthly in aid of the funds. The school has only been a year in existence, yet it is out of debt, and the Committee have been continually making improvements since the start. The Nokomai happens very unfortunately to be one of those gold-fields that are on a squatter’s run ; and, although many of the inhabitants, have been settled here for years, and notwithstanding application has been made to the Government for the sale of land in the district, we cannot manage to get it done. One would think that, with

so much talk about 'sottling.the country, want of money, and ■ unsettled population, that the Government ivould be glad to take advantage of such favorable opportunities. The Kingston people are nearly all in the same predicament, I am told The hanks give .only 31 14s, per ounce for gold. They always used to give the full price, an'd ■ many of the European miners ' think the Chinese must manipulate theirs, aid so spoil the sample of tho storekeepers as a whole. ~ ' •