ST. BATHANS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 881, 7 March 1879, Page 3

ST. BATHANS.

(FpOM OUR IJpKP.E3PONDr.yT.)

Vinegar Hil'. —As authentic n°ws is always acceptable, and anything approaching information of new discoveries is at all times welcome in the columns of a newspaper, I have strung together the following items of this place. A good deal of work is being carried on, on the fl it at the foot of this remarkably rich hill, and I am creeibly informed that some ot the holes sunk to a depth ot 17 fe»t have struck good payable gold, but on account of the great flow of water, and the primitive appliances at hand, they can go no deeper and fully prove their real value, and so firm is the he ief, that almost any expenditure will repay itself, it is decided to construct a drainage channel from the Dunstan Creek. This channel it is estimated will involve an expen ini'e of something like L3OOO, and will he-constructed by a combination of labour andoipital, regulated and con luctel by the holders of the claims ; it will be a work of grejt magnitude for a few parties to under take, but with the prospects, the game is worth the shot. The Co. Co, with its u>ual philantrophio spirit, will lend a helping baud if it can be shown that it will be a public boon. Mr 11. Wheeler has just got his large water-race completed, which commands all the gmund in this locality, it has splendid cirrying capability, hut like all new races it leaks at present, and will take a few weeks to silt up. Mr Wheeler is considered to hold one of the richest claims on the hill, at p'esent he is working to some little disa 1 vantage by having to open out on the eastern side of the hill, as the western one abuts on other claims, but in the long run he wiii be benefitted by having unbounded room for the unusually large quantities of stone that is in the ground. Another of the claimhnlders on the hill, Messrs Thurlow brothers, alive to the difficulty of getting rid of the atones in tbeir claim are erecting a single tramway so as to truck them out on to the flat. I womld rather have seen them construct a double tramway, so that full trucks would bring up the empty ones, hut probably the cost of construction prevented them ; their claim is considered very rich, and they hold such an extent ot ground, that it will take generations to work cut.

Messrs Hughes and Co’s claim is a veritable golden “ plum pudding,” both of th se are old residents of this place, are wellmeaning industrious men, and richly do serve the good luck that has befallen them. The water-race (Smith’s) that Mr Facho was to have sold on Monday last I uiv'erstand changed hands at a little over L2OO, hut trora the fact of it commanding Vinegar Hill, had it gone to Auction I am fully convinced would have realized fully twice the amount.