ALEXANDRA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 904, 15 August 1879, Page 3

ALEXANDRA.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

No end of trouble has been experienced by the bridge contractors with their pumping apparatus fur keeping the water clear from the large paddock they are sinking for the foundation of the pier on the east side. But at length, after losing weeks they could little spare of the good season, 1 can safely say I think they have struck on the right method, or as the Yankee would say, “ struck ile. ” At starting they had a galvanised iron lift pump with a six-inch bore, but this was soon found to be too trumpery and soon collapse 1, they then strengthened it with battens bound together with strong iron clamps, but this was of no avail, and had to be cast aside tor two square wooden lift pumps, but these, like their predecessor, had to be cast aside as impracticable. Next in order followed a Californian pump, some loin by Sin in the clear, a really magnificent article, and of capacity large enough almost to drain the Molynenx, leave alone to keep the drainage clear from a small paddock, but the fates were not propitious, and like the others was found not to answer as was expected, but in this instance the fault was not in the pump but with the driving gear. It has to be understood that the motive power used throughout was a steam engine driving direct from a crank, and this giving but a short stroke is to be ascribed doubtless all the trouble. When applied to the Californian pump, the stroke as I said before being short and necessarily quick and jerky, the chain belt was everlastingly getting out of gear Seeing at last that the crank motion was wrong, a large drum or auxiliary wheel was substituted, the pump belt working from this, and as I said before, everything is now going smoothly, and if all things are even, that is if the river continues at its present low level, steam is kept up, and a good body of men are kept working day and night, there is every prospect of a fair start being yet made this season ; but that the pier can be raised sufficiently to enable the work of building to be proceeded with, when the river rises for the summer level I do not suppose, but a start will have been made that will give the contractors good heart to go on with other parts of the structure. The only real problem to solve in the contract was the sinking for this pier, and this being got over everything should now proceed swimmingly. I am given to understand that the gold found

during the progress of sinking is very rich, and would pay well for working, but bridge building and not gold getting being the business in hand, and as time is the essence of the bargain, the gold will have to remain and the bridge proceeded with. Now this anomalous state of things -the labourer having as it were to throw gold away and pick up silver—opens up a very nice question that I should like to see worked out by abler heads than mine. It is a strange thing that the discovery was not made before ; however it is now made, and in all likelihood similar class of dirt exists all along the river’s edge, and until it is worked the people of Alexandra will he able to console themselves at having so rich a field at their very doors. Its position is doubtless so that a little outlay will be necessary to extricate it, yet who begrudges the outgo of one shilling for the income of one pound. I had almost forgotten to mention that Mr Drummy is recovering from the effects of a fall off a stageing he had the other day. He may consider himself exceedingly fortunate at not having been more seriously injured.

In mining matters hem just now there is not much doing. Paget, Noble, and party are hard at work on the old Frenchman’s Point, but with what results I am nnable to even conjecture In previous seasons they did well, and I infer they are working ground of similar richness. The Doctor’s Point claim owners are preparing for water, and when it comes they will then reap the harvest of their labours of the past months. On the beaches below Alexandra there are some few “ hatters ” at work, and are all making more than the ordinary run of wages The lifting of the Salamander dredge is being proceeded with It is a pity the present owners did not close with the offer of Andrew Dalziel, as no more competent man for the work can be found on the whole river from its source to the sea. It would by now have been done had it been possible. [ have not as yet visited the reef at Conroy’s Gully, but from what I can glean from the casual remarks of the men who are prospecting, that it is improving in appearance as they pierce the range with their tunnel. The whole of the party are most sanguine, and should their expectations be realised it will give a great impetus to the district, as it is not to be supposed that it is the only reef in the neighbourhood, or that one claim will monopolise it any more than that one swallow makes a summer. Whilst speaking of quartz reefs I may mention, pro hono publico, that the claim held by White and Mitchell on the slope of the Old Man range at the back of Bald Hill Flat, contains undoubted evidences of the existence of a quartz lode, and that I think the locality worthy of more attention than it has yet received at the hands of miners. If possible, when the snow goes off the ground, I will pay this claim a visit, but, Mr Editor, your special mining reporter, if he paid it a visit of inspection, might pick up more reliable information than I could ; these special gentlemen have a happy knack of looking somewhat below the surface, while we poor occasional are not supposed to be imbued with the same powers. Ido not know that I have anything else to write about excepting it be to let the Town Council know there is one in their neighbourhood who has lost confidence in them. When they took office the old do-nothing days, to their way of it, were to be at an end and a new era was to be inaugurated. Well, perhaps it is so, because if their predecessors were donothings—which by-the-bye L do not by any means admit—they are the do-less, that is marching with a vengeance, but crab fashion—backwards. Under the old regime—the blatanc mouthed bellowed down—every substantial improvement in the town, viz.. Town Hall, Mannherikia Bridge, the bridge that is now building, the new Court and Post Offices, and the only piece of road I may say outside of Tarbert street (though it is made on private ground and not on the road line), was carried through, but I fail to see what has been done since. The day of reckoning is shortly at hand, when they will have a chance of rebutting the charge I make against th an.