The Dunstan Times. CLYDE FRIDAY, NOV, 18, 1883.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1124, 16 November 1883, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

CLYDE FRIDAY, NOV, 18, 1883.

Beneath the rule of men entirely jus* The pen is mightier than the sword.

Pressure of advertisements precludes the possibility of our giving in full our report of a trip to the quartz reefs on the Old Man Slope. Anticipatory of the report, which will appear next week, however we may say that our opinion of the locality, not only fo ■ quartz, but for alluvial deposits, is most favorable, and we have but little hesitation in saying that had attention been directed to it in the earlier days of the Otago gold fields, when there was plenty of willing and experi eneed men, as large a population as ever settled itself in any one spot would have been located there, and gold in equally large amounts would have been obtained. Up to the present, there are only four or five working parties on the ground, though ordinary claims without number have been marked out, and eight leases applied for, consequently nothing positive as to the real value of the field can be said ; but from the fact of the working parties being widely scattered, and all getting splendidly paid for their labor, as high as L2O per week per man being netted, we have, we think, just and good grounds, for believing in the value of the field for individual labour as well as for combined labour and capital. The numerous rich gullies, all leading from the range that have bean been worked, and the numerous indications of quartz reefs to be met with on every spur, all lead to the conclusion that the range contains a greater wealth than many other places of whioh more has been said. One point of vantage of the field is its easy accessibility, it being within a few miles of the main line of road, and though some part of the field attains a high elevation, the grade to it is such that dray roads can be constructed to any part at very little cost, and, moreover, its nearness to the Waikaia Bush, which holds . an everlasting supply of timber, suitable for mining purposes, is highly in its favour. The Government Life Assurance Department, judging by the number of circulars' and posters it is continually casting through the country, the whole warding off same supposed attacks on it' by foreign Companies, must either be open to the attack*, and most have some weak points, or the ‘

heads of the department are not equal to the task imposed on them. A Government De. pertinent such as the one in question, should be above noticing the petty backing of foreign companies, and if its internal management were everything that could be desired, and beyond suspicion, it could afford to treat the Foreigners with the contempt their slanderous aspersions wouhl warrant.