CROMWELL.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2160, 8 April 1870, Page 2

CROMWELL.

(FitOX OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) April 5. It is with satisfaction I inform you that the water supply at Bendigo has undergone considerable improvement within the last' week or so. I stated in a previous communication that the Aurora Company’s race was liable to get frost-bound during the depth of winter ; consequently the short-coming reported a few days ago could not be attributed to any cause resulting from the ordinary course of events. It has now been carefully surveyed, and some of the worst leakages stopped up, besides a quantity of loose debris run qP w ft trom the source, so as to stanch any percolations cpuld pot otherwise be remedied. Those efforts have been go far successful that the ordinary supply has been so much improved, that the water capable of working two additional head of stamps is now discharged on to the wheel. The last crushing wariied up by the company extended over a month. During the first two weeks only four head of stamps were going, and it is stated that at one time their motions were

so slow, that not much more than a ton of stone could be got through in the day. The improvement wrought in the water supply, however, enabled the company to do a little towards making Up for lost time ; and you will see from the last escort returns that Cromwell Was not sar very far behind after all* The Bendigo battery (Logan and Co.) washed up at the latter end of last week. A cake Weighing 126 ounces was retorted, and, although the precise figures are not stated, it is understood to have gone five ounces to the ton. The stone in question was taken out of what is known as Logan and Co.’s spare ground, situated betweu their two leases.' To the naked eye it is not so rich as many specimens produced from the Bendigo ; still its weight indicates a rich metalic rock. The late W, J. Garrett’s interest in this concern is to he brought to the hammer early next mouth. The lirst effort to establish a joint stock company at the Bendigo was made last week. The claim is known as that of the Victoria Lease, situated No. 1 west from the Aurora. It is a very promising piece of ground, and from its proximity to the head of public stamps in course of erection at the Aurora battery, it could beset a-going without much trouble. The proposal is to put it into 800 shares of LlO each, making the capital LBOOO. Mr Bates, mining surveyor, has been appointed legal manager, and his knowledge of the Bendigo Reefs ougut to be of some service. If this project succeeds—and there is no good reason to suppose that it will not—your correspondent has reason to I now that other claims will be placed upon the same basis. It is to be hoped proposals of this kind will recommend themselves to Ihe spare capital of Dunedin and elsewhere. The action taken by the deputation in reference to the water supply has been received by the district as an earnest that something will shortly be done to relieve one of its more pressing wants. The idea of bringing in the Limits, however, is not looked upon as being at all feasib'e. For to a distance of at least twenty-five miles above the Bendigo it runs .almost at a dead level, so that to bring it iuto the reefs a ditch of enormous length would have to be cut. The capabilities of the Bendigo Gully ought, in the first place, to be considered. It carries water sufficient for working a battery of fifteen stamps, and running as it does, parallel with the various claims, at least half a dozen such batteries could be wrought—the one picking up the tail water from the other. The gully is, moreover, intersected by undulating spurs, so that tramways could be made to work tracks up and down by means of a whim. The great obstae’e would be the disposal of the alluvial water rights at present existing in the gully. These however might be disposed of by means of a compromise of some kind or another. Failing the water, we have one or two excellent coal workings in the neighbourhood of Cromwell. Fuel carted a distance of fourteen miles ought not to be regarded as such an insurmountable obstacle to steam batteries. The Macraes Flat is provided with fuel from Shag Point, as near as I can calculate a distance of over fifteen miles. Apart from either of the.e expedients Bendigo has got tie (Jlutha river situated within a couple of miles,' The current is as rapid as that of the Moly« neux, the banks are shallow, and the coterminous country flat, so that the question of bringing a race down from one point to another, does not after all appear a very formidable idea. The truth is we have never yet come to place a proper value upon the currents of our rivers, and the day will come when this drought will be looked upon as a singular phenomenon in the much vaunted shrewdness of the present century. The fact is well known that the past season has been altogether a singular one. In many respects it has been the opposite of a good one for the alluvial digger. The moisture upon which he mainly depends, viz., the snow fall, disappeared so rapidly, that little or no advantage could be taken of it, and what he was left to depend up >n was a few casual showers. Goo I may come out of the evil, and it is the settled conviction of many of our more experienced diggers that such will be the case. The rivers are expected to go very low this winter, and at the present moment bank sluicers and dredgers are in high hopes. If their expectations are realised, it will enable us to tide over the dull season much more comfortably than we would otherwise do. Surely by next spring we shall have something in the quartz-mining line that will keep the ball rolling. Meantime you ought by all means to impress upon those who have interested themselves in the matter to keep alive the agitation. Cromwell is looked upon as a hot-bed of dissension, and to some extent it must plead guilty to the charge. This, however, is more of a negative than a positive virtue. It is the work of one or two, of whom it is hub charitable to sa}’ they don’t know better. There are brighter sides to the picture, au I one of these was exhibited ou Thursday last. I refer to the inauguration of a district lodge of Freemasons. It is named the Cromwell Kilwinning Lodge, and the consecration and installation took place on the day named. The ceremony was conducted by Brother Vincent Pyke, R.W.P.G.M., as-istedby the officers and brethren of the Dunstan Lodge. The master of the new lodge is Brother John Allan Preshaw, and his officers one and all are known to be men of good masonic repute. With these advantages on its side, the foundation of a successful lodge lias been laid in Cromwell.

The dark side of the picture once more crops up. A most atrocious desperation meeting took place on Wednesday last. It was about one of the most painful exhibitions that could have been witnessed. It has had no good result. It has roused the ratepayers to action, and on their requisition a public meeting has been called by the Mayor for to-morrow (Wednesday) evening. The object of the meeting, as stated in the notification, is to “ consider the present unsatisfactory state of municipal affairs.” The end of last week, Mr R. P. Whitworth, of the Daily Time* reporting staff, arrived in Cromwell from Martin’s Bay. Mr Whitworth has done what some others, supposed to be better accustomed to the hard travel of Otago, failed to do. Single-handed he forced his way through the dense wilderness that separates Lake 'Wakatipil from tfye West Coast. Your correspondent knows enough of the locality to say that Mr Whitworth has accomplished a feat, of which the Dunedin press ought tq he proud.