WAYSIDE NOTES.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2774, 8 January 1872, Page 2

WAYSIDE NOTES.

(from our own correspondent.) : ! CARRICKTON. , . • .-I have just walked.down the hilLhalf-way to Quartz ville—to see a reported rich reef found in sinking : the White Horse shaft lately—and hack again. I ought on my return to have r ascended still higher, and gone over to the Nil Desperandum ; but there is a limit to human endirauce— r ahd considering I had done enough in such weather as now prevails, 1 refrain, taking: shelter in Horrigan’s Hotel, indite the, foljpwing, weekly epitome.: I never knewwind meant till I came ,tp . the Silt about the , size- ( of-pigeon’s, eggs , gets; whirled about all over '/the hfll ' tops—the wipd whistles round the corners of the house in' which I am writing, like it (joes through the cordage of, a ship in a‘ “ busier” off Caie Horn; men cannot stand against its force and if ever sheep did lose their teeth by holding oh to tussocks, they must in many: crses become edentate. Certainly dwellers on these hibsides should make money. There is not much of the joy of living to be got here. . Well, when I wrote last—some ten days since—there were two hotels 'in course of erection : there are: now five, and - ? anothercontemplated, You may imagine from thin the promise of the place. New huts and fresh tents ace being erected daily, and I imagine by Christmas there-will-be-a- mrffi.dent number of . to hold carnival. The Elizabeth battery keeps steady at; work— dght stamps going to crush fuity tons a week; reminding one of the boy whp, wondered whether it was worth doing so much and enduring so much to obtain so. little. There is evidently something wrong with this new he four-stamp batteiy at Quartzville crushes .more stone in the twenty-four hours than’ the “ Elizabeth” with twice as many stamps; Mr Hickey, M.P.C., has finished his contract with his feminine employers; and is waiting,' the advent of “ Smiler” in this locality, Headdress his constituents on the shortcomings > of the Qeneral Assembly, -to point out the electors r that a man is not sent to the House of Representatives to pursue ornithological enquiries as to the habits and characteristics ■■ of “ceck sparrows,” and “laughing jackasses ”; to establish a system of. espionage over a brother member’s pull-dog : to watch, eunuch-like,'tp* |adies> gallery"ahdtob&ryl their movements j ,bqt to himself solely to politics and port—pjofe especially to “ Bellamy"—and to get all the taxation shifted from the shoulders of the miners unto those of the tillers of soil and producers of mutton. 1 suppose in my next letter I shall be > enabled to' tell yon how “The Elizabeth” stone turns oat. The CaßHohian, a new reef, which I mentioned in my last letter, finishes ‘crushing, . to-day* 110 ’ tons—the; result, l will attach in'a RH,. Should ft yig}4 ap ounoe tp the tpp, ft will, from its position, thickness, and easily worked character, be one of the most valuable properties on the hill. One of two claims distant,, on nearly the' same line, is the White Horse, which lin your interest I went this morning to examine. The reef has been struck at a depth of 20 feet—not yet cut through, so that its thickness is unknownunderlying to the east at a considerable angle—gpld Mwg in the etouej and about i&k gramsrpfigpld were w«®}id ffifii! a 4ish of thej ;&pd !i pacing. Shapes papge4 ip this claim frpm- Eg tO B2p till yesterday, Of course, they are quadrupled in value now. Returning 1 stumbled across-still- another jclaim busy getting out quartz, railed^'The Dawn of Hope.” Prom two to four feet of , stone, I was naively and 9urtly infprmedr ! was tQ jdpfd ovpp an puppe to th|" ton. Tkis •! Da)yn *js ijmtgiaqd to be thp continuation of “The Harder Chief.’’ Th e only way i» which you can underhand these lines of reefs without personal inspection is to imagine the main range running nearly north and south, with spurs and slopes L extending from it to the east. You can draw the spurs as rugged as you please. Take, then, a pair of parallel rulers—having sketched out your range and its sputa, and laying them about 90deg. and 270deg ,’ iul e off a lot of blue dues at irregular distances,’ and thep you will have g pretty fair idea q| these lodes and their direction. You ©an venture to draw on your imagination—as the unknown lines may represent—undeveloped lodes. “The Star of the East,” in its shaft some 70 feet deep,‘has a reef* four its shaft some 70 feet deep, has a reef four feet thick. Both this claim and 1 “ The Heart of Oak,” its neighbor, will commence crushing in a week or ten days, as the, ina- ' chinery is near completion. It is heavier u mor ( e substantial, and altogether better adapted for the purpose of quartz crushma thttn'its' neighbors*,: The Elizafectb.’.’ aS3 wilj, I have no d'qubt.d'p It is ncwidrihonstrated,' certainly tp my

tisfaction, that the reef in both these claims is the same, only the leaders diverging from the line of the lode. It is highly necessary here —almost as much so as on the Thames—that some provision should be made so that reefs or lodes can be followed in all their sinuosities and inclination wherever they may run by the proprietary, who may own their upper portions, even should they dip beyond their surface boundaries. Now that quartz mining promises to be a perpetual industry, this matter should be attended to at once. The present law retards its developement, by inducing great caution in investors, lest the lode on which they are extending their mine and money will dip beyond their boundaries, and become their neighbor’s property. Beyond The Heart of Oak,” stands “The Bob Boy, in a good position—then “ The Victoria, after that the deluge, “The Nil Desperandum on another line still continues to get out good stone—its northern neighbor has done likewiser-while its southern one is still trying to. continue the auriferous line. The blue lines higher up the hill I should have visited to-day, but for the wind—which has brought with it a suitable companion, cold; hard rain. It will snow bere about 3 p.m., and hail slightly afterwards. There are no vineyards planted here, or cabbage gardens as yet, biit Chinamen supply the district with vegetables, and promise to bring fruit here “ anon. _ I saw a policeman yesterday actually hunting up Chinamen for their miners’ rights. You will doubtless feel as thankful as myself at discovering a mode of utilising a large amount of this waste force clad in blue, for which we pay so dearly. Considering the elaborate and favorable report our Government has given us of John’s character and capacities, it appears almost a pity that “the heathen” should not be allowed to pursue his mining avocations unmolested. I had no idea they were such a moral, religious, respectable, .order keeping, educated community, till that fellow from ‘ Switzers, “ witnessed ” the fact, and corrohorateddhe Government report; ' I met John yesterday, and politely lifted my bat to him,, John was delighted and wanted “to shout. lam -under very deep obligation- to that Switzer •< chiel ” for casting a fresh light on the Chinese difficulty, and scoin the base insinuation uttered by a friend of mine, that the man from Switzers was an -auctioneer, and thought by a large importation of the Mongol element, he might be enabled to auction first their services, and as they multiplied, the liviug men themselves. Ihe world, alas, is full of calumny—and even your reporter cannot escape the tonguq of the slanderous. We have no post-office, no newspapers, and no letters here. I have a pocket alinapao, and by asking the day of the week ffiake a guess at what part of time 1 have imked. I suppos'd my newspapers are wandering about the. various Provincial postoffices, and I shall get them, like my 41«tralasiam, three weeks after date. Ihere is an itinerant newspaper pedlar here once a week, who wanted on his last visit to part with some English August papers, but I could not see it, and speculated not. You will have to change your politics and your principles, as this gentleman, learning my connection with your paper, reviled me behind my back— ip gofid unmeasured terms ais being 1 of Government breed, squatting proclivities, a foe to mining interests, and, Eke other “ Stars,” a nuisance generally. I could not say for certain, but I considered him to be a Scotchman., There should be only one “daily paper” in Dunedin is an article of many persons’ faith; and should my mining venture here turn out trumps, I intend to apply for the vacancy in this lipe and qausd hie jacei to be printed in conspicuous■ characters above the “leader,” as my contemporaries expire,., I’ll wire you when I strike the stone that will supply funds for labor, machinery, and type. Visitors are becoming more abumlapt here. When the Governor comes I’ll chronicle his coming. The fry hitherto to hand have been too Jnall to describe; but the large fish generally follow the small. I purposed writing a few “ notes ” on Gmiwell, but must wait and see what mode of retreat I have left, or I may suffer some indignities at the hapds of ‘‘the ironsides. 1 ’ - ,•