OUR MACETOWN LETTER

Evening Star, Issue 4087, 1 April 1876, Page 3

OUR MACETOWN LETTER

Mine host of the Welcome Hotel has had for the.dast nine.’years upon the shelves behind his dingy bar a few bottles labelled “Cliqout’s superior champagne,” which have passed, oyer with the house and fittings whenever the hotel changed hands, and which no one ever had- sufficient faith in to cause them to be uncorked, and their contents duly quaffed. The advent of the discovery of gold imbedded fast in the blacklooking schist of which our giant mountains is composed has, however,, attracted some strange characters to the locality, amo.i-r whom is one Calling himself “the Marquis,* s and heir presumptive to LIO,OOO a-year. This individual, who entered the hostelry accompanied by a timid dog who trembled at the site of a tame pig, and ran away from a hen by whom he was interviewed as if to ascertain whether his intentions were honorable towards her chickens, signalised his arrival by shouting all the champagne on the shelves. The Marquis produced a brass dock alpput the size of an orange, which he carried about with.'him,' in order to ensure punctuality in his movements., .On Saturday nights now quite a crowd gathers round the hotel. Specimens are handed round; while meetings of mining companies are held in the bedrooms. Very tryingthis sometimes to a I wearied visitor-—wooing “ nature’s sweet restorer” in aft adjoining apartment, with only a calico partition between -himself and j a number ofjoquaciousandexcited shareholders in the Wake-’em-up or Poll Parrot companies. - Mr Warden-: Stratford’ was placed; in this position a few nights back; after a visit to the reefs. He retired early, being very tired. His room opens from the billiard room, in which active play was car* ried on for some time after his retirement by a mixed company of Chinese and Europeans. In the next bedroom, meetings of the Homeward Bound, All Nations, and Ladye Fayre companies were heldwhile outside a disconsolate cow kept up a steady bellowing all night on account of her calf being tied up ina pen alongside' the house. ‘ Morning brought with it a tempest of rain, in the midst of which the Warden started for the Arrow, in company with the Rev. Mr Jones, who had paid a pastoral visit to the place. I promised you in my last to refer to the rise and progress of quartz-mining here, and I will now endeavor to do so, although I find it very difficult to settle down to write at any length, as I am principally engaged in roaming oyer the mountains, and the fatigue thereby induced is unfavorable to mental effort. From the time many years back, when the Wakatip made a splash by (producing nearly one milfion sterling in gold, in the first year of its discovery, the yield has; gone on steadily decreasing until it has reached, a. . point not far - removed* fromtotal extinction, and, as a necessary consequence, the agricultural and artisan interests, which depended on the mining for tHeir prosperity, have also faded in luce proportion, and-every new rush, whether to a tropical or ..semi-polar clime, has gathered recruits from the Wakatip, although fuf scenery, climate, fertility, cheap land,; and an. intelligent and industrious populatiohj the district can challenge the universe. ’ Its pastoral capabilities are valuable, the' feed on the mountains in . summer time being splendid, and in winter; provision could be easily made, by proper management, to keep both cattle and sheep in good condition by growing feed for that purpose bn the lowlying flats and terraces, or by cutting down intqhay the luxurious grass of tbe mountains*; instead of allowing the stock, as hitherto* to .die of starvation during the three or four months of, frost and snow, In spite of all these natural advantages-and the belief that quartz reefs as rich as any . discovered elsewhere might be fairly expected, the district - has. for years past been the poorest place in the,province, as everyone who made-a rise . toofc himself and his money away, sometimes, to the; very ends of the earthy and those who remained had not the means to run much risk in prospecting pr,.speculation of any kind, while the owners of property found it becoming more mid more a drag in the market- While the gold-producing interest was in full swing Macetown vyas pnerof its most important .stations, and no richer alluvial mines-than those of the .-Twelve mine were ’ ever worked in the Cblorjy; but on their exhaustion only very tew men were left .on: the creek, among whom -werej Messrs Lorenzo and /Airfconio Resta, two natives of sunny. Italy. . These men having!’ earned some means in the alluvial mines became possessed of the * Welcome Hotel before mentioned and. as 'trade fell off and* th’e'aunvial mining they started prospecting..fjof quartz, reefs. - Hay after diy they used to bring ‘ down stCtoflS from the mbtintaina and crush theta in front ,pf * the hotel, .while* their neighbors would *wink, and * each other, :; and, touching their heads, would whisper, “Melancholy ~.isn’t( jtf*i thercSoy^inferring that the j.of i.th'e Messrs Resta were anAVeertifioiter'Harmgr this time many of gold- were obtained; but although even the bomid reefwaayiaitecl them they did not get a sufficiently good. shpw to induce 'them to. take it up. Th.cy were- subsequently joined by <Mr- Thomas Hall, an - ex. penenced- ' quartz . prospector, and" diswverer of the Nugget, reef on the • Bhotoyer, when tr,e Advance Peak Reef w&s dwepyered, where,, .at an elevation of 5,700 ft a leader was struck yielding soz to a trial crushing of one ton,.* This discovery, which wMf.visited and very fully reported in tout' columns by n-xyself, attracted considerable notice, and Mr Wm. Raven apd the Messrs prospected what is how the HomcWara Bound Reef, which, in the* first instance, had been partiaUy.prospected by the Mrjssrs Resta, and, as a result, -I hath the pleajurer of wiring you yesterday that! Qf two .tona- yielded lOoz 16dwt Sgr of gold, with still better stone' coming put of the mine, and a body of'stone Beyerah feet_ in width. Mr L. Keata has erected a-, battery of four stamp heads for the compaay for a twelfth share itt themiine and LIOO in cash, • and the machine is now in - a glorious sne-ceM-.Messr3RincaidandM < QueenfiTrm«hH the necessary iron-work -upon very meagre plans, and the castings, &c M furnished by them have been .found, to answer admirably. More elaborate and powerful machinery would have been erected at first, as the prospects of the mine would well justify the outlay,-but the only capitalist who visitedit*4Mr G. W. (loodyer— made such ’ a Bhamefaßy.pbor offer, to thb prospectorsthat .they' very prbperly indignautly refnsed it, and they have good reason to’congratulate %emaelVes on having done sb, thinks tb the energy of Mr tarry RestA Mr Gbodyer offered to* advance money to prospect; the mine and 1 erect machinery at 12\ per cent., DUt three-fifths : of the mine ad a bonns,-m return for which he offered LIOO iucaah tb the prospectors. This mine may nbw.be said'to have a glorious fufftire before Twoother claims have been: taken tip bn the line;’ neither of which $Pt <® to payable stone, but they Will, both be thoroughly tested. The next was made 'by Messrs Hall and Symonds, who found rich stone cropping but Gplly atidrott the •WfiP .WWras the Homeward Bound reef, but This: discovery Wpeefi* named the Gross Reef; and the adjoining, daimtotigepropriotors get- the lo|e other fall of'the ' •pw, Mr H. S, Cope has purclw^ed

I terests in. this line, and is seemingly much I impressed as an old reefer with the value of I the Macetown reefs generally. Other lines I of reef are being prospected, but it would I be pi ematureto report the prospects obtained las they have not been opeaed upon to any I depth. It is, however, apparent that the I vast _ ranges of mountains of which our 1 district is composed abound with quartz lodes only requiring steady perseverance lon the part of our prospectors to be developed and form a valuable industry I which will tell meat favorably-upon the future progress of the Province. The stoppage of the pumping operations at the Arrow owing to the legal troubles of the United Company is causing much dissatisfaction as the season is a most favorable one, and the Universal Company would continue f pumping if the United would aid them by doing the same. The action of the Education Board in withdrawing the subsidy from the Macetown school is undoubtedly a cruel hardship to those engaged in pushing mining industry into the wild mountains and thus reclaiming the desert. The School Committee here offer to raise L4O per annum and ask for a subsidy of L 75 from the Board. The Government, also, have not spent a penny on tracks since the discovery of the reefs; but nil desperandum isour motto, and we may be happy yet ip the good time coining.