WARDEN'S COURT, GREYMOUTH.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 595, 9 November 1869, Page 2

WARDEN'S COURT, GREYMOUTH.

Monday, November 8. (Before Mr Warden Kevell.) Business License.— Matilda Watkins was fined LI and costs for neglecting to renew her business license for the Nelson Hotel, South Beach. . DAMAGE TO A CLAIM AND TUNNEL. DAMAGES CLAIMED £1000. Rees and Party (All Nations Claim) v. Thompson and Party (Leviathan Waterraee Company) South Beach. The summons stated that the defendants allowed their water-race to break away on the 29th October, and caused damage to the plaintiff's claim and tunnel, for which they claimed LIOOO. and asked that the defendants should be caused to repair the damage dnne v . Several other claims were involved in the result of this action. Messrs Perkins and Newton appeared for the plaintiffs, and Mr Guinness for the defendants. ' John Rees : I am manager of the AH Nations claim, South Beach, and produce toe miners rights and certificates beWlng to the men and tail-race. The tunnel LI3OO. On Thursday, 28th ult. the rain commenced at nine o'clock, and continued all day and night very heavy. That evening about the usual quantity of water was coming out of the tunnel. On Friday morning at ten o'clock I went out-and found a sheet of water, fifteen, feet broad running over the ground into the claim coming from the side of the Leviathan water-race— l should say about twelve Government heads. I went sonth as far as Charlie s Creek, and saw a box oft wido I 7 2 £ h f\' had been Placed tleS by the defendants, quite full, running into the race. It did not g o down Ihf creeK, but ran with great force into the race There was enough water coming in at fhat point alone to fill the race. O llP claim was flooded until six o'clock on Friday, when it suddenly ran off. I cannot say how because it was raining as hard as ever Next day I went along the race three miles, and found that there were no bvwashes m it, but enough of creeks running in to cause ariver in wet weather. I alsS went to the north point of the race and found one by-wash, and- that a slip had taken place about 900 yards from our c aim. Ido not think the overflow in our claim was caused by this slip; the water could not be backed np that distance by it. On Friday at 2 o'clock, I went to the Leviathan C«,.'s tail-race and found more water commg through it than I ever saw in it before. In ordinary weather the n,?-7 !l f n n , head - ra f is al^ys running quite full abreast of the All Nations, and •iv dry weather it went down about six inches. I had previously epoken to one of the defendants (Thompson) about damage caxised to our claim by their race Ou the Saturday morning I saw Jones, one of the party and told him. about the accident. He said he did not think thenrace caused it, because he met Thompson on Friday morning, who said he had shut off some of the water at the Saltwater, and he went back immediately and shut it all off. -Our tunnel has tumbled in from • XL? 1 ?™ . m fee Places-one hole about 12ft. m diameter, and the others smaller. The tunnel is full o f dirt and water. We have cleared out about 200 ft. until we found that the timber had broken dawn and it had fallen in. We have started to drive a new tunnel from this point, until we can make use of another piece of the^old shaft. We expect to have to drive 400 ft. to our boundar^. Looking down the old shafts they are full up with water to the caps. In the claim itself a large quantity of ground that was blocked out standing on timber has sunk down, and we will have to open the claim out again. We expect to lose some of the good ground we knew of. There are five teet of water in our main drive We expect to be able to put the claim in working order with 13 men in four weeks. .Before the accident wq were making L 8 a week per man. ° A number of witnesses were called to prove the most of these facts in detail Experts were then called to give evidence as to the construction of the Leviathan Water-race, and whether or not proper by-washes had been constructed along its course. One said that he could not see anything he would call a by-wash • another that he had seen only one Another, who, was a shareholder in the Great Extended Water-race, which runs parallel to the Leviathan Water.-race, said that during the late weather a slip took place in their ra.ee, about 1000 yards from the All Nations claim. When the overflow now complained of took place the water of the Great Extended was turned off, aud only two or three heads running in it, and that was carried off by the by-wash, a few hundred yards from the slip.' Another expert stated that it was impossible for the slip on the Great JLxtended to back up the water sufficiently ,A Natiens claim, because it would have overflowed a considerable distance nearer the slip. Another stated that he had walked up a large extent of the race and found that by-washes had been constructed on it; .: There was a. good deal of technical evidence, a very large amount of crossexamination, which elicited very little additional information. At four o'clock the case for the plaintiffs ended, and the Court adjourned. The case for the defence will be gone into on Wednesday morning, to-day being a public