MINING MATTERS AT OKARITO,

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 604, 30 November 1869, Page 2

MINING MATTERS AT OKARITO,

(To the Editor of the Grey River Argus.) Sir — My attention has been drawn to a letter published in your issue of the 23rd instant, headed as above, and signed "Fairplay." I can scarcely conceive that anyone could be found capable of writing statements so false and altogether so untrue, more especially as the writer is evidently a resident at Okarito. I should imagine that " Fairplay" was a person to whom the bare idea of telling an untruth would be more revolting, and yet I have no hesitation instating, and am 'also in a position to prove, that not the slightest reliance is to be placed on Ins assertions ; moreover, he has attacked Mr Warden Price, the shareholders in the Okarito Gold Mining Company, and the editor of the Hokitika Leader in a most unjustifiable manner. I do not intend to argue the different paragraphs of his letter, but simply to confine myself to the charges " Fairplay" has brought against Mr Warden Price and the shareholders in the Okarito Gold Mining Company. With regard to Mr Warden Price, 1 can positively assert that no officer of the County Government has done his duty both as a Resident Magistrate and Warden in a more upright and impartial manner than he has, and that the thanks of the whole community are due to him in consequence. With regard to the Okarito Gold Mining Company, its present flourishing condition, and its prospects for the future (for it will without doubt compare favorably with any mining venture on the West Coast), speak for themselves. The company was started under very disadvantageous circumstances, and notwithstanding the liabilities incurred in bringing in a water race and erecting a wheel, has already cleared the sum of LIOOO over and above the working expenses, . and instead (as " Fairplay" asserts) of employing only six men, as many as 20 and 30 a day are employed, and not unfrequently the same number at night. These men receive as wages each the sum of L 4 10s per week, which places them in an infinitely better position than miners working in parties of three or four together,

who are hardly able to clear their ex. penses, as the ground will only pay by being worked by mining companies. The yield of gold when the claim is in full working order is between 70 and 80 ounces weekly. Had it not been for the Okarito Company bringing water on to the beach, the Five Mile would have been nearly deserted by this time, as it was quite impossible to work the ground without large water power, and I am of an opinion that "Fairplay" belongs to a party who can neither work the ground themselves nor allow anyone else to do so. I should not have entered on this controversy had not the statements of " Fairplay'' been so thoroughly antagonistic to facts as they exist at Okarito, so that I felt it my duty to do so in order that the public might not be misled. I am, &c, Facts.