NEW SOUTH WALES.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 695, 2 July 1870, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEW SOUTH WALES.

[town and country journal.] Reports have reached Albany that good wages and something better are being made on the new surface workings on the Victorian side of the Murray, about fifteen to twenty miles from Wodonga. The locality has not been definitely named, and it would be well to take the report with the caution which is generally necessary in believing in the existence of new rushes. We hear from Braidwood that the Little River quartz reefs — the first opened in the district — may soon be expected to make a start again. The superabundance of water has created a necessity for im- i proved pumping appliances. For some i time back contrivances of an extensive character have been tried and found wanting. Whims and hand and horse-power pumps have all alike been tried and not yet proved successful. The Big Engine and the Try Again Companies are the only large parties who have attempted to open out again, but with the succession of floods that has poured down they have been precluded from employing many hands, and have limited their operations to the employment of working shareholders. The men thrown out of work have been engaged doing a little on their own account by washing little patches of dirt, the residue of the flood washings, and by " fossicking" on the upper parts of the creek, by which means those who have families are barely enabled to keep the wolf from the door. Immediately fine weather sets in again work will be resumed in all the claims in the valley, with perhaps one or two exceptions. At Major's Creek and Long Fjat every available piece of ground for ground sluicing which has not been occupied has been taken up, and a considerable quantity of gold has been obtained. At Little River parties have set in washing the surface dirt wherever a little stream of water could be directed. A larger amount of gold has been purchased for several weeks back by the storekeepers of Little River than has been known fcr a number of years, In the gold thus obtained from surfacing, there has been a greater proportion of nuggets than usually charac- | tenses the coarse gold of the Little River. The week before last a nugget of 12oz was found by some Chinamen at Broad Gully, and one of eight ounces was obtained last week at Mosquito Flat by some Europeans. The races, on the Shoalhaven River have been very much damaged by the floods, and it is very little use repairing them till the weather takes up. A good many parties are doing very well along the Big River, as some of the old hands call it in contradistinction to the "Little," and there has been some talk of a company taking up a large area of ground in the neighborhood of Warri, for sluicing on a large scale, but we have 'heard nothing more about it of late. There can be little doubt about the payableness of the drift on the hills along the river, in addition to which several auriferous leads have been found with washdirt several feet in thickness at a depth of from 25 to 35ft from the surface. There is no doubt but that the Shoalhaven River at some future time will be very extensively worked, both in sluicing, and in stripping for leads as in Araluen. The Tambaroora correspondent of the Bathutst Free Press, writes :— There have been some fine returns obtained from Hawkins's Hill, the foremost being Appleby and Co.'s 1170oz from either thirteen or fifteen tons of quartz. This company are still crushing, but only what they term their " poor stuff." Next on the Kst comes Dwyer's party, with lOOOoz, from 50 tons. These are, of course, the "plums," yet many other claims are turning out very rich. A short time since, a pice of ground, on Hawkih's Hill, some 50ft only in length, changed hands for the sum of L2OOO, after being worked for nearly four years. It may be worthy to remark that the two lots of gold mentioned above, in all 2230z, were taken to Sydney by private hands. Mining has been greatly retarded says the Ironbarks correspondent of the Western Examiner, by the inclemency of the weather, which has rendeaed the roads almost impassible to loaded drays. Some of the miners at the new rush are steadily preserving at their work. One of them found a good-sized diamond in his cradle last week. The residents of Burrendong have formed themselves into an association for the support of a party to prospect the quartz reefs in that locality. The surrounding country abounds in reefs, especially in the vicinity of the rich gullies ; and none of them have as yet been tried, with the exception of the leader at ! the head of the Spring Creek, where the rich patch was found some years since. There is every probability that plenty of payable quartz will be found, if properly prospected for. Later advices, from the same source, apprise us that Huggett's race andDayis's on the Shoalhaven River, near Little Bombay are at work, and will have some find washings-up. Another new race is being made along the river by some parties. There is any amount of water in the river at all seasons, and doubtless other parties will be bringing water for sluicing. At Araluen, six of the largest claims have resumed work again during the past week, viz., De Rome's, Blatchford'3, the Big Engine, the Rising Sun, Try Again, and the Fenians. In addition to the new engine, which has recently arrived for the Try Again, three others have been ordered from Sydney — for the Last Chance, the Perseverance, and the Fenians. *NTn tnutA lin« vat VtAAti diaflnvArod nf t.lirPA

first flood, viz., Blatchford's large double cylinder, Ross and Wild's, and Fowles's. It is being found, however, that to get down with the present extraordinary leakage, new and more powerful engines; than some of those hitherto in the use are required. The Dispatch has been informed of a new gold-washing machine which has been constructed by Mr R. U. Thomas, of Araluen, and describes it as a box 6ft 6in long and 15in in width, having four copper plates one over the other ' at certain distances apart. The bottom of the box is coppered also. The dirt put into the hopper above is made to pass over these plates in equal proportions, so that the quantity of dirt which is passed over one plate in other washing machines in this is distributed- over five plates, a regular flow of water passing down each of them. The silver in the plates will thus have a more powerful action in catching the gold when only one-fifth of the usual amount of earth passes over them. Mr Thomas is only awaiting the arrival of the copper plates from Sydney to test the machine, which he intends to do upon the quartz tailings at Major's Creek, the gold in the stone there being very fine and more liable to evade the quicksilver than most gold. If it is found to answer he will apply it to the washing. of alluvium. " Grenfell we hear that while the floods have materially retarded mining operations upon leads at the Two-mile, Stewart's Gully, and the Quondong, many miners have not been so fortunate as to secure claims upon those leads, are likely to derive material benefit from the surplus water that has for several weeks been rushing down the gullies where the old worked-out leads are situated. During the time the creeks were running like small rivers, the Record informs us, those miners were engaged at the One-Mile, •Main Lead, and Star Gully, in cutting ground sluices and shovelling the headings that were near the old shafts into them, or leading the water around the base of each heap, and by this means were enabled to wash and puddle immense quantities of dirt. Now that the waier has subsided, they are engaged in every direction scraping the bottom of these water-CQurses, and getting the gold by a rapid process, and without the labor of further puddling. In one place and another there are at least 100 persons engaged in this occupation. During the week there have been reports in circulation about the discovery of payable gold having been discovered at the Native Dog Creek. It has been known for some time that parties have been prospecting in that locality. This information will be sufficient to excite enquiry. The distance is said to be about nine miles, in a southerly direction from the Two-mile. It is also reported that new and payable leads have been opened, running into both Stewart's Gully and the Quoudong, near their heads. Prospects have certainly been obtained, and the looks of the locality and other circumstances have been sufficiently encouraging to induce parties to take up ground in the neighborhood of the claims getting gold. The process of development upon all gold fields is slow, and it is necessarily so -in this region, on account of the great depth of sinking. They-Jiave had a washing of ninety-five loads from, the Koh-i-noor claim. Two-mile, worth, of Armstrong's lease, and finished on Monday last, and the result was sixty-eight ounces. This claim is peculiar, inasmuch as the gold is being got upon a conical hill, twelve feet above the gutter, and the wash is mixed with large quartz boulders, some of which it is said weigh 6001 b each.