MINING NEWS GREY VALLEY DIGGINGS;

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 972, 7 September 1871, Page 2

MINING NEWS GREY VALLEY DIGGINGS;

r ' '< 1 ' S ' v ■■■' '^'S" ■~A-«,-w?--J [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Ahaura, September 6. It is reported that the Superintendent ,of . Nelson -lias issued -ordera^to-Bt<ip-^«H~ public works on the gold fields, in consequence of tlie ineeling* at Ahaura passing resolutions condemnatory of his Govern- ■ mentj • -If his Honorrhaa done so,*hewghr have saved; himself the trouble, because, with the exception of making a few yards of foot-track at Gr&nviHe, aud throwing a few barrows-full of stone on iho mjiin street at Ahaura, towards the : expense? of which Mworks" the inhabitants have specially contributed, there ha 3 been mitlving done which can came under the hevl of public works for the last two years. The Court-house, or the Warden's residence, at Ahaura, cannot be considered as Provincial 1 works; because the General Government will, by hook or by crook, be charged with the cost of their construction. The half-dozen men; who were working on the roads were discharged, during the panic which temporarily paralyzed tho Government when Harris's defalcations were discovered; One man, wiih a wheel-' barrow, and an overseer, has comprised' the.Public Works Department in the Grey Valley ever since that time, with the exception, now and again, of a few emergency hands employed to clear a bushtrack, rendered indispensably necessary by the encroachments of the river, or to expend a 'few pounds subscribed- by the public,— ;as, for instance,: the making the tracks to Deadman and Callaghan Creeks, and the fact that tlie higher authorities have habitually compelled their inferior officers to have recourse to the, miserable expedient of making the public specially contribute towards the cost of necessary works after the ordinary revenue had been collected, has materially assisted in bringing the Provincial Government into that contempt with which.it is tiniversally regarded. Any private individual or commercial firm who woul*;., be guilty of resorting to' such disreputable dodges to evade their just responsibilities wonld become intolerable and contemplible, and in a much greater degree the censure and reproach, entailed by such conduct is deserved by a Government when guilty of it. i r There is no doubt the General Assembly will pay attention to the unanimously ex- . pressed wish of this;" one" of the largest constituences in New Zealand, and accede to the request to save it from certain ruin and destruction at the hands of its present autocrats; but should this out fast resource fail us, then, indeed, Vce, Victis! for the slaughter of the Communists in Paris will, parabolically v speaking, be nothing in comparison to the treatment we shall receive. :<v. '.-. j ? F.rora. the mining districts the reports are unusually gloomy.. The weather is still broken, and there is no sign of a change for the better. Everything and everybody appears to be at sixes and, sevens. The large quantities of'fjiin' which have fallen during the last three months leads one to regret that such an immense amount of wealth, or the means of procuring it, should be wasted. For the want of properly constructed reservoirs in the mountains, or of other means of storing this valuable water, it is utterly lost, and next summer one half the mining community will be thrown idle for the loss of it, and the other half will be "praying for rain," as was the case last summer. . The'rushto the terrace between Sullivan and Duffer Creeks has resulted' in a few golden claims being opened, but of necessity these terrace rushes: -cannot be of any great extent. These patches are evidently patches of an anciently-formed lead, which has been cut through generally at' right angles by the present watercourses, and this supposition will account for their peculiar .conformation. They are mostly semicircular in shape, and at the claims at either end of the golden groundthe auriferous Wash is found close to the surface or outer face of the range, while in the centre of the arc the tunnels will probably have to be taken in from 100 ft to 500 ft before the gold is reached. This kind of ground possesses the advantage of being dry and easily prospected, and it will eventually become the mainstay of the up-river districts, for ,the miners are only beginning to turn their attention to these kind of workings. There has been an extraordinary rich washing from one of the claims on the Duffer-Sullivan lead, but the party object to have the amount or exact locality made known at present.' Of coiirse, "every man knows his own business best," but it would be a graceful act, on the. part of< the lucky one's if they v made the particulars of this ''haul" public, if ifcwere only to encourage the poor fellows who are leading a kind of amphibious life delving away in sludge and water at^the lower part of the lead. ■ ; . ' ; In the Nelson Creek and Bed Jack's districts there are good accounts from -Fenian and- Kangaroo Creeksy at -both of '■■ which places small rushes have recently taken place. ' The newsfrom the Murray Cre^ek reefs j still continues good. A serious -dispute is ! likely: to arise about the leasing applications by companies for Lirge areas of ground in the direct line of some of the best reefs. A case will oome <>n at the next sitting of the Warden's Court, at Reefton, re an application for one of these j leases, which will probably show how the wind blows. It is all very well to talk about the rights of labor, &c.<, ibut the authorities are bound by any and every legitimate means to develop the resources of the country,. Whatever progress Murray Creek has made for the last two years is chiefly owing to the introduction of "foreign capital," as it is contemptuously called, but it would be just as well for everybody if a little more of it could be introduced.