MINING NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1215, 20 June 1872, Page 2

MINING NEWS.

GREY VALLEY DIGGINGS,

[prom our own correspondent.] Ahaura, June 19. , Gut-door work of every description was at a standstill, during the last week. The heavy snowstorm which has just passed over the Coast has seriously retarded mining - operations, and it is feared the worst i^to: come for^ the; full -amount of the damage done to fluming, water-pees, and 'dther mining property has -riot yet been ascertained. The creeks are in numerous places choked up with fallen trees and branches and the tracks are blocked up in such a manner that traffic is almost impossible. The, public works have been stopped, and besides the great loss to the country this will entail in delaying the • opening" of the new roads, much present hardship is inflicted on the workmen through their forced idleness. All this is to be regretted, tor the mining districts in the Grey Valley were just recovering from the effects of the unfavorable, weather of the previous few months. There are rumors of the probability of an extensive rush 'to the upper parts of the Grey River whenfine weather sets in. For years detached parties of miners have been working from Mackley's station upwards, with varied results. The workings are iriostly confined to the beaches and bars of the river and its tributaries, and. it is said very good patches have been found when the river was low enough to get well into the bed of it. -Near Mackley's station a deposit of rich waahdirt, containing coarse nuggetty gold was found about the time of the rush to Napoleon's, but it could not be traced to anything like a defined run.- One piece found thereat that time weighed about l^oz The finders are now at No -Town, and they -express an intention: of giving the Upper: Grey a few. months prospecting when they have finished the claim . they are at- present working. From the Junction of the Little and main. Grey Rivers, to the confluence of the Alexander 'and the Grey, gold has been found in payable quantities here and' there, and the Alexander itself had a good overhauling. That river comes iuto the Grey from the north, .iabout 15 miles above Mackley's Station and 20 niiles above the Little Grey Junction; It rises in the range, from the watershed of which the .Inarigahua, Maruia, and other * gold-bearing streams head. From the Alexander to the Brown Grey, a distance of about 20 miles, the bed of the main Grey- is composed of immense boulders, principally granite, with scarcely the trace of gold. A large stream comes into the Grey from the south, some miles above the Alexander, but, although this has been well tried, no gold to pay has been discovered; From the Brown Grey to Lake Christabelj the main source of the Grey, the country is chiefly -slate' arid sandstone, and it is on the shallow bars, crevices, and beaches, formed where the river, crosses the bedrock, the best washdirt is found. Cannibal Gorge, a verjr old diggings at the head of. the Maruia River, is in this locality. : The bad weather recently prevailing has compelled most of those who were working the Upper Grey beaches to seek shelter; in the older diggings about the Little G rey and lnangahua, but they all intend to return in the spring. T-he ;arduous. legislative duties. ; :pf ithe members of the Nelson Provincial Council will be about finished by th,is, but the residents in the Grey galley oan't say they are much the better for the many sleepless nights, .no doubt, spent by 'the collective wisdom of the Province in lawmaking for the general benefit. ~ This session will scarcely "leave its -mark" upon the history of the Colony, for with the exception of canonization of St. Eugene,' a^d the rumpus Y the ceremony caused, there has been nothing done jout of the usual routine worth speaking about. The hon. member for the Buller— notjjMr Reid— has taught his colleagues a wrinkle .in land . buying, but there is no reason why he should be allowed to brandish his "smart triumph in the faces of other inoffensive legislators. One of our <>wn members is, it appears, detained in Nelson in consequence of legal proceedings haying been taken against hitn and other members by Mr O'ConOr for alleged " conspiracy." It has not transpired what they are charged with conspiring to do, except it be -that they roused themselves up in time to prevent the great 0 completing' the "unification" of the best building blocks in Westport "under .one general head," 3,9 his own property. Now, here is an opening for the exercise of the peculiar geniusof the Superintendent.; His Honor has evinced marked ability in circumventing the moves of the separationists, 'the annexationists, : arid all the other combinations made to overthrow, his Government/'andit will go; hard if he "does iriot find some means • of counteracting :the effects of this latest . evolution in landjobbing. It. is said.that if it should turn out. that- Mr O'Oonor's title to the' land cannot be disturbed, the Government intend to shift the site of ; Westport altogether, arid leave 1 the newly-acquired purchase and its o wner severely alone in their glory. .:„:•;• The ; attempts made during the last sea-, sipn to provide the gold fields residents with a local form of government, or a form of local government, have failed, as usual. The Towns 'lmprovement Act is no improvement at all, but quite the reverse. , Its provisions, such as they are, cannot be applied to any place on the South-Wesl Gold Fields, excepting, perhaps, Reefton, or the seaboard towns. The act was evidently meant specially to apply to the city of Nelson ; , and the amendments introduced irito it, to, make it applicable to the gold fields, have 'made ah abortion of the whole measure. Iti the first plage, the wording of some of the most . important clauses is so ambiguous that the meaning is likely to be misunderstood. The fifth clause, which relates to the qualification of voters for the election of a Town Board, directs that "a list of persons qualified to vote, <&c, shall ,be formed by some person appointed for that purpose by the Superintendent from the electoral roll" arid from other sources, ! but it is not 'clearly expressed whether it .is the list Of voters or the person appointed to make out the list is , to be chosen from the electoral roll. By the 23rd clause, the Board, when elected, has^ power to levy a yearly *rate ; for the maintenance of roads, of not more than one penny in the pound on the estimated marketable value of the property within the town, or of not more than five per cent, on the annual value of the property. This kind of thing is neither

fish, flesh, or even bad salt herring. Sup-% posing a; town like Ahaura to be brought under the operation of -this Act, that i», provided the requisite fifty shareholders could be found to petition the Superintendent to make the necessary proclamation, of what use would the rating powers conferred on the Town Board be. Estimating the rateable property in the town, for argument sake, at the value of LIO, OOO, the rate recoverable under the^Act would produce a trifle over L4O a year, a sum scarcely sufficient tobury the carcases of dead horses killed through the dangerous condition of our tracks during the year. No Act of this description will be of any benefit to residents in gold fields towDS until the town lands are sold, because until the occupiers become freeholders they will never be willing to tax themselves. But, even if the towns lands' were now freehold, this Act would be UMuitable in sparsely populated localities, and this the if ranters of it must have very well known. A Bimiiar. experiment was tried before in the Province of Marlborougb. The provisions of an Act very much like this were extended to Hayelock,' a at the head of the Pelorus Sound, - and the .chief place of traffic-fpr the-Waka-mafina gold field. ; The amount of. rateable property in the town being so small, and the requirements fpr local public works being so large, the inhabitants had to consent to a fictitious valuation of their hoi ding to such an extent, that the amount of the rates to be paid became ruinous. In one well authenticated instance a man had two acres of freehold suburban land, cleared, fenced, and sown -with English grass. The total cost, including the"purchase money, was" under IM. Those two acres were valued at .L 600., (LGQflj, and rates had to be paid accordingly!) The ownership of the land was eventually repudiated. A state of affairs like the above could not be expected to last long, and a repetition in this part of the country is bound, if attempted, to end disastrously; / - / '}■■'>'■ .."'■'' i The great local " Chancery" suit, Mackley v. Groom, is at last finally disposed of, as far as: the ;Courts are concerned. The length of time this case has been before the priblic y and the. amount of money it must have cost, shows how far people will go for the sake of an ide»r The defendant took the horse, the prica of which is the ground of dispute, awW from the plaintiffa^stktion, with the full knowledge and consent of the owneriin February; 1868, The horse" was lost, *it how has never clearly transpired, because it ha 3 never been foundi alive or dead, as far as the direct evidence shows. A dispute arose between- the parties, who were formerly intimate friends, as, to wha was equitably entitled tq bea.r %he lags., The actual money value of the animal was not a question of moment to either party, ■but it would seem that, both being conscientious and therefore obstinate men, * neither would budge a hairbreadth from his original stand-point. The matter was first referred to the arbitration of mutual friends at Nelson, Mr Tarrant, one of the members of the Nelson Provincial Council, acting for Mr Mackley, and Mr Bariiicoat, the Speaker of the Council, acting for Mr Groom. Mr Shephard, ( the present Provincial Treasurer, was to act as final referee." Fromsome cause the. arbitration fell through, and the case came before the Resident Magistrate's, Court, here., in October, last year. Judgment was given for. ;the plaintiff, and the defendant appealed, and was successful. The case, was sent back to the lower Courtitojbereheard, arid, on the re-hearing, a verdict haa been given for the defendant with.. costs. The costs, altogether, to both sides, must have been something enormous in comparison to the trivial amount sued for, and even now it is said that one of the parties is not by any means disposed to let the matter rest where it ia.