MOONLIGHT.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1270, 24 August 1872, Page 2

MOONLIGHT.

(FROM AN OCCASIONAL .COBEESPOITOENT.) •'■.:•-# !!««'/■ ;';it August 20.

However beneficial- the late rains has been to parties working 'Snthetther aide of the Grey River, the miners in this district^have been -ill a state , of .comparativeidleness '''caused' 1 by-* 'repeated' "floods. During the heavy jjale^on large tree was blown down that fell right across Roger ani Bate's Hut, crushing everything into splinters, the inmates narrowly escaping with their lives. The water-race:h^ ; jß^n completed ns far as the Frenchman's^an/l the proprietors are how working' a- terrace some 200 ft below its level. Encouraging prospects have been obtained out of the ground, but owing to delays caused by slips and breakages, no regular time has yet been put in. Johnson and party at the Caledonian are doing as usual, having completed the branch race so as to avoid scarcity of water during the summer. The Bame parties are still working at Slaty Creek, a fact that leads me to suppose they are satisfied with results. Peak Beck with and party, after nearly eighteen months' labor, have just finished cutting through the rock, and got into drift, with any quantity of water. That there is "a run of deep ground where they are is now certain, and they are in. hopes of soon' coming across the same run of gold as was worked by O'Keefe. If "energy and perseverance deserve success, Beckwith and party are certainly entitled to it. About a quarter of a mile above, Gillespie and party, Rogers and party, besides others, are working the bed o£,the- creek, the stream being diverted, and long tail-races cut to enable them.toget at' the gold that lies mostly in the crevices of a rock bottom. The cutting of some of these tail-races ha 3 occupied .months of labor, and the owners have several times had some weeks' work destroyed by the constantly recurring flbofs.; Above these two or three parties^areMuicing the terrace on the nortnv'sfde^wnile others are, working the ground where* Barbor was killed, Above this all the work is carried on in the bed of the creek. Nelson, who first opened up Nelson : Creek, and Kirkmann, the discoverer of .numberless gullies about the Waimea, as also in Otago, are plodding industriously away ; it is hoped, to their entire, satisfaction. D' Alton, Ducat, M'Laren, Tait, Turner's/ arid other "parties are working between them and the lower gorge. It may be mentioned here that the horse track from the middle township to the gorge is kept in a very good Btate of repair, a matter that must entail very considerable expense upon those private individuals who have taken upon .themselves the responsibility of keeping it in order, besides! that portion or thoge popticms of trapk that lead, from the middle township to the junction of the Moonlight Creek and Grey River, a length of 32 miles. Rumors are afloat that thoowneraof the quartz_machinery,at-the>.reefs intend, to dispose of it, and that jthe same will shortly be removed Hence to the Inangahna. Such action, if true, is much to be regretted, for the reason that there is no doubt whatever : that payable reefs exist hare. , With the exception of Boyett Bros. arid s Dalton and Burton, and "a few more, no prospecting for reefs has been carried out with system e to.,an.yvejftenk and tl^ecapit^l ql in.6ye ithan one company supposed to have been judiciously laid out in so doing, was squandered away .in salaries — wages for useless labor— and such kindred, expenditure. < It will be -a great loss if the parties whose interests j$ would serve to keep the rnaqhingry qn #Te, ground permit it to slip out of their hand 3 without, making one effort to properly prospect for reefs. It is well known that several parties of prospectors are kept out , in the lnangahua VaUey by miners who subsidise them. One of the richest claims, near Reefton .was found by these means. Wereauch a system. inau> gerated 'hereabouts,'' whew : tnere* lire inducements equal to Reef ton, the fagt of greatly tq be c.Qns,iderecL° f , Cqnsiderablp indignation has been expressed here respecting the foul slander emitted by a resident of Greymouth in a letter to one of the Nelson papers, and commented upon by the Grey River Argus, respecting the dealings and conditions as between miners;, and storekeepers. Such tilings exist mk existed only in the writer's own diseased imagination, and who is doubtlessa satelite of Mr Oswald Curtis. A memorial to the Legislature has bean, received here, tho spirit of }t QfiW heartily ejidorsjed by tie miners. Like unto other districts of the Grey Valley, Moonlight has had nothing' in. return for the many thousands of pounds paid into the Nelson 'treasury in the shape of gold duties, miners' -right's, fees, licenses, and other impositions, and the general wish is that the Colonial Government wonld take into their own hands the control of every department. ••.'..