MINING NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1533, 3 July 1873, Page 2

MINI N G NEWS.

GREY VALLEY : GOLD, .FIELDS.^ , ; fFROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT,] -,, ; Ahaura, July 2. ::.; iMiNnro. ,:; ,w;-. : • • • The continued absence of any new discovery in the mining districts is the more remarkable because of the fine opportunity the mildness of the, season presents, to prospectors. ■ 'This is : the longest, interval which has yet gone by without something new being. : Oßened, r and^it i^ faared-^tjio; pioneer element— the" men who were always, ahead exploring new grounds— is becoming scarcer every year.' There Wai good reason- for supposing that the /opening up of a new fine of, .country^ by the making of the main ' Grey VaUty road, would lead to the discovery of- auriferous ground, but the expectation has not been realised. From the point of the commencement of the new road at the Twelve Mile Landing to the crossing at 'Nelson Creek, the line passes through a district which may be considered altogether untried, and yet ; it is. in the immediate vicinity of old and good gold fields. Not far from where the road crosses Red Jack's Creek, a Maori, a few years ago, found one of the largest ; nuggets yet unearthed on the West Coast, and between Nelson Cre6k and the Ahaura a splendidlooking terrace country is intersected, but there is scarcely a sis[n to show that any prospecting for gold has been done. .On the other diggings the heavy frosts are diminishing the water supply, thus 'materially affecting the gold fields. Moonlight Creek is the only exception; for the miners there profit by the misfortunes, so to speak, of those of the other districts. Dry and frosty weather suits the creek workers at Moonlight admirably. Orwell Creek is making a stir in the law Courts, which perhaps indicates that ■ there is something at that place, worth, fighting for. The cutting of Hans en and party's water-race extension,' from the Whale's poiut to the Orwell Lead, is finished. The water was brought along and rented to several parties this week. Now that there is plenty of water for washing,' work will go on uninterruptedly, so that the real value of the claims will soon be' known. It was stated last week that the lead was slueing ; into. the range." This is /¥or continitatipn of news see 4th page.)'

now confirmed, and it is said there is a probability of its running clear through the hill, and coming out on the Ahaura watershed. If so, there will be occupation to be had for % large population, for the run of the auriferous drift may continue for an indefinite distance. THE COURTS. The District Court opens to-day at Ahaura before Judge Harvey. There are two appeals from the Warden's Court to be heard — one of them of a very important character, involving as it does, questions of law and fact, so carefully entangled that it will require all the legal astuteness of his Honor, and ihe large bar in attendance to unravel. Both the appeals arise out of disputes about the frontage and parallel boundaries of claims on the Orwell Creek Lead. Whenthe lead was rushed the miners laid off a base line of their own, and marked their claims in accordance with this imaginary line. When the Government Surveyor laid off his line a3 directed by the Regulations, he struck it in nearly an opposite direction from the line adopted by the miners, • and this is where the trouble began. The Warden can only recognise the Government Surveyor's line, and time and again from the Bench the miners have been cautioned that if they marked out claims on new leads until the Government Surveyor laid off the base line they would do bo at a risk. When the remarking of claims consequent on the alteration in the base line took place, the inevitable confusion in the parallels and encroachments in the frontages arose. Every man was sticking his pegs and cutting his boundaries into his neighbor's claims,' and the times were lively at Orwell fora few days. When order was in some measure restored, it was found that one party was crushed out altogether or nearly so, for the slip of ground left, them was not worth mentioning. This party comes to the Appeal Coiirt, to-day, to endeavor to upset the decision of the lower Court, anh the ground of appeal is that, having been once granted a certificate of registration for a mining claim, this certificate cannot be cancelled as long as the conditions imposed by the Regulations are complied with. The knotty point for the lawyers to decide i 3 not so much with respect to the cancellation of a grant as it is with the state of the law under which the title arose, for by the operation of the Regulations the very claim in dispute is obliterated. Besides the crookedness of the bye-laws dealing with frontage claims and base-lines, the confusion in this case is aggravated by the apparently trivial circumstance that there is a curve or twist in the conformation of the hill through which the Orwell Lead runs, and the surveyor's line being a bee-line, it is impossible all parties can be accommodated with a full complement of ground ; the curved and straight lines cannot be followed at the same time. The other appeal case' arises out of a very singular transaction. The owners, at the time it existed, of the claim mentioned above as having been crushed out when the remarking of the claims took place, sold a . share in their ground to a third party for L2O odd. When the party were dispossessed, the purchaser demanded that his money should be paid back to him, because, as he argued, he had been deubly " taken in." He alleged that the other side sold him what they did not possess, namely, a share in a claim which did not exist, consequently he had bee^i lv tuu tlvxiiAYy — Juuui ■ k«Jj — tmxX—xu. a liiaimef 7 cheated out of the price he paid for the share. He brought the case before the Warden's Court, and obtained a verdict, 'andthe vendors appealed. Messrs Pitt, Guinness, Sfcaite, and Haselden are, it is understood, engaged in the cases. A case of great importance to carriers has been before the Resident Magistrate's Court for the last two weeks., Messrs Kieth and White, contractors for making a portion of the Grey Valley Road, sued Messrs White and Garth, of Ahaura, for damages for alleged breach, of contract; the plaintiffs claimed L7O. It appears that a man named Dixon, who had charge of a team of White and Garth, on his own responsibility undertook to convey a quantity of stores and tools, from near Nelson Creek, where Kieth and Co had a store for supplying the men working on their contract, to Greymouth; When Dixon agreed, to take Kieth's job his •waggon was loaded with White and Garth's goods, which he had to discharge 011 the roadside. When Kieth's merchandise was in the waggon, one of Dixon's employers met him and directed him to discharge Kieth's loading and re-load his own goods. This was done, and the delay and loss sustained by Kieth and Co through the non-completion of the contract made by Dixon was the ground of action. The Magistrate delivered an elaborate judgment in the case on Monday, giving a verdict for the defendants, with costs. He held that Dixon had exceeded his employment by going off the main line of road, and making an unauthorised contract with Kieth and Co, and that under the circumstances White and Garth could not be held responsible for or bound by the action of their Bervant. The case excited a deal of interest locally, and there was a good deal of irreverent betting on the result. INTESTATE ESTATES. How is it that this department is continually getting into disreputable scrapes through its extreme fondness for circumlocation and red tape. Constable Jeffries, who appears to be particularly unfortunate in his transactions with curators, was summoned at Reefton, last week, for ex- • penseß incurred in the burial of the unfortunate man Taylor, who was burned to death at that place recently. The police engaged an undertaker to bury the body, and when the work was done there was no money to pay him, as be did not feel disposed to await the convenience of the Curator's department, he sued the constable who employed him. At this rate - it is not very desirable that a man should die without making a will if possessed of only a little money or property. Had Taylor been a pauper the police would have buried his remains and there would not be anything further heard of the matter, but because he left a few pounds behind him, he could not be buried of charity; The Curator, or his agent, annexes all his' property, leaving his burial to. chance, or compulsion for decency's sake, and the unfortunate policeman, whose duty it may happen to be to employ a tradesman in the matter, is held personally responsible for the cost. A precisely similar case occurred at Napoleon, four years ago, when a man named Counsell was killed, leaving several hundred pounds in cash and property behind

him. Constable Jeffries, who was in charge of the district, had the man buried, and, by instructions, forwarded all the money realised from the sale of his effects to the Curator of Intestate Estates at Hokitika. The constable was sued by the undertaker, and had to pay the money. After sometime he was reimbursed, but he had i» put up with the inconvenience of lying out of his money without getting even thanks. The next intestate corpse which comes. in "Jeffs" way will very probably be allowed to remain unmolested and uncoffiued, as well as "unwept and unsung."