WATER SUPPLY.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1568, 14 August 1873, Page 2

WATER SUPPLY.

[TO THE EDITOR.] Sib — The gold-fields of the Coast have now been in existence nearly nine years. All the known shallow fields in the auri: ferous territory have been worked j reworked, and again worked. Creeks,gullies, and terraces have been, overhauled, and the time has come when the' all-important question is being asked by one miner of another are our gold-fields exhausted, or ; what retards their further progress acd development? There, can only be one answer given, and it is this: — Loosen one or more of the upland lakes, let them run like creeks on the summits of the ranges, and open up an unknown interior by means of pack tracks, &c.,and T venture to predict, that, in less than two years, the permanent gold-fields of the Coast will teem with a settled and a contented population. It is not too much to say that hitherto the General and Provincial Governments have done little or nothing towards encouraging the proper development of any , of their gold-fields, and it is only now, at the eleventh hour, when stagnation reigns supreme amongst the mining population, and all those who ■ live upon their gains, _ that we can see the beginning of the end in the shape of promised sub»tantial money grants for large supplies of water.. * In no part of the gold-fields of the Colony is water more needed than in the very extensive district from which I write. The configuration, geologically speaking, of its numerous , terraces, with their splendid display of primary and metamor T phic rocks tells unmistakeably of the abundant whereabouts of gold, in some

places doubtless richer than in others, but everywhere gold to the very topmost heights. Nowhere on the Coast, and probably nowhere else in the auriferous parts of the Colony, can there be seen so marked and . distinguishable a series of evident gold-bearing stratas, and the fact that the gbld itself is muonPscattered in this district proves the^ absolute necessity for a large and immediate water supply. When it is considered that the West Coast, in a period of eight and a'-half years has produced gold to the enormous value of eleven millions sterling, the duty to Government thereon being nearly one and a half millions sterling, besides a vast sum for miners' rights, &c, surely it is time now that the General Government, the patria protest as of the country, should really make a move, and substantially aid the homey handed miner by immediate grants for large supplies of water, and the formation of tracks to existing auriferous ground, in the interior, at present perfectly impenetrable. Main ; i roads and railways are undoubtedly very necessary as a means of inducing permanent settlement in a new country ; bjit^sp far as regards the real wants of this' gold-bearing coast, so far as relates to the permanent welfare of those men who are the ' real pioneers of the Colony's rapid advancement, large supplies of water for mining purposes, : which is an immediate necessity, should at once be granted, and granted with for once . Government promptness and liberality. ; . . . I have already trespassed; too much on your valuable space, but when the owners of low level water-races do not know where no y to take thenij aud the mining communities generally on r the Coast are in a present state of indebtedness and stagnation, with hordes of Chinese amongst them, sweeping up the "pennyweight a day tack," as a last resource, I think it is time that high, pressure should be concentrated on ,the powers that be towards the instant grant in aid for large water supplies and formation of. tracks in every auriferou3 district. .j. am, &c, J. D. R. No Town, August 11.