MINING REPORT.

Kumara Times, Issue 570, 25 July 1878, Page 2

MINING REPORT.

[From our Special Mining Reporter.]

It is gratifying to see the amount of public spirit displayed in Kumara, in carrying out their prospecting ideas. They have managed so well so far that it may fairly be presumed that they will finish satisfactorily. But as they have come to the most important point, the choice of men, a word of caution may not be out of place. The men best know to the business people are the least desirable for the object in view. I mean those who are the best know to the publicans by their presence at the bar, and the storekeeper by their omnipresence on his hooks. They are very easily known, for, as a rule, they will glibly recount to you their experiences of Californian life on the diggings, and how Jim Crow from a certain gulch shot Sacremento Jack in a quarrel that they had some remote intrest in; and how, after coming to Australia, they were the first on the Snowy River, and after making a good rise on the Laughlan, they came down to this “ cussed hole” of New Zealand. In passing a bar or street corner where they are pitching you involuntarily stop, to see the heap of washdirt rise load upon load, till your greatest concern is for the street traffic being completely stopped up. If this class. is selected, they will sink a hole as readily in a publican’s backyard or cellar as anywhere else, whereas the legitimate prospector who takes the public money simply because he has exhausted his own store in prospecting, will only sink where he considers there is the best chance to get gold. I have no doubt the Committee will select the latter class, and when they are sure they have got the right men, will not hamper them with conditions and instructions. If, as a practical men themselves, the Committee have any suggestions to offer they will be weighed by the class I have indicated, hut never will be taken as commands. If they take strict commands they assuredly belong to the former class. In former reports I have referred to deeper levels, and I think that prospecting shafts could be put down without the assistance of the present Association.

In several parts of the lead parties are getting worked out on the present levels, while perhaps their neighbours have six or twelve mouths’ work yet. If half a dozen parties or more, as the case may be, would contribute equally and assist one party to sink their shaft to a greater depth, it would be very light upon all, and perhaps save all con. earned the annoyance and loss of having left behind them a better claim than they worked.

The greatest disadvantage that we labour under in all mining communities is a want of cohesion or community of interest. In many instances you find half a dozen parties doing certain works separately, where the work of each individual party would do the whole. Now this is a great loss of labour and curtails the earnings of the workers materially. , I see that the County Council have at last been brought to a sense of their duty, whether from fear or otherwise I know not, but sufficient that it is so, and that we are going to have a track towards the Christchurch male, If the road is pushed a head speedily, this district will offer inducements for prospecting during the summer that has seldom been experienced on the Coast. If we were under the belief that the large track of gold-bearing country now open on the Kun ara was deposited by the action of the sea, we could easily imagine that the present boundaries might terminate its existence j but, since that is not the case, and that it is generally believed to be a river deposit, we may as reasonably look for having gold and more of it towards the head of the river if we know where that was, as to look near the head of our boxes for the best gold. Of course such an idea would not bold good in every, part of a river, and many causes may have been at work to make parts of it poor, such as currents caused by too great a volume of water being confined in a small compass, or rapids caused by great declivity in its course. As we find the gold dejiosited here on the flat beaeby parts of the river formation so may we expect to find it in a similar position further up the river course. Mignionette Flat is assuming quite a busy appearance, and a large number of pa-ties will soon be ready to wash, while farther prospecting is steadily going ahead. The other day representatives from mine parties waited on Mr Gow, and requested that the Government race be extended so that they could use it for washm'g purposes, and that gentleman stated that the account at the bank for such purposes had been considerably overdrawn, and noth-. ing could he done till Parliment meets. I wonder when all the stock of red tape that was being continually added to under former governments will be used up. The best thing Sir George Grey can to make a bonfire of the lot of it. No Government professing the paternal rule of the present one could ever entertain the idea of hindering the yield of gold in such a direct way after spending so ranch money to foster it. Things are assuming a more hopeful aspect at the extreme end of the lead at Larrikin’s. The claim originally worked by Brennan and his mate has been taken up again by Wombat jack and party. And M‘lntosh and mates, after being nearly twelve months away across the river, have started sinking there again, and it is to be hoped with better success this time. Anything payable being got there would have more significance than almost anywhere else as it is all unoccupied ground ahead.