MINING REPORT.

Kumara Times, Issue 1724, 10 April 1882, Page 2

MINING REPORT.

[By our Special Mining Reporter.] Saturday, April 8, 1882, Matters np the Lead have a more satisfactory appearance, and the miners in the various claims have been hard at work until the day the holidays commenced. There are a great many yet whom the late disputeand the Woodstock rush have unsettled. To them all I can say is green pastures always look well afar off, whilst perhaps there is better grass at home. There is one phase of the late dispute which is as yet not cleared up, and that is, Are those miners who took the fortnight’s free water bound now to pay in advance ? I think not, and would advise them when paying their water money to tender payment for the whole of the water used since last washing up. There is also some anxiety felt as to what the outcrop of the interview between Messrs and Fitz Gerald and the Minister of Mines will result in. I am inclined to think that as regSpda v ptymerit in advance for water that we have heard the last of it, unless Government make a considerable amount of bad debts. Or perhaps Government, in a fit of generosity, may give each claim a washing free, so that they may find the money for the next washing. This would be paying in advance in a moat pleasant manner, and could only be eclipsed by the race manager hanging over his door the symbolical three balls, and advancing, on behalf of a fraternal Government, the money to pay themselves with. As regards the terms for sluicing into the sludge-channel, they are only slightly varied, and it was no wonder the miners were reluctant in signing them. I think, however, that seeing the words are inserted that pay. ment in advance- is only to commence “ at such time as the Minister determines,” it simply means a disgraceful retreat from an unpleasant predicament, and leaves the question open. The Minister had to uphold the blundering of the department, at the same time feeling an unjust act had been attempted. He may at some distant period make the demand for payment in advance by allowing the use of the sludge-channel free for a couple of washings, and by this means enabling the miners a chance to get the money to pay with, I admit

that some terms have a right to be signed before parties are allowed to use the sludge-channel, but the Draconian style adopted in trying to foist those first ones on the Kumara miners could not possibly be tolerated by any community having a particle of self respect. No doubt when Mr Fitz Gerald and Mr Seddon lend the Mines Department a helping hand and bring their practical experience to bear, we shall have waterrace regulations and sludge-channel regulations which will prove workable. In the meantime chere is nothing to fear. The session is fast approaching, and Ministers have plenty of work to engage their spare time. The race management will also be hard puzzled to produce a respectable balance-sheet. The gross amounts received during the year have increased, “ but owing to circumstances over which we had no control, there are no profits.” .So will end the concluding paragraph of that interesting annual document, which year by year is a standing proof of official blundering and incompotency. As a digger myself, 1 dont care at any time paying a fair thing to help an old chum, but to have to pay for water month after month just to keep on a lot of useless hangers-on is more than a fellow can stand. And as for the system of private tendering for jobs, it is only a farce, and requires exposing. The public will be rather startled when told that jobs amounting to over a thousand pounds have been let, and yet no public notice has been given. What is a newspaper for 1 and where else would contractors and workmen look but in its columns to see if any jobs were on the board 1 But they may peruse your columns in vain to find any notice given calling for tenders for the following works i—lst* Widening races; 2nd, Sinking and slabbing shaft at the head of sludgechannel ; 3rd, Construction of flume to head of sludge-channel } and yet all these works have been done, and not one word of public notification has been given. Now, it is evident that there are only two legitimate ways ol doing work. The first is by public tender, publicly ■ notified ; the second by day labour. The department have palpably violated the first in not giving public notice. And if they intended it to be done by day labor, why was it not so done:? The hole-and-corner way of doing things by privately asking a few favored ones what they will do work for is jobbery of the most malignant type, and wants putting clown with a strong hand. No doubt if an inquiry is held and the light of day introduced the Government and the people of Kumara will find how the money votes for the Kumara Waterrace have been frittered away. Most of the works have cost too much, and in the case of the shaft at the head of the sludge channel and the construction of gauges and re-erection of flaming have cost fully fifty per cent, more than they ought to have done. Again, it is a standing disgrace to see some men engaged at fancy wages, making two or three days overtime weekly, whilst far better men cannot get a job at all. If Mr Seddon likes to ask for the wages sheet and amounts paid, to two individuals at least, he will find that some have enjoyed good times at Kumara. The secret lies in the fact that they bow down and worship the “ Czar.” Hero-woi.ship may in their case pay, but it don’t pay the colony ; and these extensive heroes must not be worshipped at the expense of the hardworking digger. If these remarks do not stoj) it, your humble servant will communicate a few further facts, aud write to the Minister of Public Works, and ask for an investigation.