MINING REPORT.

Kumara Times, Issue 2086, 8 May 1883, Page 2

MINING REPORT.

[By our Special Mining Reporter.] ■ ♦ lu my weekly ramble round the Lead this week nothing but grumbling and discontent prevails; diggers, like sailors, are fond of ventilating grievances, and what between want of water, the sludgechannel blocking, the new gauges, and the high price for water when available, there are good grounds for the discontent that one and all feel. Not wishing to make matters worse than they are, I can only in the words of the old song say “ Cheer, boys, cheer ! there’s a good time coming; only wait a little longer.” The tunnel at the head of the head-water-race is all but completed, and when the wet weather sets in there will be an abundant supply of water. Great credit is due to the Manager of the race and to the various contractors for having without the slightest mishap carried through this most difficult work. No doubt when the water is available the Race Manager will not stint the supply, or stick to the inch in measuring the water by the new gauges; it is better for the colony and the district to have the water used in preference to allowing it to go to waste down the Kapitea Creek. The sludge-channel also requires to have more water turned in at the head since the new system of stoneblocking obtained. If this be not attended to, serious injury to the field will arise, for if the channel gets continually blocked, the miners cannot possibly pay for the water used or for the channel rental. The construction of the second dam at the Kapitea will shortly be sufficiently advanced to allow for storage of water. I am informed that the contractor is willing to facilitate as much as possible the storage of water, having due regard to the safety of the structure, and that within three weeks the works will have sufficiently advanced that all danger will be reduced to a minimum. There are surae fifty men at work and the contractors have taken every advantage of the exceptionally fine weatheV, which luckily for them we have had for the last three months; so ’tis an ill wind that blows no one good. And so we have had a visit from the East and West Coast Railway Commissioners ! Were it not for the as usual special coaches and special trams, &c,, and sundry gentlemen strutting about with their heads encased in long-sleeved beavers, why, the world at Kumira would not have been disturbed in the least from its usual serenity. The belltuppers muse have overweighted the not over-supply <jf brains with which our respected member (save the mark !)

and bis Worship are endowed with, otherwise why did they nob demand the address of your Special Mining Reporter, so that the Commission could have got information from the only reliable source in Kiimara. Talk about Kuraara lasting some fifty years ! Oue thousand years hence Kumara will be the metropolis of the Middle Island. Greymouth and Hokitika, like the Kilkenny cats, will have fought until both are extinct. The Education Board Office and the Supreme Court House must come to this most central town. The Grey River Argus, the West Coast Times, the Hokitika Star, and Greymouth Star papers must all ultimately be incorporated with the Kuraara “Buster.” The Arnold and Arahura rivers will be cut into the Teremakau river, and, besides increasing the volume of water in that most noble of all West Coast streams, they will serve as inland canals through the interior of the country. Then, by erecting an embankment across the mouth of the Teremakau River, 200 feet in height, the largest inland lake in the colony would be created, the water would be backed as far as the Otira. The journey by water to Otiia two hours; thence by rail to Christchurch in six -hours. By a system of caissons and water-locks high and low water can be had at will ; the largest ships afloat could and would visit us, and carry away our vast products in the shape of gold, iron, copper, tin, silver, lead, coal, and, I was going to say timber, but that will be all required for ship-building purposes. The chimney stacks of the manufactories in Kumara will, like Mount Cook, be visible by the naked eye from the Parliamentary buildings in Melbourne. All our street squares will be graced with monuments, the one most noble of all will'be erected to the memory of the gentlemen who composed'the Bast and West Coast Railway Commission, a.d. 1883 3 and who recommended the construction of the said railway via Arthur’s Pass. Whilst inscribed underneath will appear the words, “ From small beginnings great things are achieved.” Let all men keep this steadily in view ! Now, up at the last general deposit banking establishment, Sandy Stewart’s hill, there will be a big green grave; at the head there will be granite boulder with a donkey carved thereon; upon this the dirty black sparrows will chirrup 'each morning, and solitary mourners wil«e told on inquiry, “There lies the Sp&fcial Reporter who turned up his toes Having had no show to tell lies about the railway, he died broken-hearted.”