The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1884.

Kumara Times, Issue 2331, 16 February 1884, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1884.

At the late inquiry by Dr. Giles (the Warden) and Mr H. A. Gordon (Inspector of Mines) into the management and working of the Kumara sludgechannel and water-race, it was requested that the Manager (Mr Gow) should produce some statement showing the expenditure and receipts in connection with the working of the channel, and the receipts for water from claims using the Government water-race and the cost of maintenance. These statements have since been supplied by the Manager. The Statement of " Expenditure nnd Receipts from Sludge-channel since first charges were made for Use of same " was published by us on the 6th instant. But without some analogous statement showing the moneys received from sales of water to claims tailing into the sludge-channel, the table already published was regarded as incomplete, and calculated to thwart rather than to sustain the cause of the miners in the inquiry, and also to dispel any hope of '•l'.eii ■ iipp'i'.-i'.f i":i i.!:-i! ihe p-ie-; of water bo i educed. Zsiuw the inquiry

representations have been made to the Warden on the subject, and he has lost no time in having these returns procured ; and through his courtesy we last night received a copy of the amounts received for Sales of "Water to Claims tailing into the Sludge channel. We now append both statements, which it is needless to say put the case of the miners in a very different light. Whereas in the charges for the use of the channel the expenditure amounted to £6045, and the receipts to only £2453 or five-twelfths of the sum expended, by the sales of water during the same period there has been actually received, £5262 as against £1292 in wages for maintenance. If to the £5262 5s be added the approximate amount of free water (£2407 15s) and bad debts (£190) there appears to be a total income for twenty months of £7860 for the sale of water alone. It is not our iutention, however, at present to analyse these figures. But it would have been still more satisfactory if the Manager, Mr Gow, had furnished all sales of Government wator on the field during the same period to other parties using Government water, who are paying £3 per head for same whilst in nearly all other goldfields in the colony the price of water is only half that (30s) per head. The demand for the use of the sludge-channel kept up this price for water, like mauy other products of marketable value. The accompanying tables will now show that the sludge-channel and water-race are not such unprofitable reproductive works as the Mines Department would have us believe, but shew fair interest on the outlay, and that the demand of the miners for a reduction in the price of water is fair and reasonable.