MOKIHINUI.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 267, 3 April 1886, Page 2

MOKIHINUI.

("Buller Miner" Correspondent.) Mokihinui Coal Company. Works in connection with the mine cannot be said to be rapidly pushed on. There is nothing doing inside the mine, but a start has been made to sink a shaft, which will be, when fiuished, about 50ft in depth, this will enable the main heading to be extended to test the coal seam, which latterly has not shown in the main heading so great a thickness as formerly, it being only two feet deep, and on top of a bed of shale about four feet thick; underneath the shale is another thin layer of coal. The extension of the heading will, in all probability, soon find the original seam. The Company's railway line is being ballasted, and will be finished in two or three weeks at the latest; most of the other work appears to be in a forward state for shipping coal on a small scale. A survey has just been completed for a line of railway from the present workings to Coal Creek, which, I hear, the Company propose to call tenders for at soon as one or two shafts have been sunk, to prove the extent of the coal on their leases. Alluvial. A party of five men are about putting in a tunnel at Middle Terrace, near Duffy's to test that locality, from which an enticing prospect has been obtained. The ground in this region has been looked upon as a likely locality for gold, by miners for many j ears past. Another party are opening up a creek claim, a short distance up the left hand branch of Rough aud Tumble Creek. This is another locality from which small parcels of gold are obtained all the year round, and one which often serves as a "fallback " for a number of men when other work falls slack. Quabtz. The result of the crushing just completed at the Red Queen Company's

battery, gives a yiel.l of 2540z5. retorted gold from 210 tons of stone. Affairs are slack inside the mine. H :ikls have been reduced to four or live, and with the exception of the No. 1 level extension, which is being driven by contract, it is not known here what are the intentions of the directors as regards future operations; but it will probably be decided to open out above No. 1 level, where there is a large quantity of bucks containing stone of quality reported to be much better than has lately been crushed. The Southern Li«;ht Company are Iriving on very fair stone, there being a nice show of gold, but the country is hard and the reef is tlnn.

The South Pacific Company have just et a contract to Gibbon and party at 225. •id. per foot, to extend the Company's uaiu level a distance of 50 fret, and work will be commenced immediatelv. General. It is reported that a speculative gentle man.from Hokitika is about to erect a sawmill here. He h>s secured a large tract of well-timbered country, snd intends to establish an export timber trade. This should be a cheering item of news to the >ld residents of this locality. Mr Shadrich, with the Countv Survey Staff, arrived here on Wednesday, and is on his way to Specimen Creek, to lay off a further extension of tho Lyell-Mokihmui road, for which MrO'Conor, has secured an additional sum of £SOO from the Government.