MINING INTELLIGENCE.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume II, Issue 99, 9 April 1864, Page 5

MINING INTELLIGENCE.

The news of the week is on the whole favorable, so far as regards the yield of gold throughout the district, and from every part fresh assurances are continually reaching us of the settling down of a large proportion of the miners upon * works of an extensive and permanent character. Co-operative companies having stood the test of practical experience in the long protracted effort to turn the river, are rapidly increasing in number, and the objects undertaken are becoming at the same time more serious and heavy. The greatest drawbacks experienced, are, want of water at a sufficient elevation for hydraulic sluicing, and the very limited extent of ground granted under the rules for sluicing. Some of these companies require a large extent of terrace, or the face of an entire side of some of the hills. The amalgamation of claims is limited to four • giving an amount of ground totally inadequate to the works undertaken in bringing in water. The shares in these claims will continually increase in value, and an entirely new set of regulations for this branch of mining is therefore urgently demanded. It is predicted on all hands that before twelvemonths have passed the yield of gold in this district will be almost solely sustained from this source. The most unfavorable feature brought prominently to light during the week is the departure of a large number of the wages men, and those miners who have been u duffered" out on the river. Among some a perfect mania has sprung up for the Molyneux. What their object can be in rushing to a river that is generally well taken up, and which like .the Shotover, is not auriferous throughout, is only known to the miners themselves. They are leaving behind them many very favorable opportunities, and changing a well wooded country for a bleak district and an uncertainty. No one need tail by working, to earn moderate wages in anv part of the Lake district, and to gradually progress in prosperity by obtaining an interest in the new sluicing claims daily commenced. However, whil.- vague reports of *' piles" on the Molyneux are current, it is to be expected the more unsettled portion of our mining population will decide upon being rovers. We have not heard, however, of anything to justify the movement, but we shall publish auy authenticated accounts we may receive, and in the meantime we would advise the miners to look twice before they leap. Another unpleasant feature has been the increase of litigation about backing water, tailraces, and water-races. The former is the most fruitful cause, and arises chiefly through the putting in of the head-dams to the numerous races now completed, for trying the river in every favorable spot. This has the temporary effect of backing water on the beach claims somewhere or another, and immediately an application is made to the Warden for a summons to commence an action of damages, amounting nearly always to large sums. The policy pursued is a most suicidal one, as some of the most valuable time for working wet claims is thus being lost. In some cases these actions for damages are justified and necessary, through the grasping system of a selfish company, but many of them exhibit a great want of forbearance on one side or the other. I he time lost in attendance on the Warden's Court is immense, and the expenses are very heavy, as numerous witnesses and others have to be paid or kept idle. The Gorge prospecting party are still cutting their third head race for turning the water wheel. They are sanguine of striking gold, and by this method they will have secured a monopoly of all the water, and got their works and claim into the most perfect order, and ready for immediate operations at the expense of the public. We have heard it rumored that a party of miners accustomed to wet sinking, some time ago offered to take off the bottom in six hours, but that the offer was not accepted. As these prospecting operations, according to the prospectors themselves, were to have been completed in a fortnight or three weeks—or the furthest, by the end of February; the public have a right to a progress report. A share, we are informed, has been sold, which augurs favorably of the opinion entertained. At Arthur's Point, all the claims are in full working order, and a large amount of gold is being obtained. M'Goffin and pnrty are exceeding their expectations, and M'Cafierty and party are erecting a water wheel. At Shellback Beach, the German's (beach claim), inside of Tyree and party's crates, succeeded in bottoming on Wednesday a small paddock, and took out upwards of 240 ozs. Seventy men, our informant, a claimholder, states, were employed at the pumps, and as they received aid and assistance from Tyree's party, the next paddock will be put down on their claim. They intend to work the ground in this manner, both parties combining and putting down in turn a paddock. Of course, the rules do not permit of thtse claims being made into one. Just before bottoming, two of the sleeping shareholders sold out for a mere nominal sum. On Maori Point everything is dull, but it is a good central point, as the warden's office and resident magistrate's court and police camp are here. A reaction is anticipated in about a

couple of months—sluicing operations would progress more rapidly but for the scarcity of water. On the river only two or three parties are fossicking about, except Sullivan's party, who continue to get most wounderful finds. They made over 840 ounces last week, it is stated, and they richly deserve to reap this continued success. At Skipper's Gully, the machine for crushing the quartz will be at work next week. There is already sufficient quartz raised to keep the machine at work for the next six months, and the lowest value of this quartz is estimated at from three to four ounces per ton. The Mammoth Race Company are advancing with their gigantic fluming speculation. The tunnels are stationary, the piercing and blasting through the rock being very tedious. The works in the river, from its rock-bound course, are not so forward as could be wished. At the Sandhills, the Ballarat claim has taken out two more paddocks, yielding about 90 ounces each; and here again that cursed litigation commences, and stops work. To show the uncertainty of fortune, as connected with mining, a poor man was obliged to sell out of one of the claims here for the sum of £lO, after working for a twelvemonth unsuccessfully, but no sooner had he transferred his claim than the first paddock gave a return of 24 ounces, and the ground has since yielded as inach as two and three ounces to the shovel. A company for sluicing purposes has started here. They will carry out flumes from the hill race at an elevation of sixty feet. They iutend to sluice bodily the whole of the Sandhills. Pleasant Creek is remarkable for sluicing work, and the heavy nuggetty goid obtained. One of the old channels of the Shotover now blocked up, commence here, and extends to Maori Point with only a slight break. The feasibility of bringing water from the western side of the Shotover to the eastern terraces is engaging attention, out it is generally considered too heavy a task for the capital available, though an enormous amount of ground may have thereby to lay idle, unless some of the new river elevator pumps prove a practical success. From the other portions of the district the accounts present no change, but sluicing both at Moonlight and Moke Creek is proceeding satisfactorily, and the population are steady at work. On the Lake diggings, average success attends the miners, considering the patchy nature of the ground.