LATEST MINING NEWS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 144, 1 December 1871, Page 3

LATEST MINING NEWS.

The Caledonian claim is yielding a large amount of specimens, and is expected to declare a large dividend. No improvement, however, has taken place in its shares. A rage has taken place for shares in Tookey's claim, the Caledonian lead being now withiu a few feet of its. workings. They were selling yesterday at £45, and to-day (Nov. 23) at £42. . Latest.— The Caledonian workmen have reached the boundary of the claim. \ The. \tuuers \\\ Tookey's claim are be-1 I ginning to work from the drive of the Caledonian, and will take out the first ( specimens to-night. Shares are at £45. THE NEW RUSH IN WESTLA.ND. A correspondent of the 4 West Coast limes gives the following description of the new rush in the Koss district " The ground at present taken up is a low terrace on the east sido of the Totara Lagoon, and extends from Chinaman s flume to a mile and a half southwards, towards the Totara. The terrace is very narrow, there scarcely being room for one claim. There are about three feet of stripping and four feet of wash, the latter consisting of black sand and boulders. The gold is of a fine floury character; the prospects vary half a grain to three grains to the dish. The ground was first rushed by about two hundred men, when Ross and party obtained a prospecting claim. The results not being considered satisfactory, the place was nearly deserted, although by no, means a fair trial.had been given to it, very few holes having been sunk. One or two parties, however, remained, and about a fortnight ago one of them ob-

tained payable gold, arid the news spreading caused the second rush—about 150 men being now on the ground. There are two stores in course of erection, as also a butcher's shop and bakery. The miners are confident that they will obtain at least good wages, as the stripping is light and the working generally of an easy nature. There is every probability of this rush extending as the terracq.extends oroicen irom the Totara River to the Hospital Creek, a distance of six or seven miles." THE HUSH TO NEW SOUTH WALES. The * Sydney Morning Herald,' of a late date, gives the following items regarding the mining prospects at Gulgoug, Sydney, to whic'.i place. several miners have lately gone from here : " returns from Gulgong have kept up .an average ot rather more than 2000ozs. per w?ek, the fortnights escort ranging from 4Qooozs. to 500)o/.s. The old leads—the Black and the Happy Valley—are being gradually extended as claim after claim strikes gold, until there are now over thirty frontage claims on rich or payable wash, while many block claims on the wings of the frontage are getting fair dirt. One claim on the Happy Valley lead, was recently reported to have struck very rich washdirt, getting as much as 25ozs. to the load ; and several other washings have been reported which reach very nearly to that amount of yield. In addition to this there have been two new leads on which gold has been struck, whilst the shallower diggings are gradually extending. Our last news brought us .accounts of a rush to a gully in the vicinity of Reedy Creek, only a mile or two from the township. The Three-Mile Bush is being steadily worked, and Kapp's Gull, which was not thought much of when first taken up,, is now beginning to develope a good amount of payable ground. There is, no doubt, a very considerable amount of auriferous ground in this district, and with the large population now on the spot, there is every chance that the country will get fair overhauling before Gulgong is on the wane. In the meantime diggers are flocking from all quarters to' the township: from Queensland, from | Victoria, and even from .New Zealand, men continue to arrive almost daily, and the latest computation was that there were at least eight thousand persons oil the Gulgong goldfield. Unfortunately the great majority of these are not in employment, and consist of men who have come to the spot in search of work, or in the hope of setting in on their own account. The work on the leads and on the shallow diggings is limited, and that there is little employment for wages men, except shepherding on the lines of lead ; while those having money are compelled to lie idle until opening ofFers for the investment of their capital and labor. There has been some little excitement here over the promulgation of the new frontage regulations recently framed by the Government. It was not likely that, with a system faulty in itself, there would be any chance of adopting regulations likely to make it work smoothly. The frontage system fias always been a kind of miner\s chimor.i, factoriiy grasped, since it Lias always been found impossible to make that work by regulations which was unworkable in itself.