SLUDGE CHANNEL LEVELS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 377, 2 June 1876, Page 3

SLUDGE CHANNEL LEVELS.

(To ths Editor of the Mount Ida Chronicle.) . Naseby, May 31. \r Sie,—l§ would hot" wish to>be considered a croaker,fSbutohere {jis*. plenty of room to grumble,sand with reason, too. In- your article on " Sludge Channel L'e- ; vels/' in last week's issue, you would s<;em to think it a matter of no conse-quence-whether the Channel was deepened or not, apd that.it was merely a selfish feeling on the part of some claimholders that it should be deepened. I happen to be one of the many who maintain that it should have been deepened by at least six feet, otherwise it will never fulfil the purposes for which it was deepened in the first instance, which must be patent to any person who has ever worked any ground on the place. "What you term a "pot hole" I would beg to say is the main run of ground in the flat, into which all the runs higher up empty. It crosses the Channel abreast of Duncan's paddock to the other side of the flat, the prospects in which show one acre of such ground to be worth three of such as most that the Channel will command ; and, instead of it beingonlyalimited area but what the" Channel will work, time will prove it to be all the other way—and the best ground at that. It is a mistake to imagine that, by extending individual races along the course of the Channel, parties can gain fall 'enough to work ground below the level of the Channel itself, or to suppose a tail race would work with the same fall as the Channel. If parties have to join together to bring up one main race to work their ground—which will bo necessary, under existing.circumstances, or the flat will be all tail races —I cannot see why such an amount of money should have been fooled away in bringing up a Channel for the purpose. The party referred to last week saying the money was being chucked away was far from being wrong. ■•'That'there is good gold in the flat no one can doubt who tries it. But it would seem to be the object of the socalled engineer to make it as difficult to obtain as possible. That some 200. acres of the best ground on the flat, with some, thousands of ounces of should be to all intents tabooed to the miners redounds to anything but the credit of those who Lave the work in hand. The whole work, as far as the Channel is concerned, which could so, easily have been a great success, is simply a burlesque. As to none of the claims being abandoned, they are all protected for the present; when it comes to the working part of it many of the holders will see things -as they really are, and find other quarters.—l am, &c, Sltticeb.