COLLINGWOOD.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 106, 6 May 1870, Page 2

COLLINGWOOD.

From a Correspondent. The mining prospects of Collingwood are looking better than ever, and the various claims — especially in Bedstead-gully and Toi-toi-flat districts, promise a rich harvest to the fortunate possessors. The Perseverance Company's mine is being well opened up, and the stuff from the several drives continues to be of good quality. A trial of the driving power — an excellent Turbine by Schieles — took place on Tuesday, and with four feed-ports open out of twelve a speed of 70 strokes of the stamps per minute was obtained; the battery will be in complete working order in about a fortnight. The ground held by the Masonic Company turns out from time to time stone of exceedingly rich character; 2^dwts. of gold were obtained, in the presence of three gentlemen from Nelson, from one dish of stone pounded in the roughest way, besides a quantity of small specimens. The Pioneer mine is promising well, the vein of copper, only some two inches wide at the outcrop, has increased to nine, and the quality of the ore is improving. At the Camera Company's mine operations have been discontinued for a time, for some reason best known to the Company. The reef which has been opened up on the hill-side looks a very likely one, and is pronounced by experienced miners to be one of the most promising in the district. Across Toi-toi-flat and opposite the Pioneer and Camera claims the Lucky Hit Company are carrying on their operations, and a quantity of very rich quartz has been already obtained. The men who are putting in the drive have, by testing the stone they are driving through, come to the conclusion that it will yield about 15 dwts. to the ton; if this statement is !

1 correct, or even if the Btone yield only 6 dwts., the claim will be one of the richest in the colony. The quantity of stone is illimitable, and it will crush very easily. The Collingwood coal-mine is being got ready for work with all possible speed, and the main drive through an enormous mass of coal reveals the cheering fact that the shale-bands are becoming thinner, in some cases almost to extinction; and the coal, known to be of splendid quality, is improving in color and increasing in lustre and density every yard. From all these facts we may safely predict a speedy end to " hard times " in this part of the colony.

The Bruce Herald learns from authentic sources that the Otago Provincial Government chest boasts of something like £25,000 on hand. A contemporary gives the following summary of politics in Taranaki: — The Provincial Council is still in session. Tha members meet once a week, and seemingly talk for a few hours, with very little satisfactory results and then separate. The members appear to be always talking about economy and retrenchment and have proposed to reduce the police and jail department — which at present, we believe, consists of five persons — down to four; and at the same time they pass resolutions authorising the Government to guarautee a loan to a private individual to purchase a steam-engine and plant, because he had no money to buy it, or property to give as security. The amount is not large it is true ; but the present instance is the first on record where a Provincial Government has been authorised to back a tradesman's bill to enable him to raise money to buy extra plant. It is not a new industry that has to be fostered ; but simply to assist a blacksmith who has started a foundry there, and enable him to make castings larger than he was capable of doing with the appliances he had. Hares have so successfully acclimated in some parts of Victoria that sportsmen are allowed to shoot them. They fetch 10s. in Melbourne at present, but prices are said to have a downward tendency.

A dividend of £1 per share has been declared in the Long Drive Compauy. A Correspondent of the Lyttelton Times writes :— The wild speculation in the Thames mining shares has caused more mischief than is usually imagined. I know, amonpst others, of one public Office where all the clerks aud a military gentleman who superintends have invested the savings of years, and have lost all in those bubble companies which have ruined so many ; people widely divergent iu social position have equally suffered iu proportion to their means. Passing through Queen-street a few nights ago, my attentiou was drawn to a crowd collected round an itinerant orange vendor, who was apparently in much distress. It appeared that the poor fellow, by economy and industrious pursuit of his humble calling, for several years, had managed to accumulate a little fortur.e of £200, He had just received intelligence of the breakup of the company in which his money ■was invested, aud as the young fellow's grief bore no reference to himself, but was occasioned solely from consideration for a sick wife and helpless children, he was much commiserated by by-standers, who assured me he bore a very good name, and •was the victim of a swindle by no means uncommon. The Sydney Morning Herald, which fiercely condemned New Zealand flax as being the cause of the fire in Flood's store, seems to have moderated its opinion, to judge by the following paragraph : — After the fire at Flood's store on Circular Quay, much was said and written about the probabilities of spontaneous combustion in flax, the defenders of that article bringing forward scientific evideoce and practical experience to prove that flax did not aud could not originate fire. Some fresh experience, however, on this point has been furnished on the last trip of the Claud Hamilton from New Zealand, aud which, having flax on board, caught fire oa its passage to Melbourne. Flax promises to become to New Zealand so important an article of commerce that no hindrances should be thrown in the way of its export ; but, at the same time, it is all-important that whatever is transmitted to Sydney and Melbourne for shipment to Europe by the large passenger vessels, should be packed in a thoroughly safe condition. Life and property must not be risked even to patronise a new industry. Science will soon overcome the difficulty if the matter is energetically settled. A correspondent at the Lower Burdekin, Queensland, writes : — " This j river is teeming with alligators. I was swimming a river the other day, iu company with a blackfellow, and in doing so we very nearly swam into the mouth of an alligator fully 20ft. long. Fortunately, however, we saw the beast in time to get on to a leaning branch of a tree that stood in the middle of the stream, before it could reach us. "We then pelted sticks at him until we drove him away. This done, you may be sure that we did not lose much time in swimming to the nearest bank. Lots of cattle, horses, sheep, dogs, and four men that I know of, have been destroyed by these monsters in tho lower Burdekin and its tributaries since I first came to the district, now nine years ago." Colliery Explosion. — On February 14 an explosion of gunpowder took place at the Morfa Collieries, near Neath. The bodies of several men have been recovered but upwards of 20 more remain in the pit. The coal seams are on fire, and the danger of a second explosion is consequently imminent. The shock was felt like an earthquake in the neighborhood, and the guides of the carriages were all blown into atoms . Twenty-three persons have died from the results of the explosion, and thirty more are injured, four of them dangerously. The injured and dead were raised in a bucket, one or two at a time. It is believed that a great number oi horses have been killed, as the stables are ia the immediate neighborhood of the scene of the explosion. It is easier to imagine, than to describe, the scene around the pit, where mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters, were anxiously awaiting the arrival of each bucket. The works belong to the Messrs, Vivian. It is stated that another explosion of fire-damp has occurred at the Morfa Colliery, by which several men have been killed or injured. The men were looking for the bodies of those who had been killed by the previous explosion. "Do you think that lobsters are healthy?" "Yes; I never knew one complain of being out of health in my life."