SLUICING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 117, 1 April 1862, Page 3

SLUICING.

To tlie Editor of the Otaoo Daily Times.

Sib, —When California, and still later, Australia, opened their golden lands to whoever chose to try their luck on them, it was not expected by any Sane man that one and all could be alike successful. What' was the case in California and Australia, has also been to some extent in Otago. Having spent ten years in raining for gold, perhaps a few remarks from me would not be uninteresting to your numerous readers. I commenced my gold-hun-tin«- career in New South Wales, shortly after the discovery of the goldfields in that couutry by_ Mr. Ilargreaves. I was not successful in my firbt trial, so I determined to change my field, of operations. I accordingly started for California, and after a tedious passage of 145 days', I arrived in !?an Francisco, August 1852. lat once proceeded to the mines, located myself almost on the very spot that Mr. Hargraves had left a few montlis prpviously—Mokelumne River, Calaveras. I was much struck on comparing the creneral features of the country with theßathurst and Turon districts (New South Wales). The one is almost the fac simile of the other. My first day in the mines was not very cheering. I was without a sixpence, and among entire strangers. I walked from seven in the morning till five at night without breaking my fast—inquired for work from thirty or forty different companies, but always met with the same answer—" Fully manned." I afterwads got a iob forwagess—6o dollars and board. v I stuck to that awhile—bought myself a kit of tools, and went on my own hook. 1 was anythiug but successful; but I was not alone. Hundreds were complaining of nothing but old ground to work. The gold was all taken out. They would have to turn their attention tosomething else. Such sayings were the order of the day. But a new era was about to open. Water races where being constructed in almost every country from Shasta to Mariposa, some of them 80 miles long and costing as much as 500,000 dols., or £100,000 sterling. Several of these races were supplying water as early as the summer of 1853. With the water came a new system of mining, the cradle and torn gave place to sluicing and hydraulicin^; at fir«t, on a small scale, but as'the miners gained experience, they gradually increased their head of water for a sluic head from 12 to 18 inches, for an hjdraulic stream from 25 to 40 inches, and for a ground sluice stream, 60 inches each head, with a six inch pressure; the result was, prosperity on every side, the gold harvest had again set in, and the second crop nearly as good as the firsk. I had no reason to complain of my 'share for the nrst three years, but the next three, and speculation, left me almost as when I began. At this time the Fraser River' was attracting considerable attention, I* at once made up my mind to go there, I accordingly started, and was on Eraser in June, 1858. I need not describe British Columbia at that time. Suffice it to say, it having been locked up for two hundred years, it was" but" very little better known than the land supposed to exist at the North Pole. The miners at once adopted the sluicing system. In eight months after the rush had taken place there were water races amounting' to" 80 miles in length, costing £10,000 sterling. After' staying two years and a lialf in British Columbia, I found my blood required a more genial clime, and I at once; resolved to visit Victoria. It is only twelve months since I landed in Melbourne, and as I have been, here five, I saw but little of it. . But the district which I was in can never be successfully worked un-' der the new system, on account ot the country being too flat. With the exception of the miners at the .Ovens and Jim Crow districts, the ■Victorians know nothing about sluicing, at which I am not surprised. In the Ovens District, there are upwards of 40 races, from eighty miles in length downwards, , costing upwards ,of , £300,000 sterling, and is supplying water to at least thirty thousand miners, whose average wages are above any other district in Victoria. ' Now, Sir, my experience in sluicing warrants me in making the asser-; tion that the Tuapeka gold-fields should be second to' none if worked under the sluicing system.; for the production of the prcciou« metal, the hilly nature of the country,- the natural fall of its gullies, ey&ry one of which has a living stream of water; all it would require would be reservoirs,' and*when the stream is not large enough in one gully supplement it from another. I Jiave prospected from the Waitahuna to Waipori, and I can safely say, without fear of contradiction that the groiyid is unlimited that will pay with the method I advocate ; '1 dwt. to six loads will1 pay 15s per day per man, four in aparty, one forking while three put m the dirt. There are already four races.being cut; two from Monroe's, one from Gabriel's, and one into Wetherstone's. These races, when completed, will cost large sums of money, besides the_labour—the one'orfLWetherstone's about £600, the one- from Gabriel's £1,000. The men engaged on these enterprises, are; not here for a day. The nature of their investments show at once that they intend to become permanent settlers, and also may be the means of inducing hundreds of others^ Now, Sir, the Government ought to give every encouragement in their power, and at once to give them a title to their several races insuch manner that they -cannot be injured either now or hereafter. - - - - - I.am afraid I am'asking too much of your valuable space : it so; I must crave your indulgence this once, And remain.' your obedient servant, Progress, Wetheratone's,' March 26, 1362." .j J ____