TIMBER SUPPLY FOR THE DUNSTAN DIGGINGS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 257, 16 October 1862, Page 4

TIMBER SUPPLY FOR THE DUNSTAN DIGGINGS.

J% is admitted on all hands, that without a good supply of timber at something like reasonable rates, the Dunstan diggings can never be properly developed; and there are few who doubt that, with such a supply, those dio-rrin^ will long afford most profitable work to a iar°e population. It is, therefore, a v,ry satisfactory thing to he able to state that timber in abundance, and fit for all mining purposes may, and speedily will, be supplied at the Dunstan at a cheaper rate than it has ever yet been obtained at Tuapeka. or any of the old fields. We make the announcement on the authority of Mr Henry Hill, of whose proceedings in testing the practicability of briiviuotimber from the neighbourhood of the Waiuika Luke, the letters of our special correspondent have more than once contained mention. Mr. Hill is at present in Dunedin, and some information which we have obtained from him will, we are sure, be read with general interest. It is upon the Imiks of a stream running into the Wanaka Lake, that Mr Hill has been recently occupied. He has there found plenty of white pine, of excellent quality, and an abundance of birch. The latter is generally held to be useless, so far as supplying the Dunstan miners is concerned, because ft will not float. But it will float after a few months of careful seasoning; and Mr Hill looks forward to its being made very useful. After being cut, the timber has at present to be carried by men a distance of fully half a-mile. Fitting punts are needed for transporting cattle across the Lake to this spot, °n. distance of forty miles; it being held that nothing like a practicable ° track for driving them thither can possibly be found. This want in the matter of haula»e Mr. Hill intends soon to supply ; and thus one cause of costliness in the delivered timber will be removed.

The stream has, on an average, only six inches of water, so that a limit is put to the construction of rafts, but otherwise it does not present any obstacles to the floating down of timber. On the Lake there will often be delay for a week or a fortnight, owiig to the wind blowing for that time either direct uo or direct down, and very strongly; so that the men bringing down rafts, or working their way back, as it may happen, will have to la}' to. The distance across the Lake to the head of the Upper Clutha or Molyneux, is about ibrty miles; and it is some fifty miles from the latter point to the junction with the Kawarau, where the diggings may be said to begin. The first seven miles of the Clutha offer no serious obstacle to rafting ; but the second seven present very many and serious ones. '1 he banks are very precipitous and the course of the river most tortuous, stiff curves alternating with sharp angles, often so close together that perfect zigzags are formed. At each of such angles there is a wide and bold rocky bar ; and" at many points rocks jut up 10 feet or 15 feet above the natural bed of the river. The rapidity of the stream, and its swirls ainonnthese obstacles, tend constantly to drive a rail on to a rock or a bar; and to avoid this, the raft must be by some means, at each point, got bodily across the stream at an angle. This part of the river being passed, jio serious difficulty is met with for twelve miles, which brings one to the junction of the Lindis burn; and thence to the month of the Gorge and at the commencement of the diggings, the Clutha is verj' good whether for rafting or other purposes. In and below the Gorge there are occasionally fails and strong rapids; but there is nothing so seriously difficult for rafting as is constantly found along the seven miles before mentioned. Indeed, because of this bit of the river, Mr Hill believes that, in dealing with moderate or small quantities of timber^, cartage from the foot of the Lake to the junction with the Kawarau would be the cheaper and better plan. The distance is riot more t'.ian 35 miles, and there is open country and | a capital'road all-the way. But if a large trade is to be carried on, Mr Hill says that the plan would/be to form flitches or beams, drawing not more than 6 in., but pretty substantial in other ways; and to keep a strong body of men along the bad seven miles, to push off the flitches as soon as they strike on the banks or bars, or-get into an eddy amongst the rock 3. Mr Hill first triedto get' down rafts of 2,000 feet each, but soon found that they were entirely unmanageable. ' Indeed one of them struck upon the first bad bar, and could not be got off again. The others he broke into rafts of 500 feet or 600 feet, but those few occupied'so . much time, and cost so much for la^or in keeping them afloat, £hat Mr Hill does riot doubt that cartage would be cheaper, for small quantities. But 100,000 feet of timber could be attended to in these respects nearly' as cheaply as 10,000 feet; and finding inen^ for the work' could be, done jointly, supposing the business

to be entered upon by several energetic men or nrms. Three or four smaU efforts have already been made, and have failed. One party of sawyers got a quantity of birch afloat on the Ilawea Lake, but their rafts brose, and nearly every stick was lost. , A second party built a punt, but she Avas soon split upon a rock, and, her owners lost heart A third, after a month's labor, got about 700 feet. of pine to the Kawarau Junction, they having arranged it fender-fashion alongside a boat. They sold it at 2s. a foot, but even at that price they declared that they were not paid, and they did not make a second trip" 4. thoroughly organised system is essential to success ; and this, Mr. Hill, we believe, is about to set m operation. He has some 20 men at work at present; and in the coarse of a_week he will have at least 40 employed, and beats and booms where required to pick up or catch the timber. Apart from the pine, which lie is now regularly sending down, Mr Hill lias arranged for the cutting of a large quantity of birch into junks or flitches. This is a wood that splits well, so that diggers will be able easily to make rails, or slab, to suit their wants.

We doubt not that it could be easily arranged to insert the few additional regulations m tne existing code for the gold-fields, by which property-rights in timber coining ( ] o \vn the Clutha, or other rivers, would bs secured to any one who has enterprise sufficient to attempt sending supplies from the Hawea or Wanaka Lakes. Without such provision, there would be endless disputes, or something worse, through timber being seized and used by the owners of claims on which it mi«ht happen to have ran aground ; and enterpnze would be checked thereby, even if Io S3 was not entailed on the speculators. But with some simple regulations officially promulgated, we fancy that the great importance to the miners of securing a regular supply of timber at a reasonable rate, would induce them to give all the aid in their power to enforce rights and preserve property; and that Mr Hill and others would be enabled very speedily be make the Hawea and Wanaka timber supply ; a success for themselves, and all interested in the diggings. Delivery at the junction of the Tuapeka liiver would, Mr Hill thinks, be in no way seriously difficult; and a price less than is now paid there would leave a profit.