MINING MEMS.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 39, 24 March 1863, Page 2

MINING MEMS.

(From the Dunstan Kews, 17th March,) MANUHEEIKA. The working of the old bed of the Manuherikia river continues to be carried on with varied success. As a matter of course the ground is nofc equally payable — one portion of it yielding lair results, while another will not pay expenses. As an instance we may mention that we have seen the 6ooks of one company which show weekly dividends varying from L 32 to L 9 per share — this latter amount being the smallest ; while another company that we are acquainted with, has involved its shareholders in a loss of aboat L6O a man — such, however, are the ordinary phases i£ digging life. About a mile above the portion of the river we have just referred to, the Manuherikia has also been turned ; and, although the washi g of the old bed was scarcely commenced, shares in each of the companies are at a premium. A con • pany has also been formed, and are now at work, cutting a new channel for the river. At a point f above Sheenan's station, pxcellent prospects havo ' been obtained, and there is every reason to believe that generally speaking the entire bed of the river will be found to be payable. There is very little engineering skill, and not much work required to turn the Manuherikia. A trench is cut to the desired points; a dam thrown across the stream, and the water speedily wears for itself a new channel. butchbti's GtrtiiY: From Butcher's Gully we have the cheering in formation that (he miners have succeeded in stril. • ing a second bottom at the depth of twenty-two feet. The gold obtained is coarse, and in payable quantities. The first bottom was worked at a de th of four feet from the surface, and yielded large quantities of the precious metal. The gold found on the second bottom is coarser than that found on the first, and gives the present prospectors promise to exceed it in richness and permanence. The prospectors, in sinking the trial shaft, came across a large quantity of bones of the Moa. Indeed, it appears almost impossible to break the surface of the ground in this locality without exhuming some portion of the remains of this now extinct bird.