WEST COAST.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 235, 30 March 1866, Page 3

WEST COAST.

♦ (From the HolcitiTca Chronicle, March 24th.) MINING- INTELLIGENCE. The long continuing succession of fine days has resulted in one little drawback to the pleasure every one experiences in being spared for a time the affliction of the dreaded traditional West Coast ■weather, entailing incessant rain and unmitigated discomfort. The supply of water on the diggings is becoming scarce and uncertain, and sluicing operations are somewhat impeded thereby. We notice that at the Kanieri, even the Pioneer Company with their gigantic works and perfect appliances are unable to supply the necessary number of heads required in the different claims, and the supply of water has to be rigourously restricted, and meted out with all due care. From Totara and Waimea we hear the same complaints, and the very unusually expressed desire for wet weather is often heard from impatient miners. Generally speaking the returns from the goldfields still keep up to a good average as far as we can learn decisively from our own private sources of information. We trust now that the different branch escorts are being established between Hokitika and the various mining centres, the Government will see the propriety of adopting the Otago and Victorian system of publishing periodical special returns of the yield fromfeach separate goldfield. At the Canieri, the bluff near the river is now rapidly chanring its appearance, seemingly doomed to dwindle away into nothingness before the all-pcwerful influenhe of the long hydraulic hoses now attacking it with unrelenting energy. Day after day it disappears foot by foot into tae stream, and its sturdy assailants, the miners, are fast becoming jubilant over the prospects of obtaining the hidded golden treasures to be disinterred from its innermost recesses. The claims drained by the IStar Pumping Company are yielding returns almost in excess of the first anticipations of the holders, and the engine has proved itself of sufficient power to successfully combat with any water likely to be met with in the various shafts. The Water as it is discharged from the elvators is not allowed to run entirely to waste,' but is conveyed by boxes to a point some hundred yards distant, where it is used as a motive power for a wheel of a very finished construction, latelh built bA Mr Gordon. The work of hewing and clearing timber on the Commissioner's Flat is fast progressing, and in a short time we hope to record the successful result of the bottoming of not one but nmny claims in this locality. The Waimea district has suffered from a loss of population lately, caused by the excitement arising from the rush to Oakarita ; and the want of water is also severely felt in some of the siucing claims. The Teramakau diggings still continue a favorite spot with many miners, although there, as elsewhere on the northern goldfield, the population has somewhat diminished. The terrace workings at the back of the lagoon are still yielding well, and claims are now taken up for v a long distance southward. A few parties have lately been prospecting in the bush at the rear of the present line of workings, but with scant success, the ground being extremely wet and difficult even to paddock. From the Totara district the news just now is not particularly cheering, and the works on the Flat, excepting in a few claims, is almost at a standstill, the water in the shafts proving too strong to con- j tend against without the aid of powerful machinery. A company is in course of formation for taking up, under lease, an area of five acres on the flat, upon which they purpose erecting steam machinery ; but the idea does not seem to find favor with all interested in the matter. The applicants, with some show of truth, assign as reasons for requiring a large area of greund, that the ordinary area given under the mining regulations is too small to repay them for the expense of erecting machinery, especially on wet j and difficult ground ; whilst on the other hand it is argued that the granting of leases is calculated to impede the beneficial development of any goldfield, inasmuch as it creates a monopoly in favor of a few men of money and drives the working man away. The district Warden in such cases has a wide discretionary power to either recommend or object to the application for a lease, and, doubtless, Mr Warden Aylmer's experience in ininieg adjudication will enable him to equitably decide whether or not to sancion the application in the matter. \