THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, APRIL 15, 1878.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2860, 15 April 1878, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, APRIL 15, 1878.

The ordinary monthly-meeting of the directors of the United Pumping Association] and the representatives of the County arid Borough, which should take place on Thursday next, it has Been arranged shall be postponed until the following Thursday, on which occasion, we understand, a proposal will be submitted for commencement by the companies interested of prospecting operation!. Should, this proposal "be approved by the County authorities it may lead to operations being renewed in the Southern cross-cut. It is therefore hoped that there will be a full meeting of representatives, in order that there may be no further misunderstanding regarding the intentions of the associated companies. All the Borough gold duty has been absorbed in keeping the big pump going, besides additional and considerable sums by the County, and contributions by one or two mines. The County only stopped the work in the Southern drive when they found that the facilities it afforded for prospecting were not taken advantage of by the companies for whose especial benefit it was primarily intended. If a reasonable guarantee can be afforded that on resumption of work in this Southern drive by the County the owners of the mines will make a show of working their ground, no doubt the County Council will gladly carry out their original plan of continuing the cross-cut until it connects with the Waio-Karaka drainage system* It is an every day story that the place is going to the dogs. If some of those gen*' tlemen who have drawn so liberally from the Thames in its palmy days, and still hold large interests which are actually being protected at the expense of the Thames public (there are many ways in which the gold duty could be spent to improve the district), would only look a little further than the length of their noses and engage in a legitimate expenditure to prove the value of their own property, we firmly believe the cry of "dull times" and a "permanentdecline" would give place to a renewed confidence and a gradual but certain extension of the limits to which active mining operations are now confined. The County and Borough.authorities would not be justified in spending their last shilling of gold | duty to prospect the low levels, were they not supported by the ratepayers and encouraged by the action of those mine owners most intimately concerned, especially when they have so many demands upon their resources to enable miners at a distance, and working in comparatively inaccessible spots, to get quartz down to the mills. Had the associated companies faithfully carried out their part of the bargain, entered into when the County Council first agreed to carry out the low level cross-cuts, there would not have been any occasion for the County to stop that carried on in a southerly direction, nor any rumours of a probable stoppage of pumping operations. On the contrary, it is more than likely that by this time something more than encouraging prospects would have been met with inline low,levels, and the cry of dull times would be less frequently heard' in our midst. .