Stoppage of Pumping Association Works.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3092, 15 January 1879, Page 3

Stoppage of Pumping Association Works.

Yesterday morning the directors of the Pumping Association reoeived a letter from the Thames County Council, stating that the Council would not be responsible for any expenditure incurred in connection with the pumping operations after the close of this month. For some, considerable time past, a large part of the gold duty levied at the Thames has been deroted to the support of the pumps, but as nothing payable has been found, and the companies are ■ not in a position to raise money, it would seem probable that the pumps must stop. There is a good deal of difference' of opinion as to the effect which the stoppage wilihave. Some think it will cause an entire cessation of the heaviest operations on the field, and will stop all attempts at mining at alow level. It will, no doubt, cause a greater amount of stagnation on the goldfields than exists 1 at present, inasmuch as mining operation^ in all the deep levels must cease, and the men .who have been so employed, will, of couiie, be thrown out of work. But, irrespectire of these immediate effects, there are others of a prospective nature* which have to be taken into consideration. It is beyond question that the upper levels of the •Thames Goldfield proper; have, to a great extent, become exhausted, and the great hope of resuscitation of, not only the mining interests of the province ■, but the expectation of propertyholders on the Thames, was. that some payable or rich discovery would be made in the deep levels, as had been the case in some of the Australian goldfields. The County Council of the Thames, which has kept the pumps in operation for two yean, now keep them going any longer, gad unleli, as suggested by the Chamber of Commerce, the, Government step in KritK^a further loan 6r grant,' or some arrangement, not at present known, is made, the pumps must cease operations at the.ep4 of this month. In yesterday'B Herai| We published an extract from the Thames Advertiser, stating that the Hon. Tc Kuuell had intimated that £50,000 could be received from English capitalists to iM& ''$k deep level*, and that Mr Brigham, the representative of the Tookey oon>ptwy, had intimated that £30,000 could be obtained from his Ballarat friettdi. There is, we learn, m o foundation for these statements, and unless the Government or the companies interested come to the rescue, deep let^l mining at the^Thamei Btttit inevitably cease at an *i*l*dtt«i--Herald. . . • ■■■■*•,-;.... .