PIGEONGRAMS

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3768, 25 January 1881, Page 2

PIGEONGRAMS

TE AEOHA. - •

(Fbom To -day's Te Aboha MinebJ)

THE MINES.

A meeting of the shareholders of the Inverness Claim was held at the British Hotel on Friday. There was a fall'atten-, dance, and Mr McKenzie occupied the chair. The principal business of the meeting was to decide whether the quartz in the paddock should be retained till the erection, of the battery, or sent to the Thames for trentment. It was decided to keep the stone till the battery was erected. Mr McKenzie was elected manager of the mine.

Don.—ln the lower drive, which is in about 80 feet; the shareholders are belting away at a hard face. They expect to have to go 100 feet before the lode cut above is to band. At the time of our visit, no,one was working in the upper tunnel.

The native owners of the Whakapipi, adjoining the Don, are still hard at work, having done a considerable amount of trenching and some driving. At the time of our visit yesterday morning, old Morgan was putting in a shift right manfully. In one of the trenches in the side of the hill a jumbled leader is disclosed in broken country—country of a hungry description too, and in which we would not have much faith in gold being discovered, backed as it is with a mass of basaltic boulders. This leader dips into the hill at an angle of two feet in size. Our native friends have started a drive to cut the lode about 80ft down the hill, but if it continues its present underlie, they will have to drive hundreds o§ feefc before it is to hand. We do not know Jiphey hare any other leaders in view, but they may get some of the veins traversing the Don ground.

Sunbeam.—The shareholders of this claim have in two drives—one 135 feet, and the other 80 feet, besides two smaller ones. The longest is to catch the white lead, from which surface stones are in the possession of the shareholders, and almost every one of these show gold. They are expecting to cut it daily. The 80 feet drive is being extended for the same purpose, and the other workings are merely for prospecting.

Golden Anchor;— The winze is now down 55 feet with but little more water than has had to be contended with all along. Yesterday a start was made at opening out, but the leader will not be touched till a chamber is cut. A. color or two of gold baa been seen in sinking, and fine dish prospects. The prospecting drive for proving the ..country is now behind the Golden Anchor leader. As soon as the ope Ding out of the winze is fairly started all hands will be put on to work there.

A party of Waikato ladies and gentle* men, including Mr and Mrs Douglas, Mr and Mrs Kelly, and Mr Hammond, visited the Te Aroha, Bonanza, and * Waikato mines on Saturday. They were particularly interested in the latter mine, in which several of the party hold sharesThey expressed themselves satisfied with prospects.

The following notices of pegging out have been lodged :— Ellen Vanniu—Three men's ground, bounded north-east by Who'd Have Thought It: J. G.Blake.

Joker—Sir men's ground, bounded north by Morning Star: James Carrick. Overland Route Jlate Gem)— Pour men's ground, bounded south by Golden Anchor: R. Harvie and party. Cumberland.—Four men's ground, bounded south by Overland Route : Scott Cranstown.

GENERAL. . The annual meeting of the householders of the Ohinemuri district was held in the Paeroa school yesterday. Mr Austin was voted to the chair, aad called on the Chairman of the out-going Committee to read the aunual report. After the reading of the report, a vote of thanks was passed' to the committee for their work .during the pasl year. Messrs Wick, Littlejohn, Reed, Lipsey, Coutts, Corbett, Robson, Mitchell, and Porter were nominated, but after a considerable amount of apparring between the two last named, they both retired, thus saving an election. Those present seemed disappointed, as the muster was the largest that has been for a loßg time.

A friend of ours recently being desirous of arriving at the approximate population of the township, ascended one of the eminences at the rear, and counted the number of buildings and tents. The . wooden buildings numbered sixty-eight, and the canvas domiciles one hundred and five on the space occupied by the township as at present laid out. He averaged the number of inhabitants of eaoh erection, canvass or otherwise, at three— making the population fire hundred and nineteen,souls. He estimates the population of the suburb towards the slaughterhouse at two hundred, so that in round numbers we may be said to have a population of seysn hundred souls. At the greatest period of the Te Aroha excitement, the population waa never set down at more than eight hundred, so that it is apparent that the talk of people clearing out every day is far from being true. Another proof that "we have not over estimated the population is afforded by the food supply of the district. When we had only one baker here (Mr Allen), his biggest day's work was four hundred and odd two pound loaves. Now, with two or three other bakers, " Jack " itill batches considerably over three hundred loaves per diem. i Messrs O'Connell and Murphy, the contractors for the forming of Bridge street, finished the work on Saturday. They have likewise made a cutting to the proposed new landing. There is now a good dray road (during summer,) which will no doubt do something towards, attracting settlement to that part of the Township. We learn that the natives who pulled down Mr Walmesly's fence at Waihi haye f , not interfered with it since its reerection. The natives claim that they are entitled to a right of way through Mr Walmesly's property. *■ A certain parson of^TH^Mfmimr^r/^ a*Tisi(T to this district, was \ ambitious of ascending to the summit of the .Aroha. He went to; a;brawny old Scotchman and asked him to act as pilot. "Na, na," said. Samuel. "A* could, na think o' it. If I ganged tae the tops o' the hill; I'd swear mysel' black and blue. But I'll get ye a" mon; aye, and he's a* braw laddie. He tak's three hours tae say his prayers every night, an' got the sack for refusing to.chop wood on the Sawboth." The pardon said he thought the godly young man would suit, and tea , minutes later they were perspiringly ascending the mountain together.