TE AROHA.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4351, 11 December 1882, Page 3

TE AROHA.

[Fbom the Mail.]

The contractors for the tramway to the mines at Waiorongomai made an early start this week with seventy men, chiefly picked up in Auckland and at the Thames. The work is principally for pick and shovel men for some time to come, and 9s per diem for such unskilled labor should procure an abundant supply. We dp not anticipate any necessity for an extension of contract date in calculating the time of completion of the work. The Christmas holidays are, indeed, the only drawbtck to thia anticipation, but we have no doutit a much larger number of men will be available, and anxious for employment, after the holidays. ■ The crushine of a five-ton trial lot of qnarfz from the Stanley claim, on the J£r*b. School endowment land, has furaislMjd material for considerable speculation during the week. Those who are fearful of the future of our mining enterprise, and croakers who are found in every community, especially in mining districts, - -argued that success was doubtful, because the result was not proclaimed from the , house-tops. The fact is that the quality of the reef was well known before this, but comparative results were arrived at by the battery test, which will will prove a material guide in the fittingup of goldsaving apparatus at the new mill. It was made with this object on behalf of the Battery Company, and to guide them in an earlier start at the mill, and it is satisfactory to know that the test realised the small expectation entertained of it. The result was. indeed, several pennyweights better, and when all appliances for saving gold are perfected satisfactorily at the new mill, we have no doubt the crushing will commence in earnest, even from such outside claims as these, until the tramway now .commenced affords a means of tranist to those claims where the quartz has been proved most payable, and the shareholders of which only, await the means of conveyance to keep several of such mills in constant operation. Work is progressing satisfactorily in the various mines, although there is not much in the shape gf new discoveries to report. In the New Caledonia, Welcome, Vermont, W*itoki Extoped, Lucky Hit, and Premier the show in the lode has much improved since our last, and work has consequently made a marked difference in the respective values of.the properties. Tbe tame might, no doubt, be said of other mines if worked,. but the object seems to be tbat of doing, as little work as possible until crushing facilities are provided.