MOUNT BENGER

Tuapeka Times, Volume 42, Issue I, 28 November 1868, Page 3

MOUNT BENGER

(From our Own Correspondent). Mining affairs are quiet, and complaints of" dulness in trade prevalent. Most of the Celestials have loft this quarter for Tuapeka and neighborhood, the river having risen to about summer level; cradjjug that part of tho beach still uncovered does not offer them sufficient inducement to remain, worked over and over as it has been. Eeports bave frequently appeared in the newspapers of their making, in their primitive fashion, over £3 par mr,n waokly. in places where I have been assured by European miners who had previously tested the same ground by sluicing it, that they could not earn more than 255. weekly by this last process. John Chinaman is, however, a very ingenious drum in liis wuy, and if lie cannot earn gold sufficient to keep him in one manner, he tries another and more lucrative one. As most of what he sells is amalgamntod or retorted gold, it is rumoured that brass-filings form no inconsiderable. proportion of it, and that some of t'l3 storekeepers (but, of courso, Mr. Editor, ye mustna say ought abo r 6t it) have been victimised in considerable amounts by such trickery, and' they have unanimously determined to pur"chase no more of the suspicious compounds in future. The same "little game " may perhaps be tried on at Lawrence or elsewhere. Before we were favored with tho presence of these Mongolians, a hard-up minor could earn at least a living anywhere about -the Molyneux, and but for them might have done so for years to come ; but that is now a'thing of the past, as the deserted beaches amply prove — thanks to this set of Tartar colonists, and those who introduced them to our goldfields. The -weather has been cold lately, but refreshing showers have fallen, and the crops are growing rapidly, giving fair promise of abundance.