ALEXANDRA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 94, 27 November 1869, Page 3

ALEXANDRA.

(From a Correspondent).

Messrs. Halladay and party, the prospectors of the Butchera Gully reef, have had a trial crushing of one and a half tons of stone at the Ida Valley Quart:* Crushing Co.'s mill, at Hill's Creek-. -Th( result was' a* cake of gold weighing 2ozs 6dwts. : j wfiioh'is 6onsidored-\yerj*.Batisfac tory. The stone was taken from a deptl of ,54 feet. The reef, is three '.feet ii width, and the sample crushed was a fai ia^eft-g^one^atid^irotpiolfied-. ;

having been sunk with the under lay of the reef, and having water to contend with, it has been found necessary to sink a new shaft, which was commenced on Monday last. They are working a night and day shift, consequently it will not be long before I shall be able to give you an account of the reef at a lower level than they have yet reached. Shafts on claims No. .1 and 2, on each side of the prospecting claim, are being sunk. The ground on the east side is taken up down to the Molyneux river. One of the claims on the east, adjoining No. 2, is applied for under the Mining Lease Regulations by a party from Cromwell, which has caused great dissatisfaction here — in fact a great many intend objecting to the lease being ( granted, as it will retard the prospecting I of the reef, as the applicants are not bound to prospect or in any way to employ labour on the ground applied for until it is finally dealt with by the Government, and that may extend over a long period ; consequently it is considered a matter of speculation that will cost the nominal sum of £20 — or, in other words, the bona fide miner will be prospecting for the speculator, which is a state of tilings that should not be allowed to exist. Iverson and party, at Conroy's Gully, are down with their shaft nearly 40 feet, but the stone is not so well defined at that depth as near the surface, being more of a rubbly nature ; but it contains payable gold the whole way down, which must be satisfactory to the shareholders ; and as they intend to continue sinking, I will keep you posted up as regards the result. j

The sluicing parties have a plentiful su PPty oi water, but no wash-ups will take place until Christmas, consequently I will not be able to report on their doings until that time.

Our inhabitants arc moving early this year catering for the Christmas sports, and from the money already collected I think there will be more money to be competed for this year than at any time since ifc was inhabited by a mining community. Of course the principal amusement will be races, and judging from the private matches which take place every week, I have every reason to believe' we shall have quite a treat in that line. The Superintendent, accompanied by Captain Fraser and Mr. John Hughes, passed through here on Monday morning on their way to Dunedin via Tuapeka. I hear they visited the reefs at Cromwell on Saturday, and it is reported that the object of their -visit to the reef was to inspect Garrett's lease claims respecting some application to cancel the lease of one of their claims, referred to by me in a former communication ; further than that we know nothing o£ the object of their visit.