BLUE SPUR MINING NEWS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 103, 29 January 1870, Page 5

BLUE SPUR MINING NEWS.

(From our Mining Correspondent).

Mining of late has been at a dead-lock owing to the late rains which we experienced at the commencement of the new year. An extensive land slip took place at the head of Gabriels Gully, carrying away three of the water races. The Waipori Water Co. had to employ from ten to twenty men for about a fortnight to repair the damage done to their race. The Hibernian Water Co. could do little or nothing until the Waipori Water Co. had completed their race — the slip being so extensive, some thousands of tons of earth and rock had to be removed. This company saw it to be a useless attempt with the pick and shovel, so the Hibernian Co. engaged all the water that was available to bear upon the slip, averaging from 800 to 1000 inches, for seven or eight days, sluicing with great magnitude and velocity down into the bed of the gully. The Nelson Co. are in the same fix with their race. This company are fluming with boxes across the slip, which is expected to take them until the middle part of this week to complete— then all the water races "will be in working order. The .North of Ireland party fired an excellent blast the other day, the charge consisting of 1 ton 12 cwt. of powder. The cement brought down by this blast was something extraordinary. Four blasts will be going off in the course of a few days in the following claims, viz., one in Morrison and Co.'s, two in the Otago Co.'s, and one in the Blue Spur Sluicing Co ,'s. Mills and Co. are washing up, and are expected to make an entrance in the stone paving in the latter part of the week.