SWITZERS GOLDFIELD.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 118, 12 May 1870, Page 5

SWITZERS GOLDFIELD.

(To tiie Editor of the Tuapeka Times.) Sir, — We have no doubt it will have come under your notice that your Goldfields Warden at Lawrence, Mr. Simpson, has paid ns a visit at Switzers. His business was to make enquiries and report upon a memorial which was lately sent to His Honour the Superintendent of Otago. We may here remark thab our action iv signing the petition did not arise from any animus on our part to our Resident Magistrate and Warden; but the fact of several applications for agricultural leases on this goldfield having been made for ground which we have proved to be auriferous, compelled us to leave nothing undone. The evidence taken before Mr. Simpson with regard to the facts stated in the petition, with one exception, was even more conclusive than we had anticipated. We may add that the evidence was taken in open Court. Mr. Simpson paid a visit to the site of all the applications, and found to his surprise that Messrs. Coyle and Brunton, Surveyors under Government contract, j were surveying hundreds of acres of our goldfield right across the workings. We are inclined to believe that there must be some blunder with regard to this survey, which we have no doubt will be looked into. It appears to us that the mode of taking evidence with regard to auriferous ground is too ancient. The fact of sinking one or two, or even fifty, shafts in a fifty acre block and finding no payable gold is, in our opinion, no proof with regard to the quality of the ground. The very fact of the colour of gold being found is now sufficient inducement for parties having the command of water to work the ground. In f;ict almost the whole of the ground now being worked on the spurs about Frenchman's Hill was tried and abandoned years ayo, and now proves to be the mainstay of this district. The ! wholesale manner in which this goldfield I is being surveyed, if not strenuously opposed, will within a very short time convert Switzers Diggings into a cattle run. The hearing of the applications in the Warden's Court has yet to come oft"; but we are quite confident that the Government will see the danger of establishing such a precedent, not only with regard to this goldfield, but also to all the others in the province. — We are, &c. , Some of the Petitioners. Switzers, May 6,, 1870.