WAITAHUNA

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 139, 6 October 1870, Page 5

WAITAHUNA

(From a Correspondent. )

Considerable activity is at present displayed in mining enterprise at Waitahuna, or rather between Waitahuna and the Woolshed. No fewer than three races are projected, two of them of very considerable magnitude. Messrs. Edie and party have made application for leave to cnt a race from Sheepheads Gully, with a branch to Nuggetty Gully, to the claim of the deceased Mr. Todd, adjoining Mr. Coombe's claim. The party consist of five; they have taken up a five acre claim, and as the race will be ten or twelve miles in length, it will be some months before they have the water on the ground. Mr. Murray of Glenore has applied for a race from the North Tokomairiro river, terminating near his private property at the Woolshed. This race is to carry 25 heads of water, and from the nature of the ground it will be a work of much time and expense. It is said that the Canada Qartz Company intend to utilise their waste water by carrying it to the same ground — a work which will necessitate very heavy fluming and much rock cutting. All this enterprise has been awakened by the supposed success of Mr. Coombe's party. I say supposed success, for, as far as I can find out, no one beyond the party apparently knows whether they are doing so or not ; but mystery and uncertainty are meet food for speculation, especially in gold mining. One thing, however, may be considered certain, if all the projected companies bring all the water they expect, to bear on the gravel spurs at tha Woolshed, for any considerable period, the settlers on the lower parts of the Tokomairiro plain may prepare for heavier floods than they have yet experienced. The flat, tortuous course of the river, must inevitably retaiu mud) of the tailings, and the channel in consequence will rapidly fill up. A crushing of about 300 tons from the Canada reef, yielded on the average about 3| dwts. to the ton, not a very rich yield

but sufficient, I understand, to pay good wages to the tributers. The story of the new reef discovered about a couple of miles from this place, has very little foundation in fact. The specimens were not, as represented, broken up from a reef, but their appearance would seem to indicate that they have not been carried far, so that there is a possibility of a reef, yet undiscovered, being somewhere near the locality in which the specimens were picked up. The greater number of the men who have been working on the road at the Manuka Creek saddle, have left or are about to leave. The wages of all but the best hands have been reduced to four shillings or four shillings and sixpence by the Government. Not to be behind hand the men have reduced their daily labour in a still greater proportion, indeed to a minimum. If any of your readers want to see the " Government stroke " in perfection, let him visit the "unemployed" at Manuka Crack.