GOLD MINING IN CALIFORNIA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 200, 30 November 1871, Page 6

GOLD MINING IN CALIFORNIA.

The following account of raining jn California is furnished -by Mr. ,Tolm Manning, lato of Hokitika, and will be foundto" coritaitl"~ui'uch "that "inighVbe very profitably turned to account in this Colony. TMr. Manning has been for some time in California, and has personally inspected all the mining districts with the view ,of obtaining informa-

tion :—: —

< ! "The .gold districts in this country arc wretchedly poor— -are. indeed, ex-' liausted almost — and were never rich, as compared with those of Australia and New Zealand. JS.iill companies can manage .to make .tbejse miserable go.ldiicldsyield fine returns, notwithstanding the poverty of the ground worked and the great scarcity of water here, not a drop of rain falling for nine months out of the twelve. 1 venture to say that if a company were formed in New Zealand to work with machinery such as is used here a princely fortune might be realised. The mode of working alluvial ground here is by hydraulic power. I visaed a claim lately, >vhioh is so worked, and I will endeavour to describe what I saw. The ground to bo worked was on a lull, mn-h like that on which the cenieioiy ctands at idtokitika, only much higher, yoLj uaye seen ahifi or .such dimensions wasij&j o,ut of a face. A good stream of water is brought to the brow of the hill. — The Cemetery liill of Hokitika we will suppose— at the mouth of the stream an iron pipe is placed, made of sheii -iron, arid rivett-ed like a ship's boiler, in two feet lengths. Eich length of piping is about 12ft. long and 6in. oivin. in diameter. This piping is laid on G&3 ground, down along the face of the hill to three or four hundred feet, ov" even a thousand feet from the foot of the hill concluding in a curve *owa7-ds the face of the hill. In fact, the piping is •what inay belienned 'an iron hose,' strJtcLeci «l«ng tiio ground, just as a hose would be for supplying water to an engine, in extinguishing a lire. At

the mouth of the pipe a nozzle or nose is fixed, eighteen or twenty 'inches long made of sheet iron and into -a cast iron socket, and'is as mnch like a cannon as possible. It is so -fixed at the mouth of the pipe that one man, or f.ven a lad fourteen years old, can elevate the .nose with £be lever that is attached, to the breach or socket, so as to send the

water three hundred feet high, pc lower fhft nose :>""-l direct the stream within a few feet of him— the nozzel, in factj is so fixed in the socket that it can be turned in any direction. The immense and powerful .volume of water' beina: directed against the base of tbe bil\ "a great "chasm is soon made (indeed it could make a drive- right ih rough the hill, for

that matter) and then clown slip some hundred's o£-theuetm<lß-«^jtonß of earbb, rocks, trees, '&<>,' &c On this greaj; 'landslip is now turned the water-spoulr.Fhieb soon breaks it up, dissolving - ail that is solvable, and washing f£ down the tail-race. Three or four men will suffice for this work ; one man to direct the nozzel and the other hands to cut up trees, blast rocks, and clear away all such impediments from the face.' The man ■who directs the nozzel is -the principle man, Tcvj^r- his work is' merely play. Thecomp.any whose hydraulic works I visited, pay £50 a "week for water supplied'io them by a company who bring jn the water from a lake fifty miles off. Even t at tfyat price the

hydraulic company are only. able to get Avater for about eight months in

th# yeg,r., ?md ' the ground . they are Working is'-po' poor that, as the man who was directing the spout told me,

* you might pan dirt all day and wouldn't raise tho colour.' Yet this company, Who only work eight months in the y6an, jjrho pay i 350 a' week for >yater, besides men's. wajjes, caniive like gentlemen ftom year to year. • I have not been informed as to their actual returns beyond that they are very good. To <?ar,ry . on this kind of work two. things are indisp'ensible. First, you must have the water coming down into

the , piping .from an elevation of 200 r, feet, and next you must have a good fall for your tail-race so as to carry off the vast quantity ot* stuff which is . Washed .from, the face -'of tno hill. "The tail-race shonlcl be. 4tOQD feet or 5000 ftset long; t!>e longer ifc is the safer.. If -the Btuff. put - through be. hetter tbanrtine average, they clean up the-^aii-race once a month or oftener, . aX they want trie money to go on Tritb ; if it be very poor they clean up only once in tvo or three months, and" sometimes not uutil the end of the season. .; v -,-- -<„''* :v ~ *.; - , ••In rich gronni like that in New Zealand yoii' -miglVt perhaps wash up tv^-e a month. The should' be I6in. in diameter, carrying a depth • of 20m: pf-water, co aa ta g;v.e 10Q or 2Qotn, ,- pf . > wafcr, .more or . lesa, • f r.om tho .nozzle acceding to its size.. T?his bod* -of. Oilier rfrbrn jm> elevation of 2001'k •give.s .-an -intense-, piflrer, strong enottirh'-jkorte^'up any "kind pf clay or ££$(»}.•■' I don't ine'aav however, tha-t f his : immense- ivafcqr ps. •' s n" e, 'should ' Ml 30Qf$.-> p?cpen4l<*Jilrfr'ink> *■;© pipes, Waus^guch? a-foree burst any }'•"!><& jtn-ihej-, v^ld, ■ bti|b "lAc .wifcer j&hqv^d. ; cotne; sloping ;down .into the pipe.p;Vjßjfc.>Wt mcmii. the- friction Arainst j;h> et;de-of thA pipes t'vQ nBPSBij» # antlj^duQes l -the"f«>r<re to :'>e Cemetery HjU at Hukifcita agnjo 'c eiample "?oi* coutd tiav'e yoiftj t"- ' " ' •'•

tail-race from that hill running right into the sea, and your tailings wouldn't interfere ' wifch aiiy interests. There ,are many localities.about Westland, and other parts of the Colony thai; would pay a company, wqll towork jn .this way. The two ma,in things to be considered are. (tlr\e( tlr\e elevation of .the water and, the fall of the tailings. I should not be surprised if before long some of .these sharp Cfylifornian miners will be nut in New Zealand, when they, will introduce .their machinery and backed up by .the most influential men in the country, .will secure the fattest .share of, the aur,ifer r . ous lands. The nozzle jvbicb I have described is a new invention, even here! I am acquainted wifch bqth.the inventor and the' founder who casts ,the sockets, and when I told (them( them what sort of a country INTew Zealand ,is — its rivers, its precipitous.'bjilly,character, and the ,r.ic>h aurjferors quality of its soil, they .said. -' that is ,the country for hydraulic mining.' The cost oi the nozzle and socket here ;ia frpm .£6O to £100." according to the size.. The piping could be made ( in Melbourne or it could .b.e.se.n.i from, here. ! The .nozzle, socket, and 100 feet of piping would cost here from £220 to £240. Then there would be the cost of carriage from here to fian Francisco, and .the freight tp New Zealand. All that would actually be required jfrom here, howe.yer, would be\the socket, and nozzle, and one length of piping of about twelve feet for a pattern. It would be easy enough, I should think, to get the piping made in J^ew Zealand."