BALD HILL FLAT, &c.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 281, 19 June 1873, Page 6

BALD HILL FLAT, &c.

I (To the Editor.) I Sm, — In your issue of the sth inst., appeared a letter signed " A Miner," ivhich will no doubt be rather puzzling 0 some of your readers without explanation. Many persons on reading the account of the groat tail races in Butchers Creek, will be inclined to wonder when the parties expecc to commenco to work their claims. The explanation is very simple, Let such.

of your readers who are not acquainted with Butchers Creek, imagine a party marking off a claim in Gabriels Gully, they then proceed about half a mile or so down the gully, and commence a tailrace, which is carried on about 200 yards, until the bottom is reached; tho intervening ground between the tailrace and claim is then sluiced away in a face until the claim is reached, when the same operations are carried on until the ground is worked out and has become all tailrace. Thereforo, supposing " A Miner's " figures to be correct, they do not only represent the cost of taking up a tailrace, but also the incidental expense of working out the creek or gully, and extracting the gold therefrom. No one could tell where the tailrace ended, and where the claim began. " Miner " states that Wilkin's & Co.'s tailrace is 1100 yards in length. Would he kindly informs us where their claim is situated ? With reference to Bald Hill Flat, there are two watersheds ; the one outlet being to the Obelisk Creek, and the other at Butchers Creek. ' " A Miner's " calculation of the amount of availablo fall to the Obelisk Creek, for sluicing purposes, is made with a happy vagueness that is quite refreshing to read. He commences on the basis, '* that it is well-known to a number of miners that the fall does not exceed 100 feet;" and from thirf data, calculating the required fall of a tailrace to the fraction of an inch, he proves with mathematical accuracy that a tailrace taken up the Flat would otarfc on an serial expedition. Now, it happens that there was a tailrace taken up tho Flat some years ago, and although a considerable portiou was merely a channel cut by the action of the tail water, it was us?id for sluicing purposes by several parties, when an occasional supply could be obtained from the Obelisk Creek. I wish to write cautiously, as I do not want " Miner " to accuse mo of deliberate falsehood, but to the best of my recollection, the end of that tailrace was not 65 or and other number of feet in the air; and I am compelled to conclude that any other tailrace tak^n up with the full fall tint can be procured would also keep its course on the earth, as I am not so prejudiced against the eock.'vtoos aa to suppose they possess weight enough of sin fo sink the Flat below its original level. "A Miner" in citing Messrs. Webb, Sori'enson, M'Gettigen, Leslie, and M'Douough, as experienced minors who knew all about the Flat, omitted to mention that they were connected with agricultural leases on the Flat, and interested in suppressing any attempt that would even remotely affect their vested interests. At the Butchers Creek end of the Flat, the outlet consists of a dry gully which separates into two branches as it approaches the Flat. Both these branches were very rich, and are pretty well worked. Sections 1 and 2 are situated on either side of one of these branches, and section 3 crosses the upper portion, taking in a part of the workings; and unless men who prospected the ground, previous to its being surveyed for agriculture, tell " deliberate falsehoods " payable sluicing prospects baye been traced from theso gullies right into the Flat. I leave the public to judge whether this is the kind of land that is peculiarly adapted for agriculture. There are several reasons why such land was ever allowed to be leased. The principal one was the absence of water for sluicing, also at the time the Flat was sur«syed. there was no purchasing chvuso in the regulations, and people imagined that when the leases expired the land would revert to the Crown, and any of the auriferous land would be again available for mining. The rush to the West Coaat had also partially depopulated the district, and the miners who remained had plenty of room for sluicing the partially worked ground in places where water was available, and did not care to oppose applications made by personal acquaintances, who always consider any I opposition to be the result of enmitj'. Tuapeka has been fortunate in always possessing a sufficient mining population to prevent the farmers encroaching too close, else the settlers fences might have enclosed workings on the sides of Gabriels Gully, and a band of j fierce cockatoos might have attended a 1 meeting held to devise means for working, say, the Blue Spur, and their spokesman, with a face as solemn as a sod fence, might have informed the miners thus : "we love you too well to permit you to waste your money on any such scheme ; the prospects will only give a few specs to the dish ; there is not fall enough, and the ground is too hard to sluice. If any of you think the ground will pay, it only betrays your ignorance. If any man tells you he has got payable prospect, he lies : in fact, we have got the land and mean to stick to it on public grounds. There, bo off. God bless you ! Don't let us see your faces here again." — I am, &c, Miners' Eight. Alexandra, June 11.