WASTE LAND BOARD.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 284, 10 July 1873, Page 5

WASTE LAND BOARD.

The weekly meeting of the Board was held on the 3rd instant, the following membersbeing present : — The Chief Commissioner (in the chair), Messrs Butterworth, Clark, Strode, and Tolmie, SALE OF THE MAEREWHBITOA BLOCK. An application was made to bave the plans of the application made by the Hon. R. Campbell to purchase land in the Maerewhenua district approved of by the Board, and to have the Hon. R. Campbell declared to be the purchaser of the said land. The following report by Mr M'Kerrow was read : — " Survey Office, Dunedin, "3rd July, 1873. "memo, for chief surveyor. " Under your instructions, I have the honour to report on the amended application of the Hon. Robert Campbell in the Maerewhenua district. The application comprises 11,586 acres, of which fully 5,000 acres consist of level terrace land and easily sloping spurs of an altitude above sea level ranging from 500 feet to 1,200 feet. The remainder is more steep and broken, and rises to an elevation of over 2,000 feet. This is purely pastoral country. There are some spots of good agricultural land over the 5,000 acres, but generally the soil is thin, lies on a porous subsoil, and would not be likely to stand much cropping. For small agricultural settlers holding 80 or 100 acres, the place would not be suitable ; but for settlers of 400 or 500 acres, who would combine cropping with grazing, it is well adapted : each farm could be laid out so as to include a piece of flat, of hillside, and river frontage. An excellent building sandstone exists in quantity on the land. Bui net's coal-pit is at a mean distance of nine miles by a good level dray track. The price of coal is 12s per ton at pit mouth. There is no timber on the land, nor is there any growing within several days' journey. Fencing would therefore be very expensive. On the completion | of railway to Awamoko. or to Maerewhenua, as projected, this expense ought to be much less than it would be at present. " This land, with its natural extension on to Eurow, is about the only area left in North Otago suitable for extension of settlement. , " AURIFEROUS NATURE OF COUNTRY. " Before proceeding to the ground, I had from Mr Stout the names of the clients on whose behalf he appeared at the Waste Land Board. I wrote to these gentlemen (Messrs Hannah and Cooper) of my coming, and requested their company on the ground. It was inconvenient for them to go, but other two members of the Mining Association (Messrs M'Quade and Thomas) accompanied me to the ground. We prospected for two days with tin dish and shovel — firstly, in the Otekaike Valley, and then in the Doctor's

Creek and Otiak valleys. In the Otekaike valley, only tyro or three minute specks of gold were detected as the result of washing several dishfuls of stuff taken at different places within the application. Following up the Otekaike to the Gorge, which is about half-a-mile outside the application, and then further up for nearly two miles more, two or three specks were found in nearly every dishful. We came on old workings in which Thomas had been one of a party for a few months. He said 'they had not done very well.' No trace was discovered in Doctor's Creek, nor on the banks or bed of the Otiak. But in the gullies running into the Otiak minute specks were again obtained. The spurs which bound these gullies are the most likely-looking places for gold within the application. They are covered in many places with fine quartz gravel set free by the disintegration of a rusty-red conglomerate, which still caps the hills in cakes and masses over an area of 1,000 acres, as marked on plan. This conglomerate again appears on the east border of the application, and from thire extends on over the present gold workings to the Kakanui Gorge. It is composed principally of quartz gravel and sand, with the sesqui-oxide of iron as the cementing and coloring constituent. A piece of it was pounded, and a dishful yielded two specks of gold. The prospects obtained establish that gold does exist within the application, and that if payable, it will only be so if the ground is washed oa an extensive scale. Before bringing water on, shafts would require to be sunk for the purpose of testing the depth and quality of the ground. This would occupy some months. The water available to work the ground is | but limited, and conld only be relied on duiing the winter months, so that at best the operations would be somewhat desultory. It will not be advisable to reserve the 1,000 acres solely, as, very likely, if ever the ground be worked, a water race will have to cross the application from the Otekaike, and the tailings in that case might partly run into Doctor's Creek. The question here arises — Would the granting of the application not prevent the diversion of the water of the Otekaike to another water shed? tf so, then the proposed water race from the Otekaike to the auriferous ground already reserved by the Waste Lands Board in the Maerewhenua watershed would have to be quashed, just as in the case of the proposal to divert the Kakanui to the same goldfield. Under all the circumstances of the case, it seems as though the application should be granted intact or not at all. "James M'Kerrow, "Geodesical and Inspecting Surveyor." Mr Stout opposed the sale, and Mr Begg appeared to support. On the public being re-admitted, the Chairman intimated that the Board had resolved to confirm the sale and approve of the survey, Mr Clark dissenting from the decision. At a later period of the proceedings, Major Richardson appeared and asked if the Board had received any intimation of the resolution of the Provincial Council on the subject of the land in question, and was told they had not, Mr Butterworth adding that if any such intimation haa been received it would not have been noticed. MISCELLANEOUS. Mr Herbert appeared to make explanations with regard to a saw-mill license held by him at Tapanui. After hearing these explanations, the Board expressed itself perfectly satisfied, provided Messrs Herbert and Co. paid in proportion to the horse-power employed by them. An application by Alexander Pullar for section 18 block 1, * Waikouaiti district, for the purpose of planting trees, and with the view of completing his property, was declined. Messrs Hayes and Jagger applied for leave to purchase the site occupied by their brewery on the road leading from Clyde to Cromwell. The ground was ordered to be surveyed by the applicants, and on the same being approved of, the price was fixed at L2O per acre. Messrs Gillies and Street, as agents for Mr H. Peterson, applied for refund of LlO, deposit paid for section 73, block 7, Tuturau, and section 18, block 3, Wyndham, the land having been applied for at Invercargill, where it was taken up. The Board recommended the Government to comply with the request. A report was read from the Banger of the Tuturau Hundred of a meeting held, at which the majority of the settlers present expressed an opinion against the depasturing of sheep on the Hundred. The Board left the matter in the hands of the license-holders, considering that it was a point upon which they could not interfere. On the application of the Chairman of Wardens at Mokareta Hundred, certain alterations in the depasturing regulations were agreed to, and the bye-laws ordered to be published. A letter was read from Mr W. H. Homer, claiming to be entitled to a free grant of land situated at Martin's Bay. The Board decided that if he conld prove that he had complied with the conditions under which such grants were provided for, he should be entitled to the land claimed by him. Applications were made to purchase land held under agricultural lease as follow :—: — William M'Allister, section 26, block 1. Shotover ; D. Blair, sections 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 62, and 106, block 3, Shotover ; and by R. Coffe, sections 36, 37, and 40, block 20. Shotover. These applications were approved of. The following applications were made for exchange : — R. Pritchard, sections 63, 27, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, and 32, block 8, Shotover district ; W. Peterson, sections 33, 22, 23, 37, 46, 20, 21. 45, 4, 59, 5, 61, 10, 60, 11, and 13, block 6, ditto.