Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1874.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 319, 7 January 1874, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1874.

" '"MeasOres. >iot mem."

A , stranger visiting goldfields cannot help asm^ring tj^e many ingenious mechanical devices emoloyed in securing the golden treasures scattered through our alluvial depoaits y our cament, and quartz reefs. The raore conspicuous among these are the following :—-The: — -The leverage used chiefly by the Chinese in bringing down large falls of earth overlying the wash dirt. This, however, j is less efficient than the bolder method pursued by the European,- who burrows his way under ground, excavates the wash dirt, and leaves the superincumbent mass undisturbed, defending himself meanwhile from danger by timber-prop-ping the roof. Then there is the chain pump with the motive power of a waterwheel, whereby the claims are drained of surplus water, and thus the task of reaching the gold-bearing soil or gravel ia greatly facilitated. But the boldest of all our devices is that which embraces the gigantic blasting operations of the Blue Spur, together with their forty mile water races, brought in at such an elevation as to pound dowa the hard cement, and then bear away, ia their wild tumult through the tail race, the gravel and debris from which the gold has been separated. The old fashioned water wheel with the water that impelled it, utilised to wash the crushed cement, has also been employed in one of th.3 Bine Spur claims, though the specula;ion has proved a failure. Water power has also been employed in the turbine wheel,, which we believe to be as efficient as any where water is handy with a fall. The advantage' of this is that it secures greater power with "less water thin the old water wheel, and the water caa be utilised to wash the crushed quartz, and thus separate the gold. Steam power has also been employed at Waipori by the O.P.Q. Co., but unfortunately the necessajy fuel is so. expensive, that though the reef yielded aa fair prospects as any in the neighborhood, it has been brought to a stand still. Now, we have often > wondered why the wind mill has never been thought of as a mechanical power to be used in mining. It could be efficiently employed in pumping where the water is not convenient for a witter wheel. We have also often wondered whether or not the wind mill could not be rendered available as a motive power to raise the stampers. We understand the O.P.Q. Co are sadly in want of a cheaper motive power — indeed, this is absolutely necessary to their resuming operations. No-w^ would wind do 1 Water is a long way off ; steam is too dear. Why not think of the wind ? In these latitudes King iEolns is at times so prodigal of his own peculiar commodity, that it is just possible he might be wooed by the erection of a wind mill to_wer with its four or five sails and helm-like fanwheel — -to our mind an object of interest in any landscape — to earn some persons a living. The sun has for some time been doing as much among xis at the call of the photographer^ and why not lay the wind undgr a similar tribute i Nature does not merely sit to be studied and understood, but invites man to be her minister — nay, places herself at his command. The only objection to the use of the wind we know of, is that it is an intermittent power; but better an intermittent power than none. Besides, our dead calms are comparatively few, and the power might not be so intermittent as at first sight appears. At all events, there are seasons of the year when the wind scarcely ever subSMesraltojether, and there are others when gentle breezes and calms are more frequent. Oould it not be possible, as in navigation and in wind mills in the old country, to supplement the defioieney of wind in a calm season by steam. The matter ia worth looking into. We are come here to develape the resources of the country, and w^ should neither be too idle to investigate the average power of such mechanical contrivances, nor shrink from a fair trial if, after preliminary investigation, the matter be pronounced feasible.