COAL CREEK FLAT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 330, 14 February 1874, Page 3

COAL CREEK FLAT.

(From our own Correspondent.) « February 10. AD who can work, both old and young, are working away at something ; an idle man is not to be seen, and when one job is finished there are others easily obtained. The * harvest is pretty well over, and the yield of grain is good, although the high winds did a greaiPcleal of harm to the crops. Mr. R. Lancaster's and other threshing machines are about to commence threshing in the district. The weather is very hot and dry. Nearly all the claims are short of water for sluicing purposes. The flour mill at the Benger Burn had to Btop for want of water to work with. This mill has proved a great boon to ijm district, for it has lowered the price of flour £2 or £3 per ton. The flour obtained from local wheat is of first-rate quality ; the only drawback is the want of lan 3. The Government have advertised a block of land for sale on the deferred payments system on the east bank of the Molyneux at Roxburgh, applications to be male at the Land Offi?e. Clyde, on the 20th February. Why should applicants be put to the expense of going to Clyde for this land, when the District Land Officer, Warden Simpson, holds a Court at Roxburgh every month, where the appli ations could be received, and, at least, £ i> 6ave.l to each applicant who lives about Roxbwgh. for personal application is necessary. I have no doubt but that all this land •will be applied for. The Government some time ago announced their intention of opening a blosk of land for sale on the deferred payments system above Coal Creek. It seeirs, however, to be only the intention of the Government. If they would throw open the land -between RcxSur^h and Coal Cr^ek. back to the top of the hill and thereby make the commor.age available, it would do a great deal of good. The miners are doing first-rate over the hills, and if reports are true a good many are making their fortunes, especially at the Waikaia, where the gold is heavily deposited in a great many claims. Messrs. Wood and party's dredge, at ?>loa Flat, has commenced work again. The Fourteen-mile Beach Quartz Co. is apparently defunct. 100 ft. has been driven on the course of the lode, without any payable results,. It is reported that a quartz reef containing gold and copper has been found near Eoxburgh.