WARDENS REPORT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 357, 20 May 1874, Page 3

WARDENS REPORT.

TCAPEKA. DI&TEICT. We make the following extracts from tho report of Mr. Warden C:irew,fov the year ending March 31, 1374:— Statistical. — Number of miners afc date, 1,050 ; of whom 537 were Europeans, and 513 Chinese. All tho latter were engaged in alluvial mining, and only 20 .Europeans art* classified as quartz - miners. Water-races, 313, carrying 1,006 sluice-heads of ■'vater ; length, 371 miles. Tail-races, 498 ; dams and reservoirs, 202. Value of machinery employed in alluvial and quartz-mining, £6,000. Mining leases, 40, covering a gross acreage of 234 acres. Agricultural leases, 431 ;*" acreage, 22,292 acres ; in addition to which 243 leases, comprising7,436acres, have been convei'ted into freeholds. The total yield of gold for the year was 28,0830z., of which 19,1080z. 15dwt. 9gr. was obtained from alluvium, 6200z. from quartz, and 8,4540z. 15dwt. from cement quartz reefs. Ten distinct lodes have been tested and proved to be auriferous. Ecvenues collected during the year, from all sources, £5,830 7s. 6d. Kates of wages: Mining managers, engineers, and carpenters, £4 10s. per week ; engine-drivers, blacksmiths, skilled miners, and labourers, £3 ; agricultural labourers, 255. and found ; domestic servants, 155. ; Chinese, 405. ; boys, 15s. Comparative Beturns. — Eeferring to the foregoing, Mr. Carew observes :—: — The present number, which has been carefully estimated, I make to be 037 Europeans, and 513 Chinese, in all 1,050. There is tnus a falling off to the number of 075, but so far as I can lcam this reduction is in no respect owing to any failure of the auriferous resources of the district, but is to be attributed to the general prosperity of the province, and the prosecution of various public work.', having created an active demand tor labour at a price exceeding the ordinary earnings by gold-mining. Other districts have no doubt been affected in a similar way by these caused, but Tuapeka being the nearest goldfield to the line of the Dunedin and Clutha Railway, and the works of the Tokomairiro and Lawrence line being constructed through the district, has brought immediate, steady, and remunerate employment to the miner's door, and consequently has no doubt had a more direct and marked effect in drawing miners from their usual avocation here than would be the case in more distant gold-fMds. Tne rate of wages paid to Europeans at the works has been from !)s. to Ids. 6d. a day of eight hours, and for Chinese from 6s. to 7s. per day. I may here remark that the European miner is said by the railway contractors to be unequalled for quality and quantity of work by the specially imported skilled navvy. The Cuinese are also in favour for their steady perseverance, and as many as 800 have been employed at one time upon the Tokomairiro and Lawrence Hue. A decrease in the quantity of gold forwarded by escort is a natural sequence to the decrease iv the number of hands, employed in obtaining it, and when this is taken into account the yield of the last compares very favourably with that of former years, and in fact shows a considerable increase upon average earnings over the year 1872-3. The quantity escorted in the year last mentioned was 3G,4tJ80z., which divided by 1,740, the then estimated number of miners, would, at the average value of gold (£3 10s. (id. per ounce), leave a miner's earnings us' £79 ;is. for that year. The escort for the past year took down 28,:;83oz. lldwt., which, divided by 1,050, gives £102 Is. as each, miner's, earnin s. This i» not, however, in my opinion a reliable mode of calculating average earnings. Perhaps tor the past year it is favourable to this district, as I believe the number of miners to have been smaller when the estimate of number was. taken than at any other se.ison of the year. For a district dependent entirely unon goldraising, it is possibly the only correct way "at'ariivin,.nfc results, but Tu.ipsk.i is not only a gold-field, but is also an agricultural district containing several hundred farmsteads, and is surround d by large agricultural and pastoral settlements which <-'ive employment for a considerable quantity ot labour. Numbers of men who are by choice, so soon as thej meet with ill saccc. s in minincr, or are interrupted in their employment by scarcity of water or other o.iu-cs incident to mining occupations or are moved by tlic temptation of larj;e wages, betake themselves to shecpshearinK, harvesting, or other of the outlets at command for their labour, and return again to goldmining at tneir pleasure. Many of the miners heie are also holders of small agricultural leaseholds, and small mobs of cattle, and employ portions of their time in farming pursuits.

Progress of Settlement.— A remarkable feature of progress in real settlement is to be gathered from the transactions respecting land during the period reported upon. The number of agricultural leases granted during that time is 97, covering an area of S,')o.i acres 3 roods 21 perches ; and 65 applications, for 6.011 acres 2 roods 4 perches, are now pending, which await survey nnd other preliminary matters beforethey can begr.,nted. The holders of 48 leases, over l,8;;o acres 1 rood 34 parches, which had run over three years, have purchased their holdings, and 13 other applications, to purchase 40-3 acres, are before the Waste Land Board for approval. The provision under section G2, Waste Lands Act, 1872, by which the holder of any agricultural lease, three years in possession, is admitted to the benefits of the system of purchase on deferred payments, is being largely availed of. The interpretation given to this section allows the holder of a le;ise under the Gold-fields Act, after three years, to obtain a Crown grant in feesimple on payment of 17s. 6d. per acre, in 14 payments, which may extend over seven years. Strange to say, to purchase a like holding without deferred payment would cost, under section 7-1 of the Act, 20s. an acre. In addition to tho leases granted under the Gold-fields Act, 1-5 applications for 2,318 acres 1 rood 2« purches have been granted under section 30, Waste Lands Act 1872. The holders of these allotments, after residence theroon for :-! 0 mouths out of the first thi cc years, and by effecting certain improvements on the land, will become entitled to leases under deferred payment. Another block of land of 2,500 acres has lately been thrown open for application in this system, and there is also an area of about -jiJ.OOO acres for selection under the Agricultural Lease Regulations. A considerable portion of thU land is rough, hilly country, aud the whole of it until applied for i;> opeu as commonage to the snrronuding miners and settlers. The number of cattle depasured on this land for the past year, or rather the number for which assessment was paid, is as follows : Horned cattle and horbes, 2,485 : sheep, 15,000. The total quantity of land which has been leased in holdings of from 5 to 200 acres, up to the end of last month, is 33,176 acres 3 roods ol perches, and about 20,000 acres granted iv fee simple, nnd on deferred payments. Tub Clakkk's Hill pkospectixg Company. — This company was registered in iTarch, 1873, and was formed for the purpose of prospecting tho spur between Gabriel's Gully and Wetherstoue's for quartz reefs. With this object the company has put in a tunnel 1,100 feet into tho spur, which cut through, the Gabriel's Gully reef at a depth of :!00 feet from the surface ; but at this point the reef, although gold-bearius;, is not considered payable. The tunnel has been extended about 100 ft. beyond this reef, and is to be continned for 200 ft. or 300 ft. further, in the expectation of meeting a main reef, of which, I am led to believe, there is reasonable hope. Tho shareholders in this company are generally holders of mining leases along the spur, and consequently are in a good position to avail themselves of any advantages their very commendable perseverance may afford them. The workings of the Gabriel's Gully Quartz-mining Company, Registered, are also situate upon this spur. Since November, 1872, the company have crushed 4,000 tons of quartz, the produce of their mine, and which has yielded gold to the value of £4,028— a poor result certainly, and it speaks well for the management that this conld be effected without loss. The manager is now having the low level prospected from the Clarke's Hill Prospecting Tunnel. The importance of any discovery of payable quartz at this depth, 300 ft., could not be too highly estimated, as affecting not only the company, but the whole district. The Table Hill Quartz-mining Company (Registered) and the Bruce Quartz-mining Company (Limited), at the Canada Reef, Table Hill, have not yet succeeded in making their respective ventures profi table. Tho Table Hill Company was for some time worked upon tribute, but operations at their clnim have ceased for some months past, but. will. I shonld imagine, be resumed again when labour is more easily obtainable. The Bruce Company have sunk to a new level, and are now driving, but I am not informed with what prospects before them. Their pumps and battery are worked by a turbine wheel. TllE WAlPOltl Rkefs.— On the line of reef, and adjoining the claims formerly held by the O P Q Co., Registered, several shafts have been put down on to the reef, and quartz of very promising appearance I rougbt to light. In one shaft in particular, the reef is well defined, from 2ft. to Bft. in thickness, widening out as it deepens, and the stone shows a consideiable quantity of gold, which ought to give a good return at the mill. The occupiers of this ground also hold tho rights of the OP Q Company. The water- rights of the Golden Point Company from the Vnipori River have also devolved to them, and I understand they intend constructing a race to work a battery of stamps upon the claim. A lar^e quantity of gold was obtaiued by the O P Q Company when working in v. costly manner, and nt cons.derable disadvantage in many respects, but I have seldom seen a reef so favourably situated for economical working as the new discoveries 1 have just named. To the south of this gronud, Thompson and party have acquired a lease of 10 acres, and they have also water rights which they are cutting on to their machine site.. They have prospected their claim by opening out alon,' the cap of the reof for a consid ruble distance, and the result of a small crushing has been two ounces per ton. These are about all the efforts at present made in the district to develop quartz reefs, and, although considerable when viewed in the light of individual undertakings, are exceedingly small on the whole when compared with the extent of the district, and the average amount of effort usually required to open out a single payable reef. I may safely say that in the Australian colonies there are many reefs, each of which has absorbed more labour and money in prospecting, before producing a single ounce of gold, than has been expended upon all the reefs in this district. I have great hope that when labour becomes more abundant mnch more attention will be given to this branch of mining, and that it will become, as it has elsewhere, the mainstay of the district. Alluvial Mixisg. — The Bine Spur still maintains pre-eminence, and no rival to it has yet appeared. Difficulties are, however, gradually drawing upon the claimholders who discharge tailings into Gabriel's Gully. This gnlly is rapidly choking up, and so large is the quantity of tailings which has been poured into it from the Blue Spur that where the first township stood, n the early days of the goldfleld, it is estimated the surface is now covered to a height of 60ft. Several of the claims cannot be worked mnch longer to advantage unless some provision be made for reducing and keeping down this accumulation in the gnlly. There are no engineering difficulties in the way of this being done, althongh the cost of the extensive works -which are required wonld be considerable. A very general opinion prevails amount men competent to judge that not only can the jrully be cleared, but that gold could i be obtained in the operations., which would leave a |

tion. Th.it Kvcat wealth lioo hidden in the below thepic> nt working level is nudonbted, natl that phou-ands ol tons ot t.ilin^s in tl.u t.ully oout.au gold is nt any timo capable of being demonstrated, and it i J alsoequ.i lycertain tbat withonta properly formed channel tins ground can never be worked, and that a more lecrftim itc undertaking lo< supp.irt. under tui-prm isioiis oE t'io Public Work 1 ; ;\ci lor work« upon gold-fipl'lß, could not be presented lo the (jovcrninunt. At Wsiipori a few .alluvial claims are being worked, with verygood returns; but tic number of miners engaged tiieie s vco small. The drainage channel, which is bciii^ constructed by the Government, absorbs nearly ail the available labour : and the conti actor.-, for tho work meet with no little difficulty m procuring men at the highest current rate of wuaes. It is anticipated that the completion of this channel \\ ill open out an extensive area of country known to be all more or less auriferous ; but, without more population, it might a.s well remain uncompleted. There is nothing bpecial to remark upon concerning the other sub-divisions ; but I can state generally that throughout the whole district every man able to work can command good wages, nnd that employers of all descriptions of labour have difficulty in supplying their wants ; and, at the same time, I may add that the necessaries of life, as one of the enclosed returns will show, are obtainable nt very reason? We rates.