MINING.

West Coast Times, Issue 689, 9 December 1867, Page 1

MINING.

(fhom the hokitika leader, dec. 6.)

The weather's depressing influence has extended to mining as well as to other matters during the past week, for the accounts that have reached us from upcountry tell of works delayed and time lost through the above cause. Eain has fallen upon every day this week excepting Sunday and Monday, that short but most acceptable break in the weather being, however, succeeded by a downpour that has since continued saws intermission. When will a permanent change take place ? is a question hourly asked, and replied to according to the temperament of the party addressed — the majority of people, however, inclining to the belief that the summer and autumn will be no less unsettled than the spring has been. We can only hope that this anticipation will not be verified.

Advices from the Buller district tell nothing further about the Mohikinui rush, so we imagine it is another of those " flashes in the pan" for which that part of the West Coast is rather remarkable. The " Westport Times" contains an Acldison's Flat correspondent's letter, written in the usual style, a few cases of good luck being cited — this time they numbered three, which — considering the extent of the workings there, is a very meagre proportion indeed. Two of the claims are reported to be yielding from L 25 to L3O per share per week. The Bald Hill rush is next to a duffer, as very few claims there give more than "tucker." We expect to soon hear of heavy returns from the Waimangaroa quartz reef, the Pioneer Heef Company having got the great part of their crushing macliinery in position, and hope to be in full working order by New Year's Day. Mr Mabille, a- Government mining surveyor, who has visited the reef, informs the " Westport Times" that — " The prospects ol the company are bright. The wooden work for the battery is of the most substantial character. It is to be worked by an overshot water wheel of about thirty feet diameter, which will be supplied from a stream known as the Doctor's Creek. A tramroad, which can be completed at a few days' notice, as all the timber is in readiness, will bring the stone from the mine to the mill. The mine itself is now open at a level which will be less accessible to the flood. The reef shows, as before, a return of about from two to three feet, and the inspection of the stone, of which there is already about sixty tons piled up and ready to crush, will convince every connoiseur that it will pay well." The old Pakihi is in a very healthy condition, and daily improving. The " Charleston Argus" says — " The fact that all the crushing machines now erected give favorable and in some cases unexpected payable results, has given a new impetus to the construction of macliinery, and in every direction that you choose to go, the sight of the traveller is agreeably met by the spectacle of a new " battery" or of a new 'Water wheel going up. There is not the slightest exaggerain saying that there is now in Charleston and its vicinity about thirty different cement " batteries" already at work, and about fifty in the course of erection, and there might be from sixty to eighty more in contemplation. The- motive power usually employed in the working of these mills is either by steam, water, or by horse, according to the facility of obtaining either one or the other. Last week the Pakihi Cement Crushing Company crushed 196 tons of cement, which yielded about 200 ounces of gold. The stuff was not their own, but belonged to a claim whose shareholders have mack' arrangements with the company to crush for them." The half deserted Brighton diggings are struggling to rise again, and the the local paper croaks out a quavering note of rejoicing at the improved prospects of the place, in proof whereof, adducing the rush which has lately set in to a terrace, in the direction of Yankee Charlie's. We imagine the prospects are not very bright, no returns being given, but merely the information that the sinking is from thirty to forty feet, with four feet of black sand as washclirt. Only sixclaims have been marked out there, and the prospectors have applied for an extended claim, intending to bring in a water race to sluice the ground. A horse whim has been erected on the Welshman's Terrace by Hyde and Party at an expense of L 250. The shaft is about ninety feet deep. Grey District mining news is this week confined to a letter from the New River correspondent of the " Argus. 1 ' Ho gives a fair account of the place, and reports that a share in Nixon and party's sluicing claim changed hands for LIOO, but that the other shareholders refuse to sell under L2OO. They are going to bring in another water-race, and work their ground by the hydraulic system. We publish verbatim the following portion of his letter: — " Poynton and party cannot repair the damage done to their clam till the creek gets low, but they are making good wages with what surface water they can secure. All the miners with whom I have' conversed say they can get a prospect to pay for sluicing almost anywhere about the flat, but, except in weather like the present, they have to cradle their stuff. I believe from four to seven pounds per week is the average earnings here. I certainly believe, when we get dry weather to allow men to prospect the flats and terraces on each side of the creek, that this place will rival somo of our muchboasted neighboring diggings. "Between the Left-hand Branch and New River there are a few parties set in,

and are making wages. There are miles of country there not yet prospected, although the ground that has been worked in the immediate vicinity is generally shallow.

" About four miles up the Muta Muta Creek, from its junction with the Grey River, it branches into three parts, the main one keeping to the left. Somo months ago, a party of three men got some gold in one of the branches. They left it, however, for other diggings, and have again returned, determined to give it a good trial. There are some likelylooking terraces in the immediate neighborhood, and I should not be surprised to hear of their striking payable gold. In the Mut Muta Creek itself, I have seen men getting several colors of gold with the shovel, having no other means of trying it. "Liverpool's still maintains a steady population, and all hands are busy at work, having plenty of water for sluicing, without which little can be clone, as the ground there is generally deep. There are three parties in Belfast Jack's Creek, and are doing very well. Fahey and party have the best claim on this creek. A little higher up there are two parties in a small gully, opened last week by M'Pherson and party. They have got two grains to the dish, and the stripping is very shallow.

"I am happy to say, after a considerable amount of perseverance, that the parties towaivls the head of the New Eiver have struck payable gold. I hear of other parties going up there, although it is the general belief of miners that it will turn out well ; it has not its fair share of prospecting yet. There is a quartz reef in that locality, running in the direction of Lake Brunner ; but as yet I have not heard of any person testing its value, although I think it is worth a trial from the well-known gold-bearing qualities of the New Eiver."

Our Waimea correspondent's letter will be found in its usual place. We can report favorably of the Kanieri district. At the Hau Hau and Three Mile diggings the miners continue steadily at work, and. obtain good returns. Tucker Flat remains in the hands of a few fossickers, but hence to the Five Mile much good ground is in hand upon the ten-ace. In another column we advocate the construction of a tail-flume from the Hokitika river, to form an outlet for the immense quantity of sludge and tailings that arectaily washed out of the sluicing claims on this terrace. It would also give the diggers a great deal of extra fall, and thus enable them to work many feet deeper into the bed of auriferous gravel that constitutes the washdirt. We have it on sure authority that this bed is payable at least twenty feet' below the level upon which it is at present being worked, but that deepening the face of the paddock is prohibited by the impossibility of getting clear of the debris without a corresponding increase of fall. This, we are assured, can be obtained by no other method than that of a tail-flume into which the tail-races from the several claims will empty. The two companies upon Kanieri Flat are making excellent progress, the Western men being well advanced with their preliminary works, whilst the Viet' rian Co-operatives have at last struck into payable ground. Last week their returns were 51 ozs for four days' working, an amount which will, we believe, be more than doubled this week. We refer more fully to their claim in the column of " the week."

We regret to say that Mr Arthur and the nine other diggers who have been so long prospecting on the south side of the Hokitika river tor the lost Kanieri lead, have failed to strike gold after sinking from ten to a dozen shafts of from forty to 110 feet deep. Eor tlie present they have resigned the undertaking.