THE WAIMANGOROA.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 279, 23 June 1868, Page 2

THE WAIMANGOROA.

(fjkom oue own corbespondent). June 22, 1868. The Waimangaroa Quartz Beef is about 15 miles from Westport, and can be reached by proceeding ten miles on the north beach to the mouth of the Waimangoroa river, and going up five miles on the banks of the river. For the first three a dray can get up, but after that the approach is very difficult, and unless known to a pedestrian will be through the river over enormous boulders. The reef was discovered in February, 1867, and several parties claim the honor, but I have been informed by Mr Martin that it was known to exist three years previous to the above date. The direction is N.W. and S.E., and it was taken up by Mr Martin in March, 1867. He almost immediately brought machinery into use, laid down a tramroad brought water near a mile for a crushing machine, and bored three tunnels into the stone—one ten, one thirty, and one fifty feet. The first crushing took place in January last, their operations being retarded up to that period by three landslips. Crushing went on for seven or eight days, when a fourth landslip took place, of such magnitude that it altogether stopped further work, and rendered the three tunnels useless. During the seven or eight days that they were occupied in crushing, the yield was 2 ozs. 8 dwts. per ton, and they never had a full weeks'

-crushing. The effect of this last landslip rendered it necessary to construct a tunnel at the north-west corner of the reef so as to reach the stono. This new tunnel is to be 200 feet in length, and has to bo worked through a sort of hard slate rock. The progress at present arrived at is 40 feet, or 0 feet a day since the tunnel was commenced. By means of this tunnel they intend to make the old ones available, by driving a blind shaft which will permit of their being worked inside. Mr Gibson, the manager, shewed me over the working. Jn the old reef the stone was from two to two feet eight incnes, in the new reef the thickness is seven feet. The manager broke off some stone with a pick and gave me a few specimens. One piece of quartz which was about the size of a man's head, and .thickly impregnated with gold, he broke and washed in a tin dish, which after washing, yielded about eight grains of gold. Some of the stone is white and more dark. I brought specimens of each. Up to the present there has been expended on this reef, between machinery, &c, over three thousand pounds, the proprietary consists of four parties, the average expenditure may be estimated at about £SO per week. The machinery is perfect, and consists of eight beads of stampers, worked with water power, brought from the right hand branch of the reef, and capable of keeping sixteen heads of stampers going. The wheel is twenty eight feet in diameter, the copper plates are new, the heads can be turned ■by hand just by moving the brake. There are new heads and bottoms, and I may say it is admirably adapted for crushing. There is a suitable building over the machinery, and a tramway from the entrance of the new tunnel to the wheel, which is only about sixtyyards distant. There is an abundant supply of water, which if necessary, could be increased with very trifling expense. It : took seventeen men for four months to bring up machinery, &c, in a boat, besides clearing and blasting boulders in the river track from the landing, the rest -of the passage being in almost an unapproachable state. The distance from the landing to the reef, Mr Martin informs me, is one mile and thirty eight chains. Here an inexpensive road could be constructed which could branch from Mount Eochfort Government track, and facilitate the development of this valuable property on which so much money has been expended already. The richness of the stone has been fully tested, and the result found to be considerably beyond the generality of quartz reefs, either in ■ Otago or Victoria. Much credit is due to the proprietors of this mine, and the Government would do well in aiding their progress by making the small portion of road which they require. At the landing up the river there is a most valuable vein of coal which is used in the smithy at the reef, and a line of tramway has been surveyed for bringing the coal to Westport via Caledonian. Mr Martin has applied for a lease of this valuable property. Some distance higher up the Waimongaroa than the Quartz Reef there are I am informed, three reefs of very good stone, one of which is only a mile higher up, and the quartz runs nine feet broad. Hadlow and party are working a little below the present reef and. are trying for a back lead. Several parties are engaged prospecting in and about this neighborhood. I have seen some nuggets found by Eichard Mallet, which weighed respectively eighteen, fourteen, and ten dwts. Those nuggets were more or less impregnated with quartz. There are a few parties engaged nearer the beach, one has a tunnel in and is procuriug alluvial gold. To the north of the Waimangoroa there are about thirteen men engaged on the beach for a distance of three miles up to the Wairiotta. There is a lagoon one mile north of the Waimangaroa track on which there are some terraces, in appearance, as likely as the Caledonian. This lead, I think, runs the whole distance north here. A party put down a shaft on one, but had to leave in consequence of want of means. Between the Waimangaroa and Deadman's Creek there are about eleven men working on the beach with varied success — some making only £3, others a little more. Some of those men on the beach have been working there for three or four months. One party assert that they are going to make a rise, or at least they intend remaining until they do. Mallet, the prospector, informed me that more men were wanted in and around that neighborhood, for he has a good opinion of the gold producing qualities of the locality.

The organ of the War Office -at St. Petersburg, the Invalide Busse, publishes a curious article, in which, while snaking strong professions of peace, it

argues that circumstances render a European war inevitable. "It must be admitted," it says, that of the 210,000,000 of people who inhabit the south and west of Europe, hardly 50,000,000 are satisfied with their political position, the rest beingeompelled by force of things either to think of giving stability to their conquests or of retrieving their losses. Neither Prussia, who has not yet completed her political structure ; nor Austria, distracted by the irreconcilable aspirations of Germans, Sclayes, and Magyars ; nor Italy, stopped before Eome by the Chassepot rifle; nor France, limited in her supremacy; nor Denmark, which is still waiting for the promised restoration of some of her territory ; nor Greece, which wants Epirus, Thessaly, and Crete ; nor the population of the peninsula of the Balkan, suffering under the barbarous yoke of Turkey—can accept the present quo and not desire, or at least hope for a change. When dissatisfaction is so prevalent, it is difficult to prevent a European collision. All expect it, but its consequences appear so fearful that no one is willing to take the responsibility of initiating it, and all must strive to appeal to pacific tendencies, though placing no trust in them." To this declaration the Eussian Government a significant commentary is supplied by the official organ of Servia, the Vidovclan, in an article on the armaments now being effected in that country. " When the great Powers arm, "says the Vidovdan, " the small ones must look to themselves, for should a great war break out/their very existence would be at stake." "No one believes," it adds," that a permanent peace can be established in Europe until after a great and decisive war,'; and it considers it the duty of every small State to protect itself to the best of its power against the coming danger.