ADDISON'S FLAT.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 471, 27 February 1869, Page 2

ADDISON'S FLAT.

(feom a cobbespokdent.) Feb. 24. From prospects obtained by Horneck and party on the west side of the township, and immediately contiguous to it, hopes are entertained by many that a payable lead has been discovered, no doubt to the satisfaction of many here, who have long desired for " fresh fields and pastures new," as the old leads on Addison's were giving perceptible signs of exhaustion. In a few weeks there will be more definite proofs of the quality of the new ground opened, after a few washings have been obtained.

The old cement lead on "Waite's Pakihi has looked busier of late. It has been found thatmostoftheheadingsleft by former occupiers of the ground will pay for sluicing. Owing to this discovery, several parties united in bringing up a tail-race, sufficiently deep to admit of ground-sluicing the whole of the old lead. There is every reason to expect that the result will be satisfactory to all the parties engaged. Others on this lead are occupied in tho primitive method of crushing the cement with a mall. Further south a lease of ten acres has been applied for by O'Toole and party. They meditate bringing in a tunnel from Addison's Creek, which is distant from the claim about five hundred yards. From surveyor's measurement a fall of about eighty feet can be obtained, sufficient to carry off the sand and smaller gravel, for, of course, ground-sluicing will be their modus operandi. This is the first lease applied for in this district, and, notwithstanding a meeting recently held at Charleston, condemning the ten-acre system as being too much of a monopoly, and the consequent forwarding of a petition to the Superintendent expressing their views, lam of opinion that any obstacles placed in the applicants' way in this cise will be a loss to the district. For this ground has for nearly two years been prospected, as the number of holes testify, and the bringing in of a tunnel, which is estimated to take six months' work, is the only means profitably to work the ground. Certainly in cases where, by dividing this area into three or four parties' ground, it can be made payable, the ten-acre system is a monopoly. 1 observe that the question of Separation is the leading topic in your columns, and that, from the decease of the Progress Committee, the whole agitation of this question is left to the Press. The members of thi3 body complain justly, no doubt, of the apathy exhibited by the public on this question. This utter abandonment of the agitation will leave the inhabitants of this district open to the same accusation as " Dilke" applied to the North Island colonists, in his work on " Greater Britain," —a want of enterprise but not of sleep. If we are deprived of our just rights, as you so plainly demonstrate, why not cry " Separation," and, if the miners could be made to see it, there will be no lack of heartiness in the movement. If, instead of our revenues going to aNelson exchequer, we had money expended on such works as a dray road from Addison's to Westport in place of the present horse track, the consequences would have been apparent, in cheaper provisions, and a more numerous population.