The Westport Times. TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 1869.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 514, 8 June 1869, Page 2

The Westport Times. TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 1869.

Attention has already been directed to au important project which has lately been initiated in Charleston—the project of forming a water-race of such dimensions, and at such a level, as shall command, for sluicing purposes, nearly all the known auriferous ground in that richly auriferous district. To the inhabitants of Charleston, aud those who are even more interested than the residents of the township, it is altogether unnecessary to recommend a work of such a character. They are in a position to appreciate fully its desirability as a means of promoting the interests of the district, and to appreciate also, to a very considerable extent, the merits of the scheme either in an engineering or in a financial point of view. But it is a work which, in respect of these merits, may well receive the attention oi' others than absolute residents of Charleston —of people who may be the happy possessors of capital requiring investment, aud the equally happy possessors of the spirit of specuation. With a view to elicit the .m erest of such people in the undertaking, the promoters of the proposed company will, no doubt, iu due time place their proposals fully before the world. Meantime we may briefly, and gratuitously, place before the public t'.to few particulars which constitute what may be called the company's prospectus.

It is proposed, tlion, to establish a company to bo called the Charleston Water-Race Company, and, it is almost unnecessary to add, to register the same under the Limited Liability Act. £SOOO is the amount of capital proposed to be raised under these provisions, the shares to bo a thousand in number, to be of the value of £o each, and to be paid in calls not exceeding ten shillings per month. The reasons for initiating such a company are, of course, that there arc large areas of auriferous ground in the neighbourhood of Charleston which arc at present only partially workable, in consequence of the very limited supply of water at command, and that, on ground which is either being wrought or lias been wrought, there is still an extensive field for sluicing operations. To obtain a sufficient supply for all these purposes it will be necessary to introduce the water from a considerable, though not inconvenient, point of elevation on what is known as the Four Mile River, and it has been ascertained, by actual survey, that at that point forty Government heads of water can be secured, commanding, as has been said, the highest workings in the district. The few figures which form the basis of the financial features of the scheme arc these : —At present water is saleable in the district at £S per sluicehead. Supposing the water thus brought in were let at half the usual rates, there would be a return of £IOO per week, and, as the water would be used by more than one party, there would be, iu proportion to its use, an additional amount of profit. To the Government the feasibility or propriety of the scheme has so far recommended itself that they have already granted the necessary number of heads of water and the labor of their staff to survey the line of country through which the water-race is proposed to be taken. This has been done through the instrumentality of Mr Jackson, who visited Xelson to ctfjet that one preliminary. With the particulars fully before them, we have no doubt that the scheme will also recommend itself to the public, and though, in doing so, we are what is more the duty of the directors to officially advertise, we may intimate that these particulars are obtainable from the Provisional Manager, Mr James Walker, Charleston.

While thus bringing promineutly uuder notice a scheme which, in sincerity, we believe likely to have a beneficent effect upon the interests of the Charleston district, and to be a legitimate source of investment for individual speculators, we should remind our readers—and especially our local readers—that there is in the Buller district itself a latent scheme of a similar character which is fully as worthy of their attention. "We refer to the construction, by a company, of a water-race from the Lyell river to the banks of the Buller. It is the misfortune of the Lyell district that [it is obscure and inaccessible in its situation, otherwise we have no doubt that the construction of such a work would long ago have been undertaken. Had the business men of Westporfc, and others of its residents, been sufficiently informed either of the feasibility of such a work, or of its probably profitable results, a company would undoubtedly have been started many months, if not years, ago. At the Lyell itself —in the township and on the neighbouring diggings—it may be said to be the stock subject of conversation; and, judging from a cursory examination of the ground, and from all the oral evidence that may be casually obtained during a visit to the district, it is very deservedly so. Lately, one of our correspondents drew attention to the sul - jeer, and to some extent explained the advantages which such a scheme seemed to possess. They may be very briefly stated. The Lyell creek itself has been proved to contain, in its bed, large quantities of gold. Its terraces, so far as they have been tried, are only a degree less auriferous. For miles above its junction with the Buller, there are, on the banks of that river, golden claims, and the same is the ease, to even a greater extent, along both banks of the Buller below the conflux of theLyell. All this ground—the terraces along the Lyell, and the terraces and beaches both up and down the Buller—is at present only very partially available to the miner, solely on account of the exceedingly and exceptionally limited supply of water which ia at present procurable. By the formation of a water-race from a point some miles up the Lyell creek, not only would all this ground, the extent of which is great, and the character of which is, as a rule, excellent, be rendered workable, but, what is not less important as an element in the advantages of the scheme, the bed of the Lyell creek itself would become accessible to the digger, and would, no doubt, more fully remunerate his labor than, under the natural conditions, it has ever done.

In fact, if the people of Charleston have reason to interest themselves iu a scheme such as that which they have projected, the people of Westport have equally reason to interest themselves in the formation of a company for the construction of a great water-race at the Lyell. To say the very least, the merits of the schemes are identical. If there is an advantage on any side in connection with the two important considerations of opening now ground and of increasing local population, the advantage is obviously on the side of the work which we suggest should be undertaken at the Lyell. Admitting that they are only identical, is there not good reason for some identity between the spirit possessed by the people of Westport and the spirit which is now being shown by the inhabitants of Charleston ? Is there any reason why the Lyell wator-race scheme should not be successfully started, even contemporaneously with the scheme which our Charleston neighbours have so far and so actively promoted ?