CHARLESTON.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 719, 4 October 1870, Page 2

CHARLESTON.

ARGTLE TERRACE. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Monday. The present condition of this terrace sufficiently indicates the importance of an extensive system of goldfields' water supply. Eighteen months ago nearly the entire terrace was abandoned, good ground lay idle owing to the want of water, and at the present time no portion of the terrace is unoccupied. This change is due to Haines and party having brought water on to the terrace, and now this lead is one of the most thriving in the district. M'Calty and Faulkner had a lease surveyed about twelvemonths since, since which Faulkner has sold his interest to Haines and party for £IOO. Many of the claims will occupy almost a lifetime to work out, the cement, which is payable throughout, having a face of thirty feet in many of the claims. The following are the parties holding leases:—Boyle and party, 5 acres ; Larkin and party, 5 acres; Farrell and party, 4 acres; Gillespie and party, 10 acres ; Keating and party, 5 acres ; these with the claims hereafter enumerated occupy the entire terrace as also a portion of Victoria Terrace adjoining. All these claims will be supplied with water by Haines and party. Their supply is very abundant and when the races in connection with the main race are completed, their dam will be the means of employing a population of fully 300 miners. At the present time at least that number are dependent on them for water, and the weekly income derived from its rental alone is already £63, and will be greater when the leases are in a position to be worked. The contract for the fresh dam to supply Hunter and party has been taken by M'Kerrow and party, who find all labor, for £l6O. The work will cost about £2OO and will be the means of settling the vexatious litigation between the two parties. Haines's claim is comprised in a seven-acre lease, and employs 14 men. The payable depth of cement at present being worked is 22 feet, and will run to thirty feet. The machinery consistsof a verypowerfui water-wheel, thirty-five feet in diameter, driving -six stampers of 5 cwts. each. The copper tables have an area of 144 feet, and they crush weekly about 350 tons cement. On the 30th ult the company had a scraping up, after a fortnight's crushing, which resulted in a parcel of 300ozs of amalgam. Woodcock and Taylor hold a lease of 8 acres, employing five shareholders and six wages men. This company have two batteries and water-wheels, one of which they use for working their own ground, and. the other for crushing for another party, who give them half the proceeds of the cement for crushing. This party have the largest water-wheel in the Colony ; the diameter is 45 feet, and it drives 10 iron stampers of 3501b each. The cutting of a site for the wheel was a very laborious and expensive undertaking, the party having had to blast through 90 feet of granite. The second, which is 28 feet in diameter, drives 8 wooden stampers of 2601b each. The last monthly scraping up of the party yielded a parcel of 600ozs of amalgam. Shine and party, who have completed the erection of a new battery of 8 iron stampers, have been working for a considerable time on this terrace, and have had large dividends, although suffering at" various times from serious damage by the bursting of their dams during heavy floods. They hold a six acre lease, which employs six shareholders and two wages men, and have many years' work in the ground. Their last parcel of amalgam, the result of one month's crushing, was a little over 300 ounces, and now, that their wooden battery has been replaced by iron stampers, they anticipate being able to put through a much larger body of cement. Parsons and party, consisting of four shareholders in addition to three wages men employed, hold a lease of six acres. The claim is paying very well, as are the majority of the claims in this vicinity. There are many parties of miners, in addition to those enumerated, ground-sluicing,and some, where the cement is very good and water is scarce, are driving their batteries with horse-power. Sardine Terrace, which at present carries no population, would give profitable employment to a large number, if water were available. No speculation offers such inducements as bringing in water to the more lofty terraces, and the example of what has been accomplished at Argyle and Victoria Terraces, will, I trust, be the '

means of inducing capitalists to extend similar benefits to the numerous gold producing terraces in this locality, that have been hitherto neglected for want of an abundant and constant Bupply of water.