GOLD MINING IN CALIFORNIA

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 856, 2 September 1871, Page 3

GOLD MINING IN CALIFORNIA

The following account of mining in California is furnished by Mr John Manning, late of Hokitika, to Mr John Barrett, of Hokitika, and will bo found to contain much that might be very profitably turned to account iu Westland. Mr Manning has been for some time in California, and has personally inspected all the mining districts with the view of obtaining information : "The gold districts of this country are wretchedly poor —are, indeed, exhausted almost—and were never rich, as compared with those of Australia or New Zealand. Still, companies can manage to make these miserable goldfields vield fine returns, notwithstanding the poverty of tho ground worked and the great scarcity of water here, not a drop of rain falling for nine months out of the twelve. I venture to say that if a company were formed in New Zealnnd to work with machinery such as is used here, a princely fortune might be realised. The mode of working alluvial ground here is by hydraulic power. I visited a claim, lately, which is so worked, and I will endeavour to describe what I saw. The ground to be worked was on a hill, much like that on which the cemetery stands at Hokitika, only much higher, vet I have seen a hill of such dimerisions washed out of a face. A good stream of water is brought to the brow of the hill—the Cemetery. Hill at Hokitika, we will stlppose —at the mouth of the stream an iron pipe is placed, made of sheet iron, and rivetted like a ship's boiler, in two feet lengths. Each length of piping is about 12ft long and Gin or 7in in diameter. This piping is laid on the ground, down along the face of the hill to three or four hundred feet, or even a thousand feet from the foot of the hill, inclining in a curve towards the face of the hill. In fact, the piping w what may be termed an " iron hose," stretched along the ground, just as o hose would be for supplying water to an engine, in extinguishing a fire. At the mouth of the pipe a nozzle or nose is fixed, eighteen or twenty inches long, made of sheet iron and fastened into a cast iron socket, and is as much like a cannon as possible. It is so fixed at the mouth of the pipe that one mau, or even a lad fourteen years old, can elevate the nose with the lever that is attached to tho breach or socket, so as to send the water three hundred feet high, or lower the nose and direct the stream within a few feet of him, the nozzle, in fact, is so fixed, in the socket that it can be turned in any direction.

The immense and powerful volume of water being directed against the base of the bill, a great chasm is soon made (indeed it could make a drive right through the hill, for that matter) and then down slip pome hundred of thousands of tons of earth, rocks, trees, &c, &c. On this great landslip is now turned ' the water-spout which soon breaks it up, dissolving all that is solvable, and washing it all down the tailrace. Three or four men will suffice for this work; one man to direct the nozzle and the other hands to cut up trees, blast rocks, and clear away all such impediments from the face. The man who directs the nozzle is the principal man, but his work is merely play. The company whose hydraulic works I visited, pay £SO a week for water supplied to them by a company who bring in the water from a lake fifty milesoff. Even at that price the hydraulic company are only able to get water for about eight months in the year, and the ground they are working is so poor that, as the man who was directing the spout told me, "you might pan dirt all day and wouldn't raise the color." Yet this company, who only work eight months in the year, who pay £SO a week for water, besides men's wages, can live like gentlemen from year to year. I have not been informed as to their actual returns beyond that they were very good. To carry on this kind of work two things are indispensable. Eirst, you must have water coming down into the piping from an elevation of about 200 feet, and next you must have a good fall for your tail-race so as to carry off the vast quantity of stuff which is washed away from the face of the hill. The tail-race should be 4000 feet or 5000 feet long ; the longer it is the safer. If the stuff put through be better than the average, they clean up the tail-race once a month, or oftener, as they want money to go on with ; if it be very poor they clean up only once in two or three months, and sometimes not till tbe end of the season. In rich ground like that in New Zealand you might perhaps clean up twice a month. The water-race should be 36in in diameter, carrying a depth of 20in of water, so as to give 100 or 200 in of water, more or less, from the nozzle, according to its size. This body of waier from an elevation of 200 ft gives an immense power, strong enough to tear up any kind of clay or gravel. I don't mean, however, that this immense water pressure should fall 200ffc perpendicularly iuto the pipes, because such a force would burst any iron pipes in the world, but the water should come sloping down into the pipes. By that means the friction against the side of the pipes weakens the pressure and reduces the force to tbe proportion required. Now let us take the Cemetery Hill at Hokitika again for example. You could have your tail-race from that hill running right into the sea, and your tailings wouldn't interfere with any interests. There are many localities about "Wcstland that would pay a company well to work in this way. Every inch of the ground about the Greenstone would pay, and that for miles round. The two main things to be considered are the elevation of the water and the fall for the tailings. I should not be surprised if before long some of these sharp Californian miners will be out in New Zealand, when they will introduce their machinery and backed up by the wealthiest and most influential men in the country, will secure the fattest share of the auriferous lands. The nozzle which I have described is a new invention even here, I am acquainted with both the inventor and the founderwbo casts the sockets,and when I told them what sort of country New Zealand is—its rivers, it watercourses it precipitoup, hi ly character and the rich auriferous quality of its soil, they said, • That is the country for hydraulic mining.' The cost of the nozzle and socket here is from £6O to £IOO, according to size. The piping could be made in Melbourne or it could be sent . from here. The nozzle, socket, and 1000 feet of piping would cost here ; from £220 to £240. Then there would be the cost of carriage from here to San Francisco and the freight to New Zealand. All that would actually be required from here, however, would be the socket, the nozzle, and one length of piping, of about twelve feet for a pattern. Jt would be easy enough, I should think, to get the piping made in New Zealand.