MINING NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 1014, 18 October 1872, Page 3

MINING NEWS.

In the Assembly, in reply to a question by Mr Hallenstien, Mr Stafford said the Government did not see its way to make miners' rights run over the whole colony, the revenue being practically provincial; also, that the only mode of stopping the influx of Chinese, or of making them contribute epually with Europeans to the revenue, seemed to be by a direct tax, which the Government was not prepared to recommend. After the information, telegraphic and otherwise, which has reached here from Melbourne, concerning the gold workings at Charters Towers, the following communication, which was received by the Melbourne ' Argus ' from Clunes by telegraph, will be read with some amount of surprise : —" The Editor of the ' Argus.'—Sir, believing the subjoined information to be sufficiently important to deserve publication, I send it under a sense of duty, as there are so many families just now whose interests are imperilled by the excitement concerning Charters Towers. On Thursday last, at the request of persons contemplating going there, I sent a telegram as follows j—" To William Brooks, Esq., Iron Merchant, Brisbane.—lnquirers desire latest reliable information concerning Charters Towers." To-day I received the following reply from Mr Brooks : —" Dissuade people from leaving. The whole affair is a perfect myth."—l am, Sir, jours faithfully, Josiaii George Turner, Wesleyan Minister, Sept. 14i." We had already learned that the accounts originally given of the Charters Towers goldfield

g oatly exaggerated the richness and extent of the workings, but the opposite extreme seems to bo reached in the statement that " the whole affair is a perfect myth." Reports of the discovery of alluvial gold in the Taupo district are still being received from time to time in Napier and Auckland. A prospecting party has been organised to thoroughly test the Mikonui district, sonth of Ross. The expense caused by the wear and tear of tail-boxes in sluicing claims in the Grey Valley is very great, but most of the large companies are adopting the plan of paving the bottom of the races with blocks of wood, sawn off in sections of a few inches thick, and placed standing on their ends. This pavement forms a kind of natural ground-sluice, and suits admirably. The ' Grey Argus' says:—There has been some activity among miners on the North Beach lately, a supposed lead of gold parallel with the line of telegraph wire having been taken up as far down as a point opposite the flagstaff. Near Darkie's Terraca, also, we hear of some heavy gold being got in considerable quantity on a limited patch of ground. At the Half Ounce diggings Mabille and party's claim has caved in from the surface, a depth of over sixty feet. The members of the party have set into work in different parts of the district. The collapse of this claim, and the dismemberment of the company is to be regretted. They did a good deal for the district in first demonstrating the existence of a continuous deep lead, and afterwards showing by the admirable system of co-operation they adopted in the prosecution and regulation of their work, how deep and wet ground, although it be poor, can be made to pay good dividends. The machinery erected on this claim was among the most complete and perfect mining plants on the West Coast. At Hafford's Terrace gold has been struck in fresh claims, and there are several new areas taken up. A party of Swedes have struck what is supposed to be Hafford's lead in shallow ground on the terrace above Mabille's leasehold, and from a washing-up of the result of four days' work, soz ldwt was obtained, just about the exact amount of the magnificent find which has caused all the uproar about the Roper River. In the Ross District, Doyle and party's claim, on the Aylmer Lead, is likely to turn out very well. They have got fifteen to eighteen inches of wash, which turns two ounces to the load. The stripping is about fifteen feet. At Clearwater Creek, the Natives hare opened out on a fresh bottom, whicli looks better than any they have as. yet touched. The prospects tried give five pennyweights to the bucket.

We hear from Auckland that mining matters are exceeedingly dull, but that hopes of a speedy reaction are entertained. The direction in which the change is looked for appears to be Coromandel, or rather the claims on the Kennedy Bay side of the Tokatea Kange. A correspondent, who has recently visited the district, describes it as one of the most Tigorous in mining matters in the colony, and &ays that there is ample work for all the men living there. On the beach—of which such high hopes were once entertained—enterprise has been paralyzed by the break-down of the notorious Green Harp. The Thames correspondent of an Auckland paper says that the Mining Accident Belief Fund Association at the former place is strengthening mightily, and already numbers nearly three hundred members. The miners are paying greater attention to the cooperative system, and regard it with increased favour. The export duty on gold has been reduced in Queensland to one shilling an ounce till July, 1873, when it will be sixpence an ounce for the next year, after which it ceases altogether. A diamond fever has seized upon the Californians, and hundreds are hieing off to Mexico.