NEW CALEDONIA.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1048, 21 February 1873, Page 4

NEW CALEDONIA.

The following letter from a Ballarat 'Sniner, now residing at New Caledonia, is published by the Ballarat Star. The writer says:—" The only thing that I Lave to find fault with is the food, which is very and not properly cooked. It is all pork that we get. I have been here about five weeks, and I have not seen beef or mutton but only once, and that was salt horse. Next is the meal hours. Coffee at six in the morning, then at eleven o'clock breakfast, and commence work at one o'clock and work till five o.clock; then tea, and that finishes our day's work ; but I dont like the French style. We are away from the civilised part of the country, 250 miles from Noumea, that is the capital, which has all been made by convict labor. The French people are all employed by the Government,.and all the business people are English, and, so far as I could understand, they do a fair trade, but I only stopped three days, so I cannot say much about it ; but it a bad job that this island did not belong to England. The French are not the people to

found a colony. I believe that it will be .1 good place yet, but it will have to be done by others than the French. We called at five different places on the coast as we came along, all of which show signs of either gold or copper. Gold can be got in many places, but not of payable quantity ; but, in fact, very little prospecting has been done as yet, and all along the coast as we came is either ironstone or quartz, the quartz sticking out of the surface in huge blocks, and one place that we went on shore, it was on the Island of Pam, which lays at the mouth of the river which brings us up here, there was the appearance of a good copper lade. A party of prospectors have found a copper lode since we have been here, and I believe that it is very good ; it will go about 70 or 80 per cent, to the ton, a sample of which has been sent on to Sydney for trial, but it will have to be very rich to pay ; the nearest that a boat can be got to it is about three miles, and then it would cost about £3OOO or £4OOO to make a tramroad from the mine to the river. Now, I must give you an account of the Fern Tree Hill Goldmining Company. It is composed of five shareholders, three of whom came here about three years ago to prospect, the French Government supplying them with provisions for six months, and when they came here they, took with them an old. Frenchman. The four then worked away till the provisions were done, and I understand that they were almost done too, for they were out shooting pigeons when they found the present reef; they then sent two tons to Sydney and had it crushed, and it went twenty ounces to the ton. They then got a man inSydneyto supply them with abattery in consideration for which he was to get a fifth share; but I consider it to be a swindle, for I don't think that ever any one did see such a machine for crushing quartz. The stampers were to work horizontal, and only about seven or eight lb weight, and when they found that it would not work they tried to back out of the agreement, but he brought an action and won the day. Then Mr Higginson in Noumea, offered to supply them with a battery, and he is the gentleman that was in Ballarat last March, when the French man-of-war was. in Melbourne, and employed the men to put it up. So, in fact, he is the shareholder, for he has supplied everything. Since then the shareholders have been living on the merits of their prospect. So far as I can understand, it will take a good golden hole to square them, but as the saying is, they have got a good prospect. There have been two crushings since I have been here, the first about 200 tons, the result of of which was 1200oz of gold; the second, I think, will go about IOOOoz to the same amount of quartz, and this fortnight will finish what quartz they have got to grass, or are likely to get till the shaft is sunk. The quartz that is crushed is taken from a tunnel put in the side of a hill at a depth of 20ft, and stcped up to the surface, The shoot of gold does not extend more than about thirty feet—it has gone down. The shaft is about 37ft, and I don't think they will be able to sink any further for want of machinery, for the water is getting very strong. I believe that it is the finest country for water that can be found anywhere, for you cannot go one milo along the coast but you will come to a waterfall, in some cases four or five hundred feet in height; the country being very mountainous, and not passable in some places, the gullies being so full of grass and scrub that you cannot pass though it, and that is the great hindrance for prospecting parties; and my opinion of it is that it is not a country for a working man, that is if he is to get his living by mining, for it is too hot for white men. It ought to be left for the niggers, and them alone There are sixteen white men employed about the claim, ond a few natives. I don't think that the white population hero exceeds forty, and three stores or shanties to supply them, the principal article being drink. Of course it is like every new place. The natives all go naked. It is the uniform of the country."