MINING NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1057, 25 March 1873, Page 2

MINING NEWS.

In Anderson's the batteries are working steadily, and hopes are entertained that they will be kept going until at least five hundred tons have been crushed. The reef is a little faulty where the stone is now being worked, but the quality is good, and a good return is relied on, notwithstanding the newness of the plates put in to replace those lately stolen. The Ajax batteries hare been kept fully employed for some time past.

The Energetic, Wealth of Nations, and Band of Hope, only need more rain to have work in full swing. The Golden Fleece shareholders are not yet decided as to erecting their talked of crushing plant. The chances are against their doing so at present. The late rain started the Westland wheel, and the batteries commenced crushing Inglewood stone, but the supply of water will hardly keep them going without early replenishment.

The shareholders in the Keep it Dark, Golden Ledge, and other claims on the line are still hopefully expectant. The reef in the Keep it Dark is six feet thick and shewing good stone.

At the Lyell the Break o' Day Company are pushing on their tunnel with excellent prospects. In the Marui, adjoining, leaders are being worked at two different levels, and dip to the southward. Similar work is being carried on in the Monte Christo. A half share in this claim was sold for £l5O lately. The Oriental, the Lyell Creek, and the Central Buller Companies, are about to be registered under the Limited Liability Act, and Mr D. Leslie, legal manager for the Break o' Day Company will also be legal manager of the new ventures.

The Alpine Company are getting out stone from both levels, and the main reef on the lower level is improving. The machine has been crushing some days past, but the supply of water even in this exceptionally well supplied claim is decreasing visibly. Blair and O'Brien, next the Little "Wonder claim, have at last struck the Little Wonder leader, and the quartz is extremely rich. The seam is about eight inches wide at present. The proprietorsof the Little "Wonder are getting on somewhat slowly with the erection of their machinery, awaiting additions thereto.* They intend, as stated in a previous issue, running a tramway along the creek so as to convey quartz for crushing at their machine from all who choose to send it, and this they expect to be able to do at about thirty shillings per ton, including carriage. At such a price holders of any claim along the creek will be able to test its full value.

From Boatman's, as from all other quarters, comes the cry for more water. In Eedman's Gully nearly all the claims are idle excepting perhaps a few who get sufficient water to keep them going for an hour or two daily. Eeferring to extended claims in that locality the mining reporter of the Herald writes:—

"At Eedman's, parties now have taken up extensive claims, and foremost of these are Mulligan and party, and Lynch and party; the former have had their claim in working order for the last two months, but through damage sustained by flood, just after the holidays, and the present dry weather, it seems that they have not been able to give their ground a fair trial. Lynch and party have the largest claim; it comprises four acres of ground (an extended claim;, their object is to sluice the creek and the flat. They have brought in a tail-race 1800 ft. long, which is already boxed in with sawn timber a distance of 1200 ft.; two hands are kept constantly at the saw pit supplying timber to complete the boxing. They have about 6 ft. of waßhdirt in the flat from which very good prospects have been obtained, and which they anticipate, when the claim is in thorough working order, will pay from ten to twelve pounds per man per week." In the claim of Messrs Borgieson and Co., at Brandy Jack's Creek, Grey Valley, some machinery of a novel de«

sorption has been recently erected, and the correspondent of the Grey Argus! gives a long and graphic description of the formal inauguration of tie works and attendant jollification. The machinery he thus describes j—" The pumping machinery, together with the i appliances for raising the washdirt and ! headlines, are of the most complete I description, and constructed on the 1 newest principles. The debris from ! the underground workings is raised to I the surface by means of perpendicular I hydraulic balance lifts. The motive 1 Eower for the lift is supplied from the j ead-race, and the arrangements for ] regulating the supply of water to the wheel and tank are simple, and yet { astonishingly efficacious. One man j can attend to the whole of the gear, thus saving the labor of two extra hands, and except through gross carelessness an accident can hardly occur. The full truck is run out from the working below to a cage at the bottom of the shaft. The floor of the cage is a detached portion of a tramway running from the platform, built round the top of the shaft and the end of the shoots. When the truck is ready to be drawn up, the brakesman at the top allows the water tank to fill, and as it descends, the full truck at the other end of the chain is raised to the platform. By means of an escape valve in the tank the water is allowed to run off, when the dirt truck, being previously placed in position over the mouth of the shaft, descends by the action of gravitation to the bottom. Slight alterations and improvements, suggested by experience, have been made. The principal of these improvements is the application of a vertical brake of such power that the machinery while at full speed, can be stopped instantaneously without causing any perceptible increase in the vibration or any danger of breakage. Another improvement is the introduction of a third wheel at the poppet heads. This wheel is fixed between the ordinary bearing sheaves, and so placed that it presses the lifting chain which passes under it firmly on to the sheaves, thus preventing the possibility of a slip when the brake is suddenly applied. The contrivance is very simple, and will yet come into general use, for it acts as an effectual preventative against an accident of very frequent occurrence, and through which hundreds of lives have been lost, namely, the slipping of the lifting rope or chain over the poppet wheels, either though a snapping of the rope or when the brake refuses to bite.