WATER SUPPLY.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1172, 1 May 1874, Page 2

WATER SUPPLY.

The efforts just now being made to bring in an increased supply of water for mining purposes at Addison's should commend itself to public attention. Apart from this or that idea that anyone in particular hopes to profit thereby, the general gain is the one essential point to be considered. While the mining industry has for some time past languished in the Buller, as in other districts, there has been one portion of the goldfield which lias maintained its position as a productive field of labor. We refer, of course, to Addison's flat and the adjacent terraces. There the yield of gold has been only limited by the supply of water obtainable, and the auriferous ground as yet unwqrked will give profitable employment to many men and for many jears to come. Practical miners knowing the value of the field, and getting undoubted demonstration that those who could command water supply, even in limited quantities, were from year's end to year's end making good wages, and that those better supplied were in a fair way of accumulating little fortunes, have sought from time to time to bring in water races and take up claims. Such efforts, confined to limited parties, and perhaps at the outset dependent on limited means, have necessarily been circumscribed, and have been mainly private ventures. So far they have succeeded, but it has been always apparent that a good opening for investment would be found in bringing in not merely a few heads of water for one or two parties, but as much as could be possibly secured. To this praiseworthy end some enterprising efforts have of late been directed. It has been shown beyond doubt that the Totara river may be tapped, and a constantly flowing stream diverted therefrom, sufficient to yield a steady revenue. The engineering work necessarily to be first done has been to a certain extent accomplished, but to cut the race and bring in the water requires an outlay of money beyond the means of any one or two speculators, yet easy of accomplishment by the power of numbers. A scheme has been proposed for floating a public company, and so far it bears promise of being a hona fide mining venture, launched under favoring and favorable auspices. As such it commends itself to the public, and the investment of money thereinshould return profits, direct and indirect, a hundredfold.