TE AROHA. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1372, 16 April 1881, Page 2

TE AROHA. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

O-VB of the claims that has been most perseveringly worked siuce the commencement of the diggins in November, is the All Nations, and if the fates should be kind to them when the grand day of judgment comes that is to deoide upon the merits of all quartz brought to the battery, no one will be found here to grudge them one pennyweight of what they have well deserved. This claim is a good one to name in connection with the question of the fairness of granting protection to absentees, for if there even be hard work and great expense, make a good show for the field, and su increase the value of claims that have done comparatively nothing — they are unjustly done by. It would be useless to consider the question further here, so let us proceed to examine the work done by the All-Nations and leave abstract questions to the public. They have, first of all, out a drive of 300 feet on to the main reef, and are not through it yet. At 150 feet in, they struck a leader running east and West, which they have followed about 100 feet in. Then they have sunk a shaft 4q feet deep, and an air drive of 70 feet. They have also laid a tramway for carrying the stuff out, and they have 50 or 60 tons of material ready for the battery. The reef is first-rate and about 18 inches iv depth, and they have very good prospects from another of about 6 inches, carrying splendid stone, the cuttings are in very easily, worked country, and the expenses will not be much over £1 per foot. Further up the bush-clothed gully lie 3 the Prince of Wales claim, rather to the west of the Prospectors'. This is a claim also that deserves all praise for the steadiness with which the shareholders have stuck to their work "through thick and thin " from the commencement. They have a drive upon the reef which is 9 feet in thickness, in the uppar level and the lode is mixed up with silver mundic, iron pyrites and black antimony, all indications of a good gold country and there is a cross cut through several good leaders of from 4 to 7 inches. At tha lower level they have struck the reef, 5 feet wide at 60 feet, and there will be a cross-cutting running east to prove the value of two leaders running on the hanging wail. They have 200 tons of stuff ready for the battery and they j intend sinking a winz from the higher to the lower level. They will also run a drive towards the " eastern boundary to prove the country south of the Prospectors Claim. A shoot will carry the stuff down the gully to the road, and from there the carriage will be compara tively easy. I saw a fine prospect from a bit of the hanging wall from a leader 3 or 4 inches in width that would turn out a heavy weight of gold, though such a specimen would be no test of the average return to be expected, and another piece from the reef oropping out on the surface yielded at the rate of loz. 9dwts. It would not be safe to hazard any rough guess at fcho probable average yield of this claim but there can be very little doubt that it will be sufficient to give a handsome dividened over the expenses and an endless supply. Still further up thB steep sida of the gully is the Lucky Hit another of the claims in the same locality ar the others mentioned. They do not seem just at the present time to be fully manned, though they are carrying on work, and after Easter expect to have on six men. On the upper level they have a drive of 20 feet on to the reef that is here about three feet in thickness, and on i the lower level they have commenced another drive, which •will strike the same | reef at about 130 feet. The country is | easily-worked sandstone, and the expenses will not exceed £1 per foot. At the present time the Easter holidays have taken away a per-centage of our population, and the remainder left here will do very little work till after next week, when we may expect to ace a more lively tone iv Te Aroha than has prevailed lately. The directors of the battery have decided to commence work on the. 23rd instant, when Mr G. O'Halloran, of the Hot Springs Hotel, will entertain the directors and shareholders with lunch, and beer will be distributed like the rain to the just as to the unjust. The scale of charges for the battery will be:— For one load, 20s; 5 loads, 15s ; 10 loads, 12s ; over JO loads, LOs. The first private residence yet erected in Te Aroha has juat been completed by Messrs Lavery and Whitehouse, builders, , well known in these parts ; and as it is the commencement of a new era here, and a particularly comfortable residence, it deserves mention.— [April 15.]

The best seats at the theatre of war are generally oa the front tier. A man who had - drunk a dozen glasses of whisky and smoked one cigar, complained to his irife that u that odious cigar made him awful dizzy."