THE HINDON AND BAREWOOD REEFS.

(By L. Harris.)

Having heard a good deal lately about the reefs at Barewood I decided on visiting the locality. I left Dunedin by pie 9.15 a.m. train on Saturday and reached Hiudon at 11.45 a.m. On "arriving at the township one could not but contrast its present condition with the scene of bustling activity which it presented 28 years ago, when the neighbouring gullies and terraces swarmed with hundreds of diggers unearthing the splendid samples of coarse gold for which Hindon was noted. But if Hindon has sunk to the position of a deserted goldfield, after passing through the feverish existence and busble of a good rush, it is rapidly rising to the proud position of being one of the be&t grazing and grain - producing districts around Dunedin. During my stay I travelled over a good stretch of the surrounding district, and I was astonished at the quantity of good grazing and arable land fenced in and stretching for miles around Hindon. People travelling up the Otago Central railway and gazing astounded at the wild nature of the ravines aud gorges have no idea that on the tops of the gorges through which the Taieri river runs tberc is on either side a plateau of splendid pastoral and arable land, which is occupied and fenced, and supports a numerous population. The miners and others in the Hindon district have not been slow in-" availing themselves of the liberal land laws and settlement schemes of the present and proceeding Governments, nnd from Taioma (Mullocky Gully) on the one side to the Deep Stream on the other, all thu land is taken up in small areas either for grazing or farming purposes. Some of it is freehold, some held under perpetual lease, but for the most it is under village settlement conditions. 1 was informed that in consequence of its elevation wheat does not ripen iv time, but it can scarcely be beaten for rye and oat crops. I saw a paddock of 100 acres of oats in stook which was expected to thresh 60 bushels to the acre! As a lot of land will be broken up this year, Hindon will next grain season contribute its full quota to the traffic of the Otago Central raihyay, which has already, I believe, exceeded all expectations.

THE HINDON REEFS,

From Mr John Harrison, who has lived at Hindon for 28 years, I was enabled to hear the history of the discovery, working, and of what I can only term the ignoble collapse, through blundering and mismanagement, of these reefs, which once promised so well and on which so many thousands of pounds of capital have been expended. Close to the township is a small battery of five heads of stampers, once owned by Mr T. Begg, but now by a Mr Sheppard, who is working the Gladstone reef, close to the Hindon hotel,' and is, I am informed, doirg very well. About half a mile away there looms on the brow of, a gully a large iron building, big enough for a church, containing the Chilian mill (a new-fangled American crusher) erected by Mr Begg, ".who is, or was, the proprietor of tho -reef in Nicholson's Gully which has , been worked until recently. I had an opportunity of inspecting this mill on Sunday, and a more complicated and intricate mass'of machinery I never saw except onee — in the engine room of the Kimutaka, where it worked beautifully^ and smoothly always, whereas this Chilian mill crusher was idle - half - its time undergoing repairs and . alterations, which cost vast sums to effect. Several driving belts a toot broad and many fathoms iv length extend and -cross each other iv all directions, and whenever one of these came off its drum, which occurred now and again, and careered among the intricate machinery before steam could be shut off, the damage it would cause can Ibe more easily imagined than described. An ordinary 10-head battery, so simple in its construction, erection, and working, is in my opinion worth-all the Chilian mills ever put up. The latter, when working smoothly, will crush any amount of quartz per hour, but does not save the gold apparently, at least the one in Hindon never did. The manager of this reef evidently went to no end of expenditure in machinery, tramways with steel rails, and other extensive plant, before the claim was properly tested. About a mile of a tramway was constructed — a portion of it through a heavy rock cutting, which cost some hundreds of pounds by contract — to bring quartz to the mill from a tunnel up the gully, which never yielded any. Although the tramway site was finished, it has never had a sleeper' or a mil laid on it. A party of eight youpg students belongii g to the (School ot Mines came from Dunediu lor some practical experience, I presume 1 ; Thc3 went to work in two shifts of two hours, each of them woikiugin the face for half an hour at a time getting out stone, for which they were paid 7s per ton by Mr Begg. They got out 70 or 80 tons, the bi Ik of which is still in a heap at grass, having never been crushed. My informant told me the young fellows worked well while at it, and although their hands were blistered and bleeding badly through not having any previous experience in melding pick or hammer and drill, they stuck to it manfully, and worked like Trojans. Mr Begg does not seem to have been fortunate in the choice of his managers somehow, and the result of the wash-up of the last crushing was ludicrous in the extreme, although great sympathy is felt for Mr Begg on account of tLe serious loss it entailed. It appears that a very large of stone had been crushed, and from prospects should have averaged half an ounce per ton. Upon cleaning up there was any amount of amalgam, or what was supposed to be amalgam, and had it been the real "M'Kay" it would have yielded over loz per ton of quartz. Somehow it would not retort properly, and the mass taken to Dunedin, where it was tested, and proved to be a mass of patent metal, &c, with but an infinitesimal portion of gold. The bearings of the machinery of this mill were composed of some sort of patent metal, which, being soft and wearing away, found its way on to the tables with the crushed stone, and being white was taken for quicksilver by the manager, who was in high glee at having so much amalgam to treat. What became the gold can be imagined when it was discovered that the tailrace and the bed of the gully were thickly strewn with the true amalgam. But this unfortuuate mine did not receive its coup de yrace till the big

flood last month. The Chilian mill is so large that the shed Covering the tables was erected in the bed of the gully containing two large dams, ouG a few hundred yards above the other, in which the water used for crushing was stored. The upper dam had in course of time subsided so that the embankment was fully a foot lower than the bye-wash. The flood water speedily tore over the dam, burst a gap through, and the released torrent, tearing down the gully, carried away the second dam, which was built in front of the shed, which, with" the tables inside, was utterly demolished by the rushing waters and the rubble stone backing of the dam. It is now a melancholy wreck, and the expensive mill aud machinery rusting away. Proceeding from the wreck of the shed, &c, we wended our way to Styles' Gully to inspect an alluvial claim in the bed of the creek, to work which Mr Harrison and party are bringing up a deep tailrace through a narrow gorge filled with immense boulders. It is a heavy undertaking, necessitating the frequent use of dynamite, but it will be successfully finished by Mr Harrison, I am certain, as he and his party have already spent five months in its construction. They are sanguine that they will be amply repaid for their labour and expenditure, and from the quantities of gold taken out of the creek above and below their claim, I am of the same opinion.

THE GAME HEN REEF,

This reef, which is situated at the head of a gully emptying into Styles, was discovered by Mr John Harrison when working a claim in the gully, which was very rich. Alter working the reef for some time and getting good returns from it he disposed of it to a party of Dunedin business men, of whom Mr M 'Queen was one, who erected a battery, which is still there, but alas ! deserted. Here also the same fatal mistake as to choice of managers was made. Harrison, who has worked among quartz reefs from boyhood in Victoria and Otago, pointed out where the company would cut the reef in the new adit they were putting in. When they reached the spot there was the formation of the lode — pug and defined walls — but no stone, although it might have made in a few yards. Harrison insisted that this was the lode to drive on, but the manager, a theoretical man, pooh-poohed the idea, and said it was further ahead. He drove some hundreds of feet, put in crosscuts in every direction, but with no result. A winze had been sunk by Harrison a depth of 20ft carrying a good reef which would crush 25dwt per ton. After driving in vain for the reef, the manager started at the winze, but it was so wretchedly worked that the whole affair collapsed and has never been touched since. A great authority on mining was brought up from Dunedin to lay out the course of the reef, and

insisted that it was going in a certain direction until Harrison showed him a shaft in which he had struck the reef in a directly opposite direction. Moral. — One ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory,

AN EXTRAORDINARY FEAT,

Apropos of the heavy taflrace being constructed in Styles, which also suffered to some extent by the late tremendous flood, it may not bo generally known that tho first man to undertake this stupendous work was the unfortunate Stevenson, who destroyed himself and his wife with a dynamite cartridge at the top of Manor place. The work that Stevenson carried out single-handed in that tailrace seems quite incredible. There are the remains of immense masses of rock in the gorge which he blasted through, and with the stone built the tailrace walls 12ft high. Moreover, he built a splendid, stone hut, which is in capital condition. The walls are 2ft thick throughout, the dimensions of the hut being about 16ft by 12ft ; height of chimney, 18ft. It is well thatched, has proper window sashes and doors, and the stones are so well laid that one would think a tradesman had built it. Iv addition to this he built several outhouses, a fowlhouse, and prepared a garden, with fruit trees, &c. He was working at the tailrace when he went to Dunedin and committed th^ dreadful tragedy. He must have had the h-.:.ut of a lion to have undertaken the work he did iv Styles' Gully single handed ; and as he was, I believe, formerly a bank clerk and unused to hard labour, the fact is the more remarkable and astonishing. Leaving Hiudon on Monday morning, I proceeded to

THE lUHEWOOD 11EEFS, which are reached by a track which starts at the hack of the Tanks at the Flat Stream, where the train always stops going up or down for the engine to tak« iv water. From the tanks to the first workings, the distance is about two miles. The claim worked is known as Cunningham's. The battery which is crushing the stone belongs to a Dunedin syndicate, and was formerly erected and crushing at the Saddle Hill Reef. It was taken down and re-erected in its present position at the Flat Stream by Mr William Waters, an engineer and blacksmith by trade, who is battery manager. Mr Water's hails from the " Vaterland," and is evidently the right man in the right place. He received me very coiirteously and hospitably. 1 fouud him in dungaree overalls attending to the five head of stampers, which were crushing as hard as they could go. The baltary is very compact and the camshaft is long enough to carry another live head whenever wanted. A splendid 10 horse-power portable engine supplies the motive power. The coal used is from tli<* pit at {Salisbury biding, not far from Wingalui,

and Mr- Waters speaks highly of it for steam producing purposes. The stove is carted from the reef Jo the battery, a distance of about a mile. Jhe site of the battery on the Flat Stream has been well chosen, for the gully opens out into an immense flat, very level, and a dam can be erected, if necessary, at a small cost, at, a spot where the sides of the gully contract. ,'T/hjs would dam the water back for half a mile,,ji ensuring an unlimited supply for crushing.,,^At the mine and battery 16 men are. employedJ,~just now, with a prospect of more being wan^d shortly. The wages are 8s per day of,_oight-hour shifts, and if the crushing turns out, well Is extra per day is paid to the miners $y Mr AVaters, so that the men have every ,iud,ucemeut held out to them to "wire-in." Mr AVaters attends to the battery for 12 hours. His house is alongside of it, and as, the engine is a capital one, and the battery., kept in first-class working order by himself, j^ does not take much looking after. He informed me that there is a reef carrying good prospects, close to the Taieri. If the field gets properly developed, and the reefs which are at pvqsent locked up are allowed to be worked,, hp, is prepared to shift the battery, to a site on jthe river, whence he could derive enough^iojver to drive 30 head of stampers, and do a^vay with the expense of cartage, as a tramway could bo built at very little cost to connect the reefs with the battery. The Barewood cvii, with the exception of 2000 acres, is. .an endowment of the university, and isj raider the control of its council. On inquiry I found there are no less than lp" claims held by various squatters j*nd their friends. These claims are held under, lease from the council, and only two are beiiig,7worked — one by Mr AVaters' party and ths,~ other, about a mile further on, by Messrs^ Hocking and Porter. The latter have to',, pay no less than 25 per cent, tribute "io, the original lessees. The miners iv the,, 1 , ..district complain bitterly about these re.efsjbeing locked up, as they are known to be pijyjable for any party of men who will work tliem themselves, and get the stone crushed"!at either of the batteries. Mr AA r aters informccl,.mc that these reefs can be traced through; ,tj}e Barewood run from the Deep stream .tq o the Barewood siding, a distance of eight mjj,es, but as they are not in the pining reserve £h,ey cannot be taken up. This is a state of gfluirs that wants remedying badly, and I commend it to the notice of the Hon. the, Ministerifo^r Mines. To show what a benefit it would bp'.juO the district and also to Dunedin if the whoje'p'f the claims taken up were working, I need only point out that the two that are so employ 3]3 men between them. Two separate parties Have marked off claims on the line of reef under their miners' rights ; and as their

applications will be shortly heard by the warden of the district, we shall soon know if these leases can still be locked up for years without b_eing worked. ' . Upon leaving the battery, I visited the mine. Some verWich stone is being got out just under the surface,, and the reef is bared for several chains in length. It appears a shaft had been sunk to a depth of 40ft by a couple of men put on by Cunningham, and one crushing went as high as 3^' per ton. They then somehow lost the run'"pf , the golden stone. The mine is under the" management of Mr Nicholas Thomas, or, as he is'b'etter known on the old diggings, Nick Thonjas. He has had years of experience

j among quartz reefs, and has been a miner from I boyhood, and the syndicate working this claim are very fortunate in having so good a man as 1 underground manager. Ho does not belong to : the collar and cuft's style of managers, j through whom so many promising mining ' companies have been wrecked, but is a thorough practical minor, that knows how a reef should be worked, and is not afraid of doing his share of the work. Some idea of the riohness of the stone being got out by ~ Thomas can be formed when it is stated that the borings of a 2ft hole in the quartz for blasting purposes when washed yielded -£dwt of gold. I crushed a piece of quartz the size of an egg with a postal and mortar, panned it off, and had a good half^grain of gold in the dish. Such stone, if crushed separately, would yield 4os! to the ton, but, there is poorer stuff mixed with it which has to be put through. I am satisfied, however, that even when the whole width of stove (3ft) is' taken out, it will give very handsome returns. A shaft is being sunk on this shoot of stone, and it is equally as rich going down.

, Proceeding about a mile further on the line of reef, I came upon Messrs Hocking and Porter's claim. Their shaft and battery are in a shallow gully. They were considerable sufferers by the late flood, as the water broke through into their old working* and filled the shaft with water and slurry. I found Mr Hocking — who is such another old practical miner as Thomas, and has been reefing in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland — anxious to give me any information in his power. He and his mate, Mr Porter, are working this reef on tribute of 25 per cent, on all gold got. They have 20 men working in and about the mine and battery. They have a good body of stove 4ft wide at the 80ft level, and with the yield of the concentrates it averages loz per ton. This shaft is worked by a horse and whip,and. the battery, which is one of 10 heads, is driven by a 10 horse-power portable engineThe water after passing over the tables is, by a powerful pump, thrown back into the dam, and thus used over and over again. The battery was not working during my stay, as fresh pipes for the pump were being put in. The miners working here, as in Waters', are fine specimens of working men, all thoroughly up to their work, well contented, aud, judging from their comfortable camps and the well-built sod and thatched huts being erected, have strong faith in the permanence of their job. The line of the Barewood reefs is within a couple of points of N.W. by S.E., with a strong underlay to the north, and by looking at a map of Otago it will be noticed that that line cuts through the auriferous belt of country constituting our goldfields. The average yield of tho stone crushed has been 16dwt of free gold, and

as 'the concentrates sent to Melbourne to be treated have returned lloz per ton, it brings the average yield of stone up to fully loz per ton, which, with a moderate charge for crushing, should pay very handsome dividends. The stone in the Barewood reefs is thickly impregnated with pyrites, as the rich yield of the concentrates will prove. These are carefully stacked in the batteries for treatment.

miners' grievances.

* My attention was drawn to what has been a standing grievance with the miners working at -the Barewood and at the antimony mines at Mount Stoker, across the Taieri from here, ever since the line has been opened to Middle-

march. Although the train has to slop perforce every journey to take in water at tho tanks at the Flat stream, which is the spot where all the Barewood nnd Mount Stoker residents get out and into tho train when travelling, they are charged the full fare to Barewood siding, which is six miles beyond their destination. The Flat stream is not on the official time table as a flag station, and the guard is compelled to charge to Barowood. He has no option. The injustice of this is apparent, and so keenly is it felt that most of the married men who live at Hindon knock off early on Saturday afternoon and proceed to their homes on foot rather than be robbed of the extra shilling charged fro n Barewood. This grievanco has been laid before tho commissioners with no result hitherto. But a strong petition has been got up lately, and, besides being signed by the residents, it bears the signatures of the local members of the squatocracy. It has been forwarded to Wellington by tho Hon. Thomas Fergus, M.H.R., and the commissioners may take notice of it. Another matter is the absence of any shelter shed at Barewood siding. The miners get their provisions sent from the store at Middlemarch, and have to pay Is freight on every bag forwarded. Tho articles are put out at the siding, and lie there — exposed to rain, snow, and frost— till fetched. A small shed like the one at the Deep Stream would obviate this. The delivery of letters" and papers is another sore point. Under the present arrangement of letters going to Hindon and Middlemarch, the miners do not get them often for a week or 10 days after they arrive ; and then one of the married men has to bring them up from Hiudon. To remedy this, I suggest that a letter box be affixed to the surfaceman's hut at the Flat Stream, and that the ganger have charge of the key. As it is only two miles from Barewood reefs one man could come down after 5 p.m., when the surfacemen are at their hut, and get the letters for all hands. I don't think the ganger would object to oblige the miners, and from' the high estimation the guard (Mr George Course) is held in by all residents along the Otago Central railway for his civility and obliging disposition, I feel sure he would not mind bringing a few extra letters in his van and dropping them in a letterbox at the tanks. This could bo sanctioned by tho Postmaster-general and the Railway Commissioners.