MINING.

. , ; jr*Npr.ES FROM HINDON.

THE Ij|fpiIfNTBDH!COMPANY'S CLAIM ANp'^ipACJl/iSTYLES' GULLY.

puringv'tpe first *I<T years of my sojourn in Otagoj frp#£LßS3 ; |io 1657, 1 followed the occupation of gold opining, And during that period worked on nearly every-,goldfield in Otago from Macraes to Efkipperjf. -jjSome of these fields are by this' iinie rsupposedi to be pretty well exhausted, bub they still: support a considerable number of miners, and, 'I am positive that none of them present the' desolate and deserted appearance, jtfiat. Hind'on does. This field, which in libe^early "days'yielded such a quantity { of gold from -it's 'numerous gullies, and, later on, from its' quafjz reefs, .'has now nor a dozen miners worl^lug in what- is known as Hindon proper. Oub pf> these six are fossicking about ' the 014 gully, Scarcely earning a miserable pittance, for^they.^keep ,on turning over tho old ground, which-has been* well worked by Europeans, an&.\ after them by Chinamen. They, however}} still linger on in the hope of . occasionally coming across a rough spec (about' four months ago one of them unearthed /weighing over soz), bub as for trying any ne^ ground' a short distance from the township, it • is 5*5 * oufc of the question with them. The quartz reefs which once promised so well are all -idle and- deserted, with the exception of -onfe, -the Gladstone, owned and worked by Mcesrs- Shepherd and Todd, who have also, a. compact six-head battery of their own, and are supposed to be making fair wages. In Frazer!s Gully, which is only a mile from Hindon, and, was wonderfully rich, there are but five miners now. • < Wondering at the>,cauße of such stagnation, and knowing- that there is still payable gold to be got in this district and plenty of unworked ground, I cast aboufc to discover the reason why Hindon as a_goldfidd>had sunk so low. I gleaned that when the' field was at its best the West Coast rush attracted a vasb number of the miners , who V.bad made good rises here, and as the 'various » shallow gullies got worked out : the rest-,'also shifted and lefb the field -to tho Chinamen, who reaped a rich harvest in -working the giouid over again. But even the patient and plodding John has' disappeared, > for although he will follow the European and take up his old workings, .and even buy 'his claim right out, he is never knownf to prospect for new ground. The secpnd cauße,,and in my opinion the principal one,- is the fact that in the frantic zeal by the Government of the day some years agoio ilirow open land for settlement, no due regard was paid by the authorities for the reservation of £he auriferous ground known to exist lierej' and which haß gradually bteu

nibbled at and fenced in till the unfortunate fossicker about Hindon is penned in to the two or three worked-out gullies about the township, and where, as a rule, they have comfortable huts, and are loth to abandon them. As an instance how the mining interest was. sacrificed - by the authorities, the following will show •.■-r~ About nine or ten years ago two of the Waste Land Board officials came up to Hindon, and called a meeting of miners, who at that time were pretty numerous. The meeting took place in Lovell's Hotel, and there the miners were informed that as the land in Mount Hyde district was going to be thrown open for settlement, it was deemed necessary to learn from them what portion they wanted reserved for mining purposes. The men said that there was payable ground in the gullies and creeks for miles around Hindon, and that it should not be pub in the market. Mr John Harrison, my present mate, exhibited a parcel oE 6oz" of coarse gold which he had that week l got in Styles' Gully, four miles from Hindon, and aiked that the land in that gully an( l extending up the river ' to the Deep Stream be reserved. Anyhow, a" definite boundary was laid out by the /miners, and the Waste Land Board officials departed for town. To show what a farce the whole affair was on behalf of these gentlemen, not a Bingle portion of the promised^ reserve was granted to the men, -and onlyasmall .block around the township, where thereefs are, constitutes the goldfield reserve to this day. Rich gullies like Frazer's and Styles' are limited to one chain on each . side of tho creek, the Govtrnment thinking this ample, and actually sold or leased all the tributaries running into them, although in these tributaries good gold has been got and still exists, as I will show presently. There are several gullies containing payable gold in close proximity to Hindon, but these are now fenced in by the farmers and tabooed to the miner. At the Deep Stream, only three miles from Hindon, there is not a single miner working, although some extraordinarily rich finds were met with there. One old man named George Reid, who is still in the district, got no less than L6OO worth of gold out of one crevice there. And there is plenty of gold in the Deep Stream yet. Under the new act, ample provision is now made for the miner to enter into any lease on a goldfield, but the mischief has been clone, and hundreds of men deprived of the means of making a decent .living. No wonder the cry of the unemployed is heard in the land. I think it is a false system of political economy to foster one industry by strangling another, especially when it must be admitted that had it not been for the hardy gold miner penetrating into and prospecting and opening up the back country, Otago would still have been one enormous sheep run.' My information re the Hindon district is authentic, for Mr John Harrison, who has been mining in every part of it for 28 years, and has in that time got a vast amount of gold out of various portions of it, has its history at his fingers ends, as the saying goes. The subjoined account of the Undaunted Company's claim [and tailrace will show that there is still plenty of gold to be earned in places still open to the gold miner, and as the tailrace now being constructed is well worthy of a visit, I can promise any* gentleman from Dunedin who wants a couple of days' holiday, and brings a gun with him, plenty of sport (rabbit shooting) and a hearty welcome from myself and mate. Styles' Gully, in which the claim is situated, is four miles from Hindon township, which is also fourmiles-from Hindon railway station. As the Otago Central branch time-table is so wonderfully and fearfully contrived that when you leave here you can't get b<ick for a couple of days at times, the

quickest and surest way of returning to Dunedin from" Styles' is to follow a leading spur at the back of our hut for a mile, when the district road to Outram, distant then 10 miles, will be struck, From Outram there is a train twice daily to Dunedin.

styles' gully

should' properly be called a creek, for it drains a large, extent of country, being fully five miles 'iii length, and in the driest seasons contains two Government heads of water. It is divided from the once famed Frazer's Gully by a narrow ridge, and, like the latter, takes its rise from ,the plateau on which is situated Hindon and its .quartz reefs. The course of the gully is N.W. and S.JD., and it empties into the Taieri river nearly-.opDosite Taioma (Mullocky Gully). The bed robk is a mica schist formation, running, due Nj and S. viewed from the top of the ridge. Arid gjplil miner will at once perceive that it is a natural tailrace for miles o£ auriferous country, for every gully draining into it has been rich in precious metal — notably those on the western bank, among which the Game Hen, Hare's, and Wright's Gullies were the richest. It is also intersected transversely by numerous quartz reefs. In Wright's Gully two men have got afe much as a pound weight of gold in a/week by padlocking the ground, which t was shallow ; but the Game Hen was as^rich a gully as was ever opened in Otago, the prospectors getting four pounds weight of g<?ld op the bottom of a small shaft only 6ft in depth.-' An' amusing incident occurred to them. They^were three in number, and not one of ' them ljad a miner's right when they struck thegold. "^Afraid of • the news reaching Hindon,. which yras then in full swing, before they were provided with those necessary documents, one of them posted off over the hills to Dunedin to get them, while his two mates slept in the shaft alll night. The peculiar cognomen this gully received is typical of the gold miner in ice early, days both here and in Australia. In ( one of jiho numerous hotels that existed in this district* at that time there was one that possessed a fair and buxom Hebe, who rejoiced in the "sobriquet of "The Game Hen." An a few of her numerous admirers were working in the gully, it was incontinently christened "Game Hen Gully" in her honour. At the head of this gully is the quartz reef and I battery^ owned by Mr M'Queen, and this reef hfjs no doubt fed the gully with the ricli gold that was obtained in it. After it had been worked over a couple of time?, my mate (Mr John Harrison) ground sluiced a portion of it, and was handsomely repaid, getting as much as 20 and 30 ounces to a paddock. The nature of the gold obtained in Styles', the Game Hen, and in fact all over the Hindon district, is very coarse and waterworn. Seyeral nuggets weighing a pound weight each have been unearthed in Styles' and the Game Hen. One of 17oz was got by a miner named Francis in a tribu.tary gully of the latter. There is virtually no fine gold in these gullies, as in a parcel of several ounces there will scarcely be a speck Jess than while the bulk can be best described as like beans and peas. As an illustration* 1 of the apathy that has come over the | miners about Hindon, r>ot a single individual has been working in Styles' and the Game Hen Gullies for about three years, acd there is plenty of ground unworked and untried in both of them. At the lower end of the Game Hen Gully there are several slips that gold has been traced into These can be driven out, and there is a clump of bush there where serviceable timber can be got. At the head of Styles' there are two flats of a large extent, which have been scarcely touched ; one, which is shallow and has been worked here and there iv a desultory way, would, I am sure, if tackled by a party oi: euer-

*ptic miners, and taken in a face, return them at least L 2 per man a week, and you can live well in this district for 8s a week. Good manuka scrub abounds everywhere in Styles' and its tributaries. The hillsides are covered with it, and if a man cannot make himself comortable here in a hut, he deserves to be raiserable indeed. Just below the outlet of our tailrace is a splendid long flat fully aquarte of a mile in length and three chains in width. There has been one hole sunk on this, and that has never been bottomed. Some years ago a tailrace was started from a gorge below it to work this flat, but was abandoned through lack of the sinews of war. A good length was constructed, and as it is in fairly good order even now, it would not take much capital to repair and finish it.

The run of gold that comes, down Styles' mußt go down this flat, for the reef is plainly to be seen in the banks on either side, and it was got and worked on a smaller flat at the foot of the gorge about half a mile farther down. One of the flats at the head of this gully is supposed to be about 15ft in depth. This has never been worked properly yet. At the head of it, before it runs into the deeper ground, a former mate of mine got 370z very quickly, and Mr J. Harrison also struck a good patch alongside of him. These places I have described can be called a poor man's diggings, for no elaborate machinery is required — nothing beyond picks and shovels, perhaps a wheelbarrow and a few planks, a sluicebox, and, if they have not the means to construct a deep tailrace, a zinc or Californian pump. That a good living with the chance of dropping on a patch can be made here yet by parties of energetic men I am confident of. From the head of the ground owned by the Undaunted Company, Styles' Gully has been worked continuously for fully two miles, paying handsomely, and in many instances some very rich patches have been got. Some claims returned as much as an ounce and a-half of gold a man per day, and in the ground worked on our upper boundary by Messrs Hare and Young, as much as two pounds weight of gold has been washed out of one revice. Wherever coarse gold is the rule in a gully or creek there is always the prospect of dropping on a rich pocket or crevice.

(To he continued.)