MINING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2362, 1 June 1899, Page 29

MINING.

"We are evidently on the eve of another mining boom here. Dredging seems to be the aim of the speculators, and a considerable area has been pegged off and applied for. Hitherto ventures in this direction have not been a success here, which is no doubt in a great measure attributable to the unsystematic manner in whicn the work has been carried on. It seems, -however, as if there was to be no rushing blindfold into large expense this time. A thorough prospecting is going on under the Supervision of Mr Don, and it depends on the sresults obtained whether or not dredges will fee put on the eround. That there is Dlenty

of payable dredging ground in the district is almost a certainty, and it is to he hoped that the present effort to find it will be attended with success.

Considerable dissatisfaction is felt amongst the mining community here at the shifting of the mining records from this court to Gore. Why this step «Bould be deemed necessary no one seems to understand. For nearly 40 years this has been the central court for a large district, and in spite of the array of pegs to 'he seen along the Mataura,-it has a much brighter mining future than Gore and its vicinity. If the miners here are alive to their own interest, they ought certainly to forward a protest to the Minister for Mines, and endeavour to prevent this fresh insult from being put upon them.

For unreasonable stubbornness the school commissioners are certainly entitled to the cake. Messrs Stewart, of the Argyle Sluicing Company, recently discovered a valuable seam of good lignite in Happy Valley, within three miles of the township ; but, "unfortunately, this deposit happens to be on the commissioners' land, and on being applied to they have refused permission to work the ground. ' It is hard to estimate what loss this refusal means to the public. Winter is on us, and a. coal famine looming ahead. The other pits in the neighbourhood are almost worked out; at all events their present output is quite insufficient for our requirements. Not only so, but coal could be supplied from Happy Valley at under two-thirds of the present price. There can be no reasonable grounds for their objection, and if they persist in it, then pressure ought to be brought to bear upon them to compel them to give their consent to a petition the granting of which" is so evidently to the benefit of the community.