Blacks.

Bruce Herald, Volume VIII, Issue 714, 2 July 1875, Page 5

Blacks.

(From our own Correspondent.) Although we are in the midst of winter, mining claims are on the increase, thanks to the public channel which was constructed by the miners and Government conjointly. I have endeavored to get the correspondence which has taken place between Mr Warden Simp son and the Progress Committee, but up to the present have failed to procure it ; my only reason for wishing to obtain it, is to place it before the public, so that they may judge as to the merits of the ca3e. There is one thing certain, the £1200 that was expended on Blacks some four years since, under the superintendence of the Warden, was so much thrown away, whilst the £300 expended I under the superintendence of the Progress Committee in constructing the drainage channel, has served a good purpose. Claims are in work from the township up to the pre-emptive right of the Hon. Robert Campbell. The Chinamen are purchasing the whole of the gardens in or near the channel, and in some instances paying a high price for them — and the whole of the claims are paying wages. The farmers are busily ploughing, it being a- favorable season. We had a few nights' hard frost some three weeks Bince, but nothing to stop the plough. At Drybread the water races are full to overflowing, whioh means prosperity. At Sugar Pot, Murphy, Bt-d, and Party are driving a tnnnel some 1000 yards to work their claim. They are in 180 yards ; the driving is good, and stands well, but what it | will do when water is running through I will not attempt to predict. This claim could be worked by constructing a tail race into Thomson's Creek, but by so doing their dirty water would run through Qlassford's preemptive right, which he (€Ha»sford) will not allow ; or perhaps I should say he would commence proceedings against any one doing so A case is set down for trial next month, Glaaaford v. Reid and Co., which I suppose will set the matter at rest. At Tinkers the ;&tounta.in ;Race. .Company are in full work, which ia something unusual with them at this time of the year, for they generally ooneiclev themselves lucky if they can make a

start in the middle of August. Mellor, of the Ballarat Store, has two claims in full work, both claims being worked with hired labor. John Martin has commenced mining down his tail races, preparatory to washing up, which he expects will take him three months to complete, and he is in hopes of getting 300 oz of the precious metal. The whole of the other claims are in full work, with waller races -full to overflowing. At Devonshire Gully the whole of the claims are in full' work, arid none of them will clean up until Christmas, when Boyd and Meddleton, and M'Clusky, Black, and Co., expect something handsome. It is a 'great pity more water could not be brought on to these diggings, as there is plenty of payable sluicing ground, but it will hot pay by any other class of mining.

In a recent issue of your paper was a letter signed " Ophir," in which the writer supplied what he was pleased to term the missing link in a former communication of mine; and trusted that I would not consider him intrusive, &c. On the contrary, I now tender fi Ophir" my thanks for calling the Waste Lands Board's attention to another of their blunders. It is always with regret that I find fault with the shortcomings of others, more particularly with public bodies who consider themselves infallible. Some are of opinion the Waste Lands Board should be a political body ; others are of a contrary opinion. There is this much to say in favor of its being a political body : When they do make thoae glaring blunders, some member of the Council will ask for a committee to investigate and report to the House. Something of the sort took place about five years since, vhen a man by the name of Smytham received something like £400 as compensation for one of those blunder j, and I did hear that the officer who w is answerable for the blunder had either one or two hundred a year taken off his salary.