BENDIGO.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 194, 29 July 1873, Page 6

BENDIGO.

(from our own correspondent.) July 22. 187.*?. "A great deal depends on the weather," is a very old saying, but one has to follow the avocation of gold-digging i u Oiago to fully realise its meaning. The question of work or no work is often summarily settled up here by the Clerk of the Weather. Just now it js no work. Frost has a tight grip of the water-supply, and the stock of snow for summer requirements is very slowly augmenting ; it is now, and has been for the past week, falling at intervals, but in such light showers as to be practically of little use. There appears to be something radically wrong in the meteorological department ; all past experience is at fault, and weather prophets have fallen sadly into disrepute. However, all things have an ending,—even bad weather ; so we will hope that better days "Lurk beneath the Winter's shroud." In consequence of the existence of the xbove state of things, there is little change to report in mining matters generally. The Aurora tributers have placed some additional bands at work in the mine, and intend evidently to try and pull up leeway in the spring. The frost prevents any repairs beug made in the race, consequently the mill "emains idle.

The Cromwell Company are driving on vf ith their accustomed energy,—raising stoi^e,

which still keeps up its rich appearance ; so that the coming "big cake," heretofore described as " a stunner," is likely to prove a certainty. The ten head of stampers are still at work, King Frost's dominion hardly extending to the low level at which the mill situated. As a proof of the past and present scarcity of water for mill purposes here, Mr W. Anderson has been unable to get his reef tested. The trial crushing of thirty tons has been lying for six months in the immediate neighbourhood of two of our mills, and the desired test is apparently as far off as ever. Ordinary prospectors would have "caved in" long ago, but the miner in question does not appear°to be one of that sort, and I trust his pluck will be rewarded. The completion of the Lucknow tunnel is now. to be let by contract. I cannot see that this will make the work any cheaper for the Company. The men engaged at it latterly worked well, and if contractors can do more then they are gluttons. The extreme hardness of the driving is an unpleasantly established fact, which no amount of diplomacy can controvert. I would recommend a trial of " dynamite" or nitro-glycerine in place of the ordinary blasting powder hitherto used. Ihese explosives are extensively used in Vidtorian and Californian mines, and why not here 1 The old Morning Star claim, abutting on Logan's, has been taken up by Mr Mitchinson, of Bendigo ; and doubtless he knows what he is about. A trial crushing from this claim, principally of surface stone, yielded 7 dwts. per ton about 12 months ago, and upon one occasion I believe Mr Logan paid £7O for a share in it ; so that its antecedents at any rate will warrant further trial. Without any great exercise of sagacity, it will be inferred from my leading "remarks that sluicing here is at present a dead letter; and so it is. Therefore I say nothing cm that head. I presume our legislators are bv this time "in Parliament assembled" at Wellington, and I wonder how the great (?) Gold-field'} Bill, the bantling incubated with so much) cackling and labour by Messrs Shepherd and Co., will fare on its presentation. I" am afraid its greatest friends, after looking critically at it, will not conscientiously be able to pronounce it first-rate. Nous ver'rons. 1 forgot two things in my "Notes on the Bill,' and these are, Mining Boards and "discretionary power." ] believe the institution of the one, and abolition of the other, will be two long strides toward improvement. But is the latter abolished ? The section relating to Wardens is silent on the subject, leaving its readers, as usual, to draw an inference' and this in legal matters is generally an unsafe proceeding. Let it be put down' in black and white that the "nasty thing" has been cast out for ever, and we shall know how to proceed. True, we have and always had the license, under certain restrictions, to appeal, but poor men have not as a rule the wherewithal to indulge in the expensive luxurvof testing the correctness of a Warden's decision given a dis'-retion ; and besides, such power opens the door for abuse. Tf Mining Boards are instituted, properly officered, and earnestly and intelligentlv conducted, our Goldfields Regulations will in time become as easy of comprehension and as workable as those of Messrs Shepherd and Co. are not. A great deal has been said about greater security of tenure being conferred bvsome of the clauses of the Bill. It may be 'stupidity on my part, but I fail to see that in this matter there is any improvement or. the old regulations, —in which there is in reality no security of tenure for the- miner. The Crown gives and the Crown can take away. '' T? ights" are dangled before one's eyes like a bunch of carrots before a donkey's nose, and when put to the test are found to be merely "titles," and no rights "at all, at all," as Darby Do;ue expressed it. It may not be out of place, at this juncture, to once more advert to the necessity existing for a reduction of the iniquitous dog tax. If the Utopian idea of this Colony becoming the Britain of the South is ever to be realized, we should try and follow its good example as far our Antipodean peculiarities will admit. In the year 1871, 1,123,023 dogs were paid for in Great Britain at the reduced license of 55., and the tax produced £280.750. When it was an assessed tax at 125., there never were more in one year than 440,000 dogs charged, and the highest net receipts were" £231,030. "Facts are stubborn things," and with this piece of proverbial philosophy, I recommend the above to the attention of our law-makers.