COMMERCIAL

Evening Star, Issue 7308, 5 September 1887, Page 3

COMMERCIAL

Tho amount ol revenue collected at tho Customhon.o on goods coated to-day for consumption was L7ll Us ltd.

Mr Montagu Bym sold at .auction to-day a.twentyone years’ lease of allotments 3 and 4, subdivisions of sections 1, 2, 3, and 7, block 2, East Taieri. Mr P. K Leycen was the purchaser, at Ids per sere. The N.Z. Driu Company and S audard Insurance Company have declared their usual interim dividends, MINING NOTES. At tho c .tning sittings of the Supreme Court at Hokitika will he tried a eve which very closely effects the premier industry of the West Coast. Write have been isiucd r.t tho suit of ;i farmer living on the banks ol theToromakau, against a number of miners sluicing into th.it rive-, claiming damage* lit injury to proper y and an injunction to restrain the miners from continuing to so sluice. A slnrlar action lias boon taken by a number of farmers living in the Aiahura Valley against tho Humphrey's United Goldmining Company. There is no doubt that sluicing i ■•.■j these ri era must sooner or later fill no their beds, or so divert their strcaais os to cause injury to tho land lying along their banks either by scouring thu banks away or else leaving a deposit of silt on the ground and destroying vegetati.n. If the miners are prevented from sluicing, except on a very diminutive scale, what modicum of p osperity is left us would at once vanish.—* West Coast Times.’

Tho Recfcon Returns for tho past week were : Globe, 2910z of amalgam from 170 tons of stone; Progress, 85Oz ol amalgam. Professor Black delivered his second lecture at Portobollo on Saturday evening. The Hon. Mr Larnach, Minister for Mines, occupied the chair, and in Introducing the lecturer spoko enthusiastically of tho interest evinced in and the success of his lectur a, which iuvo been delivered in ail the mining centres of iho Colony. Tho Professor, in introducing bis subject, “Tho Chemistry of Minerals," briefly refitted In complimentary terms to Mr Larnaob’s business tact andabllity in hisoflloial capacity, thoaudicnce loudly approving. The school-room was literally packed, and a number were unable to gain adulation. Tbo audience listened to the lecturer’s remarks and watched his experiments with rapt attention. During the afternoon the Professor visited the Harbor Cone gold workings and other outcrops of supposed auriferous rocks ia the locality, while bis assistant tested at Mr Cicatwatet’s forgo a number of samples of stone in the presence ol those interested. The quartz battery (a ten-head one) is in course of erection, and tho recent lectures have created an unusual amount cf interest in tho rocks ol tbo locality. ALLUVIAL MINING AT ARROW. Extensive operations in canneotion with alluvial mining in the Arrow district have alrocdy cimmonced, tho Last Chance Company having started a large shaft on the southern side of Bush Creek, Arrow River, with a view of proving the course of the lost lead ol gold that is supposed to have followed the ancient watercourse or bed of the Arrow River ; and there appears to bo every probability that tho original course ran through Bush Geek Flat towards Hayes Creek, and thence by the “Falls” into Lake Hayes. Should the above Company be succ.’fsful ia striking gold in their present shaft it will prove beyond a doubt that an immense area cf auriferous ground exists between the gorge of tho Arrow River and Lake Hayes. The operations of this Company are, therefore, watched with tbo utmost interest, as their success will restore ths aspects of the whole district, and such prosperity may follow as to remind tho residents of the palmiest days of our goldfields. The largo private Compsny (who are nearly ah Victorians) formed to work the old Sons of Fortune claim, about three miles up the Arrow River, are also taking active steps to commence work, as several of tho leading shareholders aso on their way from Melbourne, bringing with them boring rods and necessary gear t; test the depth and work the mine. This venture is one of considerable magnitude, and tho claim consists of somo eighteen acres of tho Arrow River bed, not any of which has yet been bottomed, the river bed having become blocked by a largo slip at the lower end of the claim, thug making the ground from 00ft to 80ft in depth. There has been very rich ground in tho river both above and below this claim, and, as tho whole of tho eighteen acres run straight in the course of the river, and the ground is all new, on enormous quantity of gold must remain bidden beneath the present sutfac'.