UP-RIVER DIGGINGS.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 739, 13 October 1870, Page 2

UP-RIVER DIGGINGS.

[prom our own correspondents.] Ahaura, Oct. 12. I've been in trouble since you heard from me before. I made certain remarks in my last letter calling attention to the summary manner in which the attempt to form a Jockey Club had been frustrated by the appearance on the scene of certain of those irrepressible benefactors" who are always ready and willing to take "too much" care of everybody's business but their own. In consequence of these remarks, I have been waited on by two individuals who are evidently under the impression that the cap fitted them. One of them, with the most inconceivable rashness, ran his nose against my shut fiat, and the other, with a more commendable regard for the rules of etiquette in such matters, gave me the option of apologising to him publicly, or of taking a cowhiding at my earliest convenience. I chose the latter alternative, as soon as I had sufficiently recovered from the effects of the fright I got ; but at the same time I am willing to make an apology to either or both of them. It they consider they are " blatent and self-asservative public nuisances," by all means let them enjoy their* opinion. There are very few people about here who will attempt to contradict them or differ from them in their estimate of themselves,_it_wauld.be_niost unmannerly to do so, therefore, '* I, for one, am sorry I spoke." The new 3 from the mining districts continues to be of the most satisfactory description. It began to rain again on Friday night, and continued all through Saturday, and on Sunday morning the river was higher than it has been before this season. The good effects of the much wanted supply of water is visible at the different mining centres up the river ; in the neighborhood of Noble's, Napoleon, and Duffer's especially. In the Napoleon district, the rush to Noonan's Terrace at Orwell Creek continues to attract more attention. The number of men on the rush is increasing every day, and the area of unoccupied ground on the supposed course of the lead i 3 rapidly becoming smaller. Claims are marked off from Noonan and Finnican's party's claim to the working at the lower end of the Mosquito, and it is now the general opinion that both leads are identical. Already, disputes are beginning to arise about the frontage parallels, and' if the different claimholders do not take proper precautions in time, we will have a repetition of the Mosquito Lead difficulty. The shepherd should apply to the Warden to have a base-line struck, aud let the line, when once laid off, be maintained, without reference to any slew the lead may take. If this practice was followed, it would be the means of preventing the almost endless litigation at present going on among the shareholders on other leads. It is very seldom a run of gold takes such a sweeping course as to cause it to run outside parallel lines 1000 ft apart, and the plan of strictly adhering to the original base-line would, in nine cases out often, be found to be the correct one. Noonan's party will shortly have a washing-up, and it is expected the result will be astonishing. The several new water-races coming into Orwell Creek are making rapid progress. One of che contractors named Hazle, who is taking in Hessey and party's race, met with a serious accident on Monday. He was dressing a piece of timber, to place as a support to the side of the race, when the axe slipped and inflicted a dangerous wound on the calf of his leg. He is progressing favorably under the care of Dr Lee. The Italian Lead, at Napoleon, may now be considered worked oufc, for ordinary mining. At some future time, when a sufficiently abundant supply of water is brought to bear on it, the ground will be worked to advantage over again. The Mosquito Lead appears to have taken a sweep to the westward. The tunnels going from the Orwell Creek end were expected to reach the run in about 800 ft, but the majority of them are in over 1000 ft, and in one or two instance 1300 ft, and no sign of the lead yet. The claims at the end of the lead are becoming more valuable since the rush has taken place to Noonan's Terrace, for there can scarcely be a doubt now that the one is a continuation of the other. Mr Surveyor Young has been busily engaged on this lead during the last week. The object of the shareholders in several of the golden claims appears to be the securing of bits of spare ground, and placing men on to represent it. This has become necessary in consequence of the sinuous nature of the run of payable dirt. The block claims being so small, and the lead so crooked, it some*

times slews outside the boundaries of them. The load has then to be re-sur-veyed below and marked off on the stirface, over the ground likely to be of value ; additional men are then put on to hold it. , , . There is a little stir at the almost forgotten Cariboo Creek again. This place was the scene of a large rush at the beginning of the last winter, but it came to nothing, and now attention has been drawn' to it by a party of miners, Allen Haig and Co., applying for an extended claim in the creek, and to include a portion of the terrace. The Resident Magistrate and Warden's Courts were held at Napoleon on the 7th inst., and several important mining cases were disposed of. This has now become the most important Court in the district, and the question is often asked would it UOt be possible to hold it at more frequent intervals. A case was decided in the Warden's Court at the last sitting which has caused a considerable amount of local excitement. The cause of action was the " jumping" of a business site in the township, by one storekeeper from another. The Court decided that the ground had been forfeited because the holder of it did not possess a business license for it, but he had the option given him of redeeming it on paying the jumper L 5, and paying a fine to the Government of L 5 more, with costs of suit. The severity of this penalty has been much commented upon, and very justly so when the circumstances of the case as they came out in evidence are taken into consideration. In the first place it amounted to more than a forfeiture, because the owner of the section had made a contract with a tenant to alter the premises standing or the land, and make them suitable to live in, therefore he was obliged to pay the fine and redeem the property, or run tho risk of an action for damages for breach of contract, although from the depreciation of property, consequent on the springing up of new townships at Halfounce and other places in the immediate vicinity, there is not a business site in town intrinsically worth Ls.^ln the next place such a decision, brought, as the case was, before the Courtis calculated to encourage that system of private " informing," which it has been found necessary to discountenance as a means of raising revenue. The person who jumped the section acknowledged he did not want it himself, " he had merely taken steps to vindicate the law." The law is well able to take care of itself iv matters of this sort in this part of the country, and whatever else the police may be blamed for, their worst friends cannot say they have ever been neglectful of their duty when it became a question of raising the revenue, or "raising the wind," as the operation is irreverently styled. It had always been the custom to allow parties who were building on new sections, or altering buildings on previously occupied ones, a few days grace, if the license should happen to expire before actual business was re-commenced. It was not strictly according to law, but it was according to custom, and in accordance with public policy. With respect to this section it was shown that a license had been held for it from its first occupation, and a substantial store erected en it by its former owner. The purchaser put the carpenters to work to make the necessary alterations for the incoming tenant, and there is no doubt whatever that if that tenant, being the occupier of the land, had attempted to carry on business on the section the collector of revenue would have taken the Government under his sheltering wing, and seen that neither it nor its revenue would be imposed upon. The Warden is, very properly, vested with an almost unlimited discretionary power, and it is the general opinion that the above case was one in which the power might have been exercised by inflicting on the defendant a nonsuit penalty. The reports from the Inangah.ua and the quartz reefs at Murray Creek are still very encouraging. Cooney and party are bringing down a quantity of stone, about half a ton, with the intention of having it tested in Melbourne. A new and rich leader has been discovered in the ground which has been applied for on lease next to the cement company's claim. An order has been sent from the Warden at Westport to the Clerk of the Court here to forward all registrations and documents in connection with the reefs and the Inangahua to Westport, as all official business in connection with the Inangahua will i;i future be transacted at the Bnller.