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Inangahua Times, Volume III, Issue 90, 16 March 1877, Page 2

We are glad to learn that there is an immediate probability of efforts being made by some of the olaimholders in the upper portion of Murray Oreek to more thoroughly develop and test the character oi the lodes in that portion of the district. For a long time past mining operations in that quarter bave been carried on with very little real activity. The handsome returns obtained some time ago from the Pocenix mine certainly did a good deal to* wards stirring up interest aod confidence in the mines adjomiog, but of late this feeling has waved, and the locality has drifted considerably to leeward. It has now beeft suggested that two or three of the companies there should unite for the purpose of purchasing aod erecting a new orushing battery, and it is likely that the suggestion will be acted upon. A feeling prevails, that it is idle to attempt to conceal, that tbe crnsbings at the Westland battery are Unreliable, but whether from an opinion that the gold saving apparatus there is defective or otherwise, we are cot in a position to say. Such, however, is tbe feeling, and it is not likely that any large expenditure upon the mines will be authorised by shareholders until another battery makes its appearance. If acted upon the idea is, we believe, to erect the battery on the Left Hand Branch of tbe Inangahua. The distance is not great, and tbe intervening mountain has already been tunnelled half way through in tbe direction of the proposed machine site, no that the expense of conveying atone from the mines in tbe locality, to where there is a never failing supply of water, is not likely to he disproportionately great. Our own opinion is that if the elaimholders are really in earnest in the proposal, the very best thing to do would be to amalgamate a number of the existing com* panics in one large undertaking, which would be thoroughly equal to the task of fully testing tbe whole of that portion of the district, and that too without casting tbe shareholders in too heavy calls. As matters stand at present, what with bank liens, bank influence, and divers otber confloting interests, it is hard-— nay, it is almost impossible— for- any one company, however much disposed, to strike out an independent course of action. By uniting in a thoroughly public under* taking such as that suggested, all these drawbacks would be got rid of at one stroke, and whether by the combined shareholders of the new and enlarged venture, or by remodelling and extending the capital, no difficulty would be likely to be experienced in providing the ready money for the purchase of the required plant. It seems to us that unless either of these courses are taken, the holders of interest in the upper part of Murray Creek mutt lay in a good stock of patience.