Mining Intelligence.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1586, 22 April 1887, Page 5

Mining Intelligence.

The late rains have rqilcuished th" miners' races all <>vor tii"- distiict At Macetoun th»; Premier Co. lias resumed duelling, running the two batteries of 10 stamps, and will, in all |-ro'>al 'ility. turn out a handsome cake b-l'ore stopjvd l,y the ir'-st. Aliuvial mining lias al-o revived, anil tlie yit Ids wiil make themselves fill in t.ur escjrt m-xt returns. We hfar tli.it a cake is expected from the Gallant Tip fchoitly, au.l that things in the mine look well. a mc sen;:me. Only a few months since there was much talking ami writing a'out diverting the Molyneaux rixer, turning tie Sliotover liver into Arrow, etc., not by suriaee cuttu.g, hut liy going through mountains in cr.ler to extract the immense quantity of trol l believed to he laying in those streams. The subject, however, has dropped out of sight for the time as l.em/ too chimerical— for it is not easy in these times to raise companies with a million capital. A much more f.a.ible undertaking, however, is being seiious'y considered, ami that is the turning of a portion of tiie Kawarau- a river i::to which two of the richest guid-bcariug streams in the colony empty thi nisei vcs. The proposal, as far as we can learn, is to cut a tunnel through the mountain commencing at the Kawarau about half-a-mile above the Victoria liriduC and terminating at the same stream about hall-a-milc above the natural bridge. 'Hie liver between these two ui.ints makes a great bend or detour, and it is asserted that by cutting or—more correctly speaking— blasting a turnol about lialf-a-inile long, some fu'.r miles of the present bed will be laid bare or at least sufficiently drained to allow the whole of its auriferous deposits to l>e easily got at and lifted. It is believed the country through which the tunnel would be made is very solid, and that—as the fall or incline would lie great—an opening, say 20 feet, square at the intake aril If) feet sipiare at the outlet would be ample to carry away all the water of tiie Kawarau, exeppt during any ve.y heavy flood. It is estimated that the coat of work would lie about £'24,000, and the proposal is to float a joint-stock company of say £30.000 capital. Mr Champion, a well-known resident of Melbourne, and a gentleman <|ui f e cu fail in such matter*, thinks very highly of the scheme, we hear, anu in the event of a company bring cot up he is nr A ti*red to take a large interest in the. concern. Portions of the river to be diverted have proved very ticli on the beaches, but it is of course impossible to form an approximate estimate of the reproductive character of the undertaking assuming all to go well with the initiatory work. We should think it is not at all extravagant to asseit that some hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of the precious im-tal arc lying snugly in that four miles of river bed awaiting manipulation. We hive given publi i'y to the matt» r because if all be true as stated it is one of considerable impoitauce, not only as a new departure in the development of the immense auriferous rerources of the country, bit also as furnishing a comparatively cheap test case for HS'-ertainimr whether large river beds really do ho! I the great wealth with which they are credited. The mining regulations do net provide for the taking up of such ate.is as that in view, and it is therefoie intended to apply to Government Lr a special grant a something >f the k:nd.