THE ZELHAN SILVER FIELD.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 132, 5 June 1891, Page 4

THE ZELHAN SILVER FIELD.

'ITS OBaRaOTBR AND PROSPBOTB.

r !■' ' (OhrittohwehFren.) •'. ' As the new silver field at Mount Zeehan, inTwmanift. Ib now attracting considerable t . attention , throughout the colonies, any 1 Information from a reliable source respecting it will be of considerable interest. Mr John Fulton, manager of the Bank of New Zealand at Bangiora, has just returned from a' visit to the field, and on Saturday be kindly favoured one of our representatives .7 with an interview, from which it will be ' .gathered that Mr Fulton missed little that ■'.*' oould be 'gained by olose observation and ; ' enquiry during a brief stay. ;•> You don't want." he said, "anything afoottt'tair trip over to Hcbart in tho Waira- " Ap»; ' From information I received from my brother in England, who ia oonueoted with. ( ' some of the London companies, I waß led to ■ believe that something oould be done at 'Zeebin, i After spending a few days in - Hobftrt, I started for Btraban, in Port Mao- ■'. quarrle. We sailed from, Hobftrt down the . D'Entreoaateaux Ohaanel. The scenery on i either aide is vary beautiful, the land being indented with pleasant bays, where a large . amount of fruitgrowing is going on. Huon . Bay is' especially very pretty. In referenbe to the Huon pine, whioh formerly grew 'plentifully there, but is now scarce, an " evidence 1 of its durability came under my 'notice. In one of the islands in Macquarrie harbour a number of head boards over the graves of prisoners, wbo were buried at the ' time, the penal settlement was in existence, are to be seen. The boards, though ereotcd for suoh a lengthened period, do not appear to have Buffered from exposure the weather, and still bear the names of the occupants of the graves. After -passing the entrance to the ohariuel, whioh is about fifty milts from Hobart, there ia not a single habitation to be - aeeu, and the country is practically unexplored. It is covered with Borub, stringy barks, myrtle, and blaokwood. We lefC Hobartt at 2 oolook ia the afternoon, and arrived at Hell b Gate, the entrance to Maoquarie Harbour, at 10 o olook next morning. Headers of Marous Clark's book, "HiaKatural Life" will remember the description of the harbour and ita eutranoe, and the penal settlement within, There is a very nasty bar, The Gordon, King, and several other large rivers flow into the harbour, and there ia plenty of deep water inßide. It ia about twenty miles ... long. The old penal settlement oan be ndlstinotly seen in the distance towards ■ the southern cud of the harbour, At Strahan there is an hotel, store, and butoher a shdp combined, two or three other shops, i and a similar number of hotels, also » very small Bank. The'ii«t difficulty wm to get from Strahan tip to the mines. You oan' either go by a ■ small steamer to Romeni, the nearest port •■;- to the mines, or you oan take the train aa far as it goes through the bush, and walk the remainder of the way. The difficulty about taking the steamer is that liemen! is a naet harbour to get into, and if it Ib blowing at all strong you may have to return to Maoquarie Harbour and wait a fortnight before the eteamer oan get in, I intended to go to Remeni, but ' watf'adviaed otherwise, and therefore took "the track. The railway is by no means in thorough working order, and the plant is the worst I ever saw in my life. The fare, as far as yon go, is 4s, and I have kept my ticket as a curiosity. The following ia' a copy of the ticket :■*• "No. 961. Zeehan Railway. Passengar pasa. .Btrahantohead:of the road or vioo versa. Not transferable. Passengers traye 1 1 at their own risk. The contractors take no nsponsibility for losb by accident, negliof servanto or otherwise." • "- ! < < The Government have made some altera- . tiona in the ooutraot, whioh have practically vitiated it, and as the contractors are not -■, puahiag; on the work, tbe GoTerament threstea to take it out or their hands, unless it is more vigonrously carried out. I war informed by the contractors that the train would Btart at half -past six in the morning, and take us as far as they could go, ( It was nearly eight oolook before we got under weigh. Tho Governor had reoently been over the line, and we had his carriage' on, which consisted of a ballast truck; covered with a couple of Bheets of corrugated iron supported by four upright pieces of stick. I was seated iv one of the ballast trnoks. ■ We got on swimmingly for about flyejnilea, and then we oamo to an inoline'. The engine was Bent at it an hard as it oould go, but after going a considerable dißtanoe it stuck, After six tries it reaohed \ the top. xv Larally there waa a descent on the other Bide, and the speed of the train ' going down was something like that of the Flying Dutchman. When we got down it was found that Borne of the bearings were heated, and some part of the machinery had been dropped. After stopping two hours and a half they managed to fit up the machinery, and g"ot the bearings cooled down. 'We had to haul up once more, aa a pin had dropped out of the driving gear, andithe. whole staff had to go baok along r the line to Bearoh for it. That necessitated a delay of three-quarters of an hour. At tbiß time heavy rain showers fell every half • hour.' On reaohing the Big Henty river a larger engine was put on, and things went better. . . When you arrive at the 21-mile peg, the end of the finished line, there is a small bush settlement, all under canvas. There ia a store and some refreshment places (not, howVevex. for the sale of grog). As it is raining every Uli hour, the place is very muddy. Too now have to atari walking. The line for a considerable distance is in course of formation, and there is considerable rock* '■' cutting. You oould not take horses the whole of the way to Zeeban, The stores aro sent out to the men at work in gangs bY means of pack- horses, I dropped in with some surveyors wbo were shifting oamp, and walked on with them, Thirty or forty fellows came up in the train with me, and started ofi for Zeehan on their arrival. I did . abk get on the road till about half-past one. . After tramping what seemed to me aboal , r iwen>y miles, bat perhaps aotually two or three, we overtook some of those whojbejd ,gone before vi, Some stopped on the way ' • and pitched their tenta, Thebueh is opob, tbe trees being failed, abd you oan see yonr r • way right through, only the logs and stamps ; being left. T Toi next oome to the Little Henty River, and why infhe world they have not ereoted a temporary bridge over it, I cannot realise. If you cannot orcss at the (rack, you have to go up the rivex two miles, The only way 'to get over is by means of two gam sapling abbot tbe ihiokness of your arm, plaoed side by side, resting on the rook at one pide, And on the branohes of a tree at , tbe other. It was a life's experience to ' . negotiate them, If you shifted one it meant " 'going over into the river. : It was hard travelling on the other side of the tiver. We had to go through two miles of swamp, and < it was no, use trying topiok yonr way. It was best to go straight ahead. After oroseing the swamp you strike the bush again. The ; line has been cleared, but not formed, ' After you have got about six miles you k begin to meet with tbe miners, The mining ares« contain 40 and 80 aoreg easb, The first you drop aoroflj is the Silver King, It) ia V down «jbOßt 160 feet, and they have erected pumping Tnaohinery. In f aot, it ia the beet developed mine so far. The main street' of' . Zeehan— the only street— is np to your kndea ih soft white day. The plaoe has gone - ahead fast. Ten months ago there were only 2000 people there, and now there are over 6000. It is simply a bush olearing, and buildings are everywhere going up. There are a great many built of kerosene tine, ' wbioh have been opened out and put together almost anyhow. In the main street a number of olaims have been sunk— iv fact, . tbe site of the town is a portion of a olaim. A number of sited were Bet apart for c residences and sold at 10s eaob, which entitled the purohaeer to aometbiog like a ' bloefcy-nine years' lease with a small rental. Some of these eilcs, taken up by the resi™ dents, have recently been disposed of at £25 per foot, lor a quarter sore, and theise were in outside places, Some of the people made a large amount of money out of them, The whole field ib about twenty square miles in area, The Silver Queen is a large concern, and Comprises about a dozen scc< tions. It has beeu paying* 2s per chare por 'month, They have been working oiie of the northern sections for some time, They took m6st of the money out of a patch that . Wao struck while forming the road to Trial - ■ Harbour, It ie very rich stuff, and ia called the lode, I have a sample of it. It U not much to look at, but it yields 100 oze'to the ton. Wherever you go you will ,:. see the lodes outcropping, eomo of course o£ J not much value. Tbe ore is packed in hun- ' dred-weight bags, and carted down to Trial v Harbour, , a istanoe of ten miles, in drays There are about ninety-four horse teams engaged in carting on the road, and as they are ? «p fo'tbe axle in mud all the way they seldom take a ton of stuff.. The carting is £6 lf)s per load, About a dozen olaims send ore down, and a great number have machinery ereoted.. The meat Bupply comes from Biß'ijß^ff,ia the norttuweat. The mutton is 6d per Ib, and very poor at that, and the beef about IQcL An alternate outlet to Zeehau ia i' by way of Xauaoeßton, and there ia a dispute .. ; b^JiWeen Hobart and the northern townehip as to wno eball get the trade of the field. In the meantime, however, Hobart is getting wade,'. The ore is at preßent wnt to Hpbfljffc And Melbourne for smelting, butthey a«. going to open smelting W orke "';/>^^;e k a large amount of general busi* ''- : btM doiic fit Zftfefifitfi lj"fl iti the ho.tc.l Z aajw

forty or fifty men who were engaged tin different lines. They were all well dressed, and seemed t < bo a superior olaisfl of men, To give you an idea of the business stir'in the place, I may tell you that J, w«9s to fie Telegraph Offloe to get a> telegram that I expected, and had to wait a quarter of fen hour before I oould get to the window, and I had to wait ten minutes at the Post Offloe before I could get stamps, '■ I mot a considerable number of Canterbury men at Zeehan. I have been asked by several fellows here if thereia any ohance to get work there, Well, I will say this. Anyone going over may not find congenial employment, but if a man has a good constitution, and in not afraid to take off his coat and work, he has a big enow there, The labourer going on to the railway starts at 9a per day, and if a man can use the theodolite he can get from IB to £1 per day. There are very few women on the ground at present. Living appeare to be reasonable. My hotel bill, as a casual visitor, was 10s per day. I returned partly by the same track, and at some inconvenience. On the road you oan see numbers of artiolea that men have thrown away in consequence of the heavy work of travelling on foot. When I got to the Little Henty I found the two gum saplings that had served as a bridge had been washed away by a fresh in the river, and I had to go up the river about two miles through an almost impenetrable bush. Fallen trees lay aoross the traok whioh were difficult to get over, and then one dropped down on the other side almost waißt deep in the mud. I got aoross the river where it was divided into three or four branohes, by working my way over astride of fallen trees. It is very hard work going through the bush while yon are at it, but it ia nothing for men of pluok to taokle. From Zeehan to the end of the railway at the twenty -one mile peg is eight mileß, and it took over eight hours to get through. There are no sidings on the line at the end, and the engine has to push the truoks before it as far aa tbe Big Hooty, The rate o( epsed they go down the inolinea is something alarming, and is snre to result in an accident some day. We got into Strahan about 9 p.m. From Strahan to Hobart I Bailed in our old friend the s.i. banks' Peninsula, wbiob waa full of paeeengers, and ia doing a good trade, As to the future of the mines, I don't think any heavy work will be done until the railway is completed. There is no question as to the riohnußß of the dines, Of oouraa there are mines and mines. In tome I am oertain lodes do cot exist. No work has been done in many claims, but ttiereis a grand flurlaoe show. Until yon get down to the water level and teat them, it is very hard, of course to say how they may turn out. I have travelled with s6me Broken Hill men, who' heft bieh investigating the ooontry, and they 1 think very' favourably of the fattua 'of the field. There is a good bit of ospitaln'ow invested a]t Zeehan. The quamity of ore is piaotioally inexhaustible, go far as favourable Burfaoe indications febow, but umil thu railing ip completed not muoh oan be done, i Mr Fulton has brought baok with him some samples of ore *nd maps of thd Zeehan and Dondas fields, showing all the various claims and the direotlon 6! some of the'lodei that have been traced. ' ' '■ '"'' '