LETTER FROM BROKEN HILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9164, 20 September 1888, Page 5

LETTER FROM BROKEN HILL.

«. _ Mr. R. McDonald Scott has received a letter from Mr. J. F. Heighway, formerly in charge of tho Big Pump at the Thames, from which we make the following extracts: —"I trust times will soon be more nourishing on your goldfields. If the New Zealand country could be prospected as easily as this, some important finds would soon take place, and you would be in a nourishing condition. Theie is no bush or scrub here to hinder prospecting ; the rocks on the hills are all bare ; no alluvium to cover the lodes, so you can trace many of them for miles. I used to think the Upper Thames lodes very patchy, but they are just the same here. A patch of gold is worth something, and will pay where tin, silver, and lead will not. I still think that there is a much better future before the Thames Goldfields, as soon as you get at the right method to treat your ores, and a Minister of Mines who will foster the mining industry. Work here in Broken Hill is at a standstill in many places for want of rain, none worth speaking about having fallen for eight months, or since last Christmas Day. The want of water is a great drawback, and the source of most of the sickness in Broken Hill. The want of rain tells upon the sharemarket also. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company have to use mine water for their boilers and smelters. The water jackets are cracking and leaking with it; besides it is getting scarce there also. If rain does not come soon people must clear out for a time. It is said that 1000 men could get employment right off if rain were to come. There will be no boom in the market till there is rain."