UPPER MANUHERIKIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 1085, 12 June 1865, Page 5

UPPER MANUHERIKIA.

Dunstan Creek, Bth June,

The Upper Manuberikia District may be called the newest of our mining districts, but by no means the most unimportant. Tt contains a large and busily employed population, who are perhaps in receipt of a higher rate of remuneration lor their labor than those elsewhere. The amount of capital laid out in the construction of water races is something enormous, while the several undertakings are of a most stupendous description. The workings promise great permanence, and are improving daily in productiveness, and all competent judges agree that ere long the Upper Manuherikia District must become the most important centre of mining industry in this Province. The localitj' which has acquired the greatest amount of notoriety is Dunstan Creek, where resides a bu«y community of miners, numbering little short of two thousand. The workings are encompassed by hills on every side, forming almost a perfect amphitheatre. Here can be seen milling operations in their most varied character —from the one hundred and four foot shaft worked by a hor^e whim, do>-n to the four or six foot paddock of the tub and cradle man. Sluicing operations are, however, the great feature of the place, and are being prosecuted with much spirit and enterprise. Approaching the Dunstan Creek, from the " Four-Mile" or Welshmans, and at a mile distant, a deluge of sludge and tailings may be observed steadily creeping over and covering up the rich pasture land. Thick streams of muddy water are everywhere coursing over the flat; and the distant roaring of the same though less polluted liquid, as it reducc3 the earthy matter in sluicing claims, soon convinces the traveller —especially one acquainted with mining operations, that he is approaching a scene of rare activity, and he is in no wise disappointed ; for when he rounds the projecting point of a hill and the diggings burst suddenly into view, he is quite satisfied that his journeyings have brought him to a place where industry and prosperity are everywhere the order of the day. Mining operations are mostly confined to little low hills, or small gullies on the slopes of the terraces which run down from Mount St. Bathans. Gold, however, appears to be universally distributed; every plice where water can be brought to bear upon it, pays handsomely—the best idea of which may be gleaned from the value of water, which is let at the rate of L8 per sluice head for twelve hours during the day, and L6 for the other twelve hours, which constitutes night—all the water is brought from tributaries of the Manuherikia by means of races cut along the sides of the hills ; at present, there are three such races, but another is in course of construction. The first race cut was, that belonging to the Mountain Race Company, and which has proved a most handsome speculation, returning a clear revenue of LIOO per week to the proprietary. The first cost to the shareholders, eight in number, being but little over LSO per share, the same shares could not now be purchased for less than LSOO. The race in course of construction is owned by a Co-operative Association known as tno Scandinavian Company; its capital is L3OOO, in 60 shares of LSO each, all of which have been paid up ; the shares being now at 25 per cent, premium, with but very few sellera. This race derives

DTJNEDIN,

its supply from the Manuherikia river itself, and when completed, will be thirly miles in length, and'of sufficient capacity to conduct fifteen sluice heads of water, (a sluice head at Dunstan Creek is calculated at GO inches', or one head and a-half ss allowed by the mining regulation; 80 inches is the quantity generally termed a ground sluice-head; hut if the soil is free from large boulders, and there is plenty of fall, the quantity is reduced as circumf tances require). It will be completed in about six weeks; the Company intend employing four or five heads of water themselves, the remainder is to be rented to miners, applications for 'which have alreidy been received. Some of the sluicing parties are working from a faoe 140 feet in depth, while others are stripping not more than ten or a dozen feet. The whole of the ground, whether on hill or gully, is what is termed " made," and is a reddish-looking quartz gravel, but containing r.-> boulders. It appears to be a continuation of alternate layers of coarse and fine gravel. The former, as is usually the case, containing the precious deposits. These layers or strata maintain an uniform thickness, and dip to the south at an angle of about 25 degrees. The layers have been traced from the surface down to a perpendicular depth of 140 feet, without altering in their appearance. To penetrate lower machinery will be required, on account of the depth of water. This peculiar conformation belongs more j particularly to Kildare Iliil, and in in all probability is the result of a vast landslip. Here may be realised the picture of hills melting away; as you journey from claim to claim (the area of which is generally an acre), you imagine you are among some gigantic ruins. The whole face of the hill is divided into cells, like a honeycomb, communicating with each other "by tunnels or gaps in the different divisions. Through each of these tunnels or gaps runs a rapid little current of water known to the initiated as a tail-race, and which is slowly performing the gigantic task of removing the hill from the position it now occupies, and depositing it at the bottom of a valley a mile distant. This process of removal is being performed in a most astonishingly rapid manner, a good idea of which may be drawn from the fact that a gully at least 150 feet in width, receiving one half of this debris, is filling up at the rate of fifteen inches per week. A storm channel will very shortly be required to conduct these deposits to a greater distance, or many of the claims now working will be actually choked up, numbers of parties at the present moment being compelled to lessen the fall of their tail-races, to enable, them to continue their operations. Whoever might be bold enough to construct this channel will find themselves handsomely rewarded. The tailings contain a large amount of fine gold. Men by merely placing down a ten foot bore, having a perforated plate, and letting the muddy stream pass through it, can make from four to six pennyweights of gold a day. The township is rather inconveniently situated on the side of a hill, the main street being very narrow, find by no means pursuing a straight and undeviating course. It, however, contains a considerable number of buildings, many of which are constructed of very substantial materials, besides being capacious in their dimensions. There are plenty of wellstocked stores, commodious hotels, and other business places of the usual heterogeneous desiription required to satisfy the wants of a gold-mining community. There is a Warden's and Resident Magistrate's Court held three times a week. In the absence of a Court House, Mr Warden Ilickson holds his sittings at the Commercial Hall, a large room attached and part of an hotel bearing the same title, which it may perhaps be interesting to the reader to know is kept by the well-known Sergeant Lynch, late of the Otngo Police Force, and once the'terror]of evil doers. Although a slrict disciplinarian, the worthy sergeant was almost universally respected, and is well patronised in his newly adopted profession, to which he has also added that of a mining and commission agent. The Roman Catholic body have a neat little chapel, where divine service is conducted every Sunday by the Rev. Father Royer, the resident clergyman. Law and order are represented in the persons of the officer in charge (Mr Harvey), a sergeant of police and one man, the latter two, owing to the inhabitants being well ordered, have but little employment ; but the large mining population naturally keeps the former pretty busily employed. The necessaries of life are obtainable at very moderate prices and about the same rates as at the Dunstan. Butchers' meat is le-s, being from one penny to two pence per pound cheaper. Firewood i3 rather scarce, but lignite is plentiful, there being two seams within easy distances of the township. The public welfare is cared for by an Improvement Committee, who have set & bout their duties in a business like manner. They have converted a muddy street into an agreeable promenade, besides having caused sundry other useful local improvements

The Four Mile (Wclchmens) or Old Dunstan Creek, is exactly four miles distant. The working* are in. a gully running down from the Dunstan Ranges, gold being discovered here previous to the rush to the Molyneux, by a prospecting party, fitted out at the sole expense of the well-known Mr John Jones, of YVaikruaiti. The population numbers about 200, who* are employed either in sinking or sluicing. Water is very plentiful, a box-head being supplied to a claim at the low charge of three shillings for every man working. Sluicing operations promise to become very extensive, piyable ground having been found in several places in the terraces; the washdirt is in layers, the same as at Dunstan Creek. Brock and party have opened a claim, the depth of stripping being ninety feet. They are now employed in cutting a tail race, so as to work the ground to advantage. There is a seam of splendid lignite in the immediate vicinity ; wood is also plentiful, and the necessaries of life are obtainable at Dunstan Creek prices. The next place of importance is Blackstone, or Hill's Creek, distant seven miles south-east from Dunstan Creek. Here is the head quarters of Mr Warden Hickson,

AT '! HE ROOMS OF

and is about the central point of his district, which includes Blacks, German Hill, Woolshed, and the Hogburn, th^ latter being another important and rising gold field, and containing a population of at least a thousand persons. Two large races convey water from tributaries of the Manuherikia, through Hill's Creek to the Woolshed ; the one belonging to Dods and party is a gigantic affair ; the fluming, which crosses the saddle and over the main road from the Dunstan (o Dunedin, is of its kind the most extensive and best constiucted in Otago. The other race is the property of N uman and party. It cirries a good supply of water, its construction being all confined to earth cuttings. Agri • cultural land of the very best description is in abundance, '2000 acres have been surveyed by Mr Mining Surveyor Coates as available for occupation and cultivation. The selection, however, is by no means a wise one. The ground should have been chosen on the west side of the Ida Burn Valley, where the soil is good and water abundant, and not, as is the case, on the top of a terrace where there is none of the latter and bui little of the former. The few patches that were cultivated on the side of the valley just named yielded most prolific crops, and from these should have been the portion surveyed for occupation by the husbandman, without whose industry even a gold field cannot long maintain a large population.