MINING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7653, 28 August 1886, Page 2

MINING.

NOTES FROM BEK'FTON. (From Oon Own Correspondent.)

Rkeftov, August 27. Reform,—No information has come to hand from the mine since last report.

Welcome. —The battery is fully employ"', bat there is as yet no information as to the probable weekly yield.

Big River Extended.—Tbe contractors for the conveyance of the machinery from Keefton to the_ mine are encountering much difficulty in tlieir work, owing to the bad state of the road. A few days ago the stamper-box fell over a sidling and was precipitated into a gully three chains below. This is the second or third accident of a similar nature that has happened to the men.

Fiery Cross. —The berdans having been got into going order on Wednesday evening last the blanketings for the crushing up to Saturday last weretreated and produced 79205.0f amalgam. This is for two weeks, and does not include the contents of the boxes. The scraping for the current week's crushing will take place tomorrow. Excellent accounts are reported from the mine. The shares are quoted here at 12s 9d.

South Hopeful.—The mine manager wires tonight : " Further improvement in tunnel. More defined track gold-bearing quartz."

Business in the share market to-day has been mainly confined to Fiery Crosses and Hopefuls, both of which lines have had a good deal of attention.

(From a Coiirespondek't.) Hokitika, August 27. Tho returns from the Ross United mine for the past week have been BSoz Sdwt. The ground is still hard and stony, reducing the average output per man. Experienced miners are hard to get. In all other respects worn is proceeding satisfactorily.

THE BIG BAY DISTRICT. Two of Professor Black's assistants are now exhibiting specimens of minerals and instructing members of the Big Bay prospecting party how to ascertain the character of any ores they may come across. The Government have paid the subsidy of £150, and the association has now £300 in bank.

THE HAMPDEN DIGGINGS.

An old digger of seven or eight years' Australian experience on Ballarat, Bendigo, Forest Creek and in the Fifties, writes to the Paiuier ston Times concerning the find on Mr Kitchener's property in the Hampden district as follows:—I have not the least doubt from what I have seen that when experienced miners once give the ground a fair trial there will be found room for hundreds of men on the ground, nud a better place for a digger to camp I have neve yet seen, as there is plenty of wood and water in every gully. The gold is of a different character from that in the adjoining properties of Messrs Culling, Size, and others. By-the-way, I may mention that Mr Culling, with the true spirit of a colonial landlord, has allowed a good many miners to not only prospect but to set in and work on his land iv the gullies without charging anything, ouly stipulating that they leave tho laud as they find it, viz., filling in all shafts. The gold at the Peaks seems not to have travelled far, as it is not at all water-worn, and most of the coarsest of it looks like reef gold, and it is of a heavy and solid character. I think all that Ls wanted is a fair trial, and that it would have at once but for the terms Mr Kitchener, the proprietor, proposes to the prospectors, viz., £3 for each digger, to be paid before he breaks ground. Now these terms, although not. altogether unreasonable, come very hard on the digger and working man of small means at the present hard times; for after paying the proprietor £3 he has tent, tools, grub, &c, to get, amounting at least to £1 or £8 each man. Ana for what ? To go prospecting. Now, what I would suggest to the proprietor is : Let him charge each man who breaks grouud, say, £l, and in, say, two months' time let him go round and collect the other £2. No digger who is getting gold will grudge paying £3 per year for liberty and protection to dig.

A small party of gold diggers (says the Mataura Eusign) have been trying the beaches around Fortrose for grains of the precious metal. They are experimenting with Alves' improved apparatus, aud no doubt will in a few days make the results of their search known.