NOTES FROM TUAPEKA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11659, 16 February 1900, Page 3

NOTES FROM TUAPEKA.

(From Our Wethebstoxks Oorekspondeut.4 February 12.—The,men who are putting the pipes across the Waipori River for the Golden Crescent ra«e have nearly finished their labour. They got on quickly when coming up,the range on this side of the river, though the weather has been greatly against them lately. Some of the. men ride out and in—rather long hours, from 5 a.m. to past 7 p.m. before they get home. The shorter fluming, farther in on the race, has been finished for sometime. Some of the shareholders expect the claim to be working by the end of the month. The Golden Rise has nearly finished another paddock. They have had a lot of stoppages lately, through their race breaking away in consequence of the excessive wet; but I believe the race has not been cleaned for two years. It will,1 however, be cleaned while ! they are shifting their plant. .;. In the Ovens district, Victoria, the water races are cleaned out every year, and some of them twice a year, in the spring and in the fall. After cleaning, the water will-'be'running on the'bottom of the race and with a good fall; but before six months the races will be biimming full, arid the water appears'to be travelling quite slowly because of the accumulation of slime and;weeds. - The,,Klondve dredge is ' working its way steadily across and up the flat. It. will take them over a twelve-month yet to get up as far as our old claim. One of the then shareholders, Mr J. Smythe, and who at present is a surveyor on the, ■'West Coast, 'held two shares. He worked one himself, and his returns for a while were at the rate of £IS a week; but we worked two shifts of ]Q hours each. The best ground was the Storm channel and a short distance on each side; but the Wetherstonos road occupies the east side, and, in fact, the channel is included in the road, though I don't think that would debar anyone from working it. There are a good many mining brokers carrying. bn. f business in Lawrence at present. The first to commence was Mr Beats'on, an old Colonial. Bank officer, and who was retrenched from'the Bank of New Zealand. It.was the luckiest thing that could have happened to him, as it turns out. He has only been about eight months in business, and yet I was informed the other day that he had been offered £2000 for his business and the goodwill, but he would not accent the offer. I think he was wise, for if his business was worth the sum mentioned to the parties who made the offer it is worth more than that amount to him.