EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27275, 29 December 1949, Page 4

EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

THE FILES OF THI ffltaao S)aU\> {Limes 1 DUNEDIN, DECEMBER 29, 1864. 7 By a proclamation in the Provincial Government Gazette.' the district lying between Beaumont Burn and the Waitahuna River has been declared an infected district under the provision of the Diseased Cattle Act, 1861.

h A correspondent, writing from Hamilton’s, Taieri, on the 24th inst., says: “A new rush has taken place- some four miles beyond Fullerton’s, and appears likely to turn out very well. The sinking is deep. Dillon’s party have sunk a shaft 140 ft deep and expect to have to go 20ft deeper. There is from sft to 6ft of wash dirt, and as much as 2dwt to the dish has been retained in some of the claims. Two applications were made today at Hyde to bring water races into these workings, one from the Highlay Creek, taking up the water from the Maori Creek eri route, and the other from the Shag River, a distance of about 25 miles. The hill claims at Hamilton’s will not wash up till next week. There has been a great deal of rain in the last few days, but the weather now appears settled.”

Mr Warden Croker. writing from Gabriel’s on December 24, remarks: “ During 'a heavy fall of rain on the 21st inst M about 2 p.m.. Gascoigne’s claim in Weatherstones. partially broke away. About half an hour later the remainder of it gave way, on the whole doing a considerable amount of damage to two storekeepers at Weatherstones and to miners on the flat along the channel. Had the dam given way from its base, great loss of life and property must have ensued, \ riot only in Weatherstones, but on the flat at the foot of Peel street, Lawrence. which, as it was, was completely flooded over. About three-quarters of an hour' before the accident a very heavy body of water, the natural drainage of the hills, swept down Gabriel’s Gully, levelling the gully so that a good dray track has been formed right .along it. . The ford at the to trance to the gully, formed of large stones, was completely washed away, find the gully itself so completely cleared of clay, which in some places was in heavy masses, that a considerable portion of the gully is said to hdve again become payable.”