THE DUNSTAN AND THE LAKE DIGGINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 585, 14 February 1863, Page 4

THE DUNSTAN AND THE LAKE DIGGINGS.

We take the following items of mining intelligence from the Dunstan News, of Feb. 6:-

" Owing to a heavy fall of rain, the Molyneux is now higher than it has been for some time. Disappointed miners bemoan their unhappy fate, that they are so frequently in close proximity to the ground that they know is good, with but little chance of working it. No doubt in a short time the river will fall permanently, and the treasures which are now covered by water will be gathered by the industrious miner, who is willing to take the good with the bad. Of the average of both banks of the Molyneux, along the entire course of the river, there can be no doubt. The miners are of the same opinion, and appear determined to stick to their claims, whether workable or not."

THE 1 \K.ES.

" The news from the Lakes still continues to be of the most cheering character. Large finds are daily reported, but the ground is of the most patchy description. Ilae* there been the means of conveying a larger quantity than the 22,838 oz. sent down by the last escort some 7,000 or 8,000 oz. in addition might have been procured. Both the banks and the Gold Receiver were compelled to refuse large quantities of the precious metal. A party of six miners brought into Fox's the large quantity of 1,75 loz., which they had obtained in about a month, in the vicinity of the Shotover. They refused to mention the exact locality, and in consequence their movemencs are carefully watched by numbers of expectant miners. Eowdyism is becoming prevalent, and the conduct of the Government in not appointing another Commissioner is the subject of general condemnation. As a rule the jumpers of claims and those who resoit to acts of violence hail from the Emerald Isle, and are classed under the general soubriquet of " Tips." A splendid sample of copper ore has been discovered in the neighborhood of Lake Wanaka. The ore has been examined by Mr Bradshaw, a gentleman who has considerable knowledge of the value of minerals, and it is his opinion that it contains over seventy per cent of copper."

MA>UHERIIUA.

" The Union Bank, following in the wake of the other institutions of a similar nature, has purchased a piece of ground in Victoria-street, opposite Messrs Salter's store. We must congratulate the residents on the establishment of branches of three banks, which is a proof that our town is creeping a-head, and, perhap?, after all, will verify the old fable of the hare and the tortoise."

" The serious diminution in the quantity of gold offered for sale during the past week can easily be accounted for from the fact of the flooded state of the Molyneux. New arrivals are beginning to pour in, and the township is locking more life-like than it has done for some months past. The improvements also in many of the buildings tend also to give; the place an air of solidity which bids fair to rival very soon the older and Upper Township. "Whilst, however, the Manuherikia does participate in some degree with the flooded state of the Molyneux, still it is not sufficiehtly overflowed to reader the claims entirely unworkable. The claims in the bed of the river are still showing good returns, and the spirited projectors of the enterprise, who, in the lace of all the manifold difficulties that beset such an undertaking as the turning of a river like the Manuherikia, may congratulate themselves, and be congratulated by the public at large, on the complete success of their undertaking. " The banks of the Molyneux are being fossicked for miles below the Junction ; and though barely tucker can be obtained at the present time, every available inch of ground is greedily taken up. Londonderry, or, as it is erroneously called, Butcher's Gully, still continues to produce a fair amount of gold ; and Conroy's, although partially deserted, ia in no wise worked out. We hear of one man who took up an abandoned claim on the Manor Burn, and obtained 11 oz for his first week's work. We imagine that the original owners of the ground can have known very litile of practical mining, to leave so evidently rich a claim on the pretence of its being worked out."