LATEST FROM THE DUNSTAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 824, 13 September 1867, Page 11

LATEST FROM THE DUNSTAN.

(raou otra ovrs cobrkspokdbict.) , 9th September. The elaborate annual report furnished by Mr J.*T. Thomson, the Provincial Chief Surveyor, has given great satisfaction to all those who have been fortunate enough to get a sight ,o£ the 'Provincial Government Gazette. Nothing i could be more assuring than tho future prospects of our raining industry ; and it ia 'also pleas- ■ ing to find that the chief of the Survey Department possesses such a thorough knowledge of the value of that great moving agent of our prosperity — water power. The great fall of our rivers; and 1 thb enormous stores of water at such great eleva-

ticms as Lake Wakatip and Lok* Wanaka, may with truth be said to represent a " valuable national property." . There can be no doubt, that these great reservoirs will be some day tapped, to furnish water for sluicing the great auriferous terraces of the middle portion of the Province j and that by mechanical agency, the large motive power now wasting itself by merely wearing away the huge Bchistose rocks which line the banks of the Molyneax, will be made, some day or another, to raise water for sluicing purposes. It is merely a question of time to utilise all these vast natural advantages, and cause them both to increase the wealth and population of the co\mtry. It is a fact, patent to all, that as yet, ground sluicing is in its infancy, and that our puny operations at the present time bear no comparison to what will be realised eventually. No one could realise, in the early days of Ballarat, that mining would ever be conducted on such a gigantic and elaborate scale as it is now. The digger who sinks, in one or two days, his six, eight, or ten feet hole, or who, in many cases, merely removes the surface, would have considered any person as a fit subject for a lunatic asylum, who could prognosticate that the time would come when the work of sinking a shaft would extend over years, and that before gold could be struck, hundreds of thousands of pounds would require to bo spent. Precisely the same process will be gone through here, with regard to ground sluicing. We shall see companies, equally large, and with as much capital, as those at Ballarat.

The district reports furnished by the District and Assistant Surveyors from the Wakatip, Tuapeka, and Mount Ida Districts, furnish some valuable statistics, which are a guide to the working miner. The report of Mr Bate, the gentleman who does duty in this district, is a most meagre affair. There are only ten water races enumerated ; and one of them is in an unfinished state. Now, to my certain knowledge, there are more than ninetynine water races in the Dunstan District, and many unenumerated, of equal dimensions with those that are named. I don't mean to say that we want any trumpet blowing or unduly puffing ; but the people of Cromwell, Clyde, and Alexandra are rather sore on the ungracious snubbing bestowed upon them by Mr Assistant Mining Surveyor Bate.

The boats for the puut at the Arrow Crossing place, Kawarau River, on the Main Trunk Line to the Lakes, passed through Clyde on Saturday morning. They are splendid specimens of the boatbuilder's art, and do credit to the mechanical ingenuity of the Province. The delay in opening this road has been most vexatious, and the Province has lost considerably by it, through orders for goods going to Melbourne instead of being sent for execution in Dunedin. It is a wellkuown fact to everyone in the Lakes District, that for the want of a direct read Melbourne is nearer than Dunedin, and that goods can be landed cheaper from the former place than from the latter. Even fortrivial articles parties have been in the habit of sending to Victoria. It is to be hoped now, that this state of affairs will be altered, and that at least the trade of the Province will be preserved to it.

The Escort left this morning, with the following quantities of gold: — Queenstown, 5910z lOdwts ; Arrow, 3510zs ; Cromwell, 5040z ; Dunstan, 5190z ; Alexandra, 5410z lOdwts ! Blacks, 5040z. — Total, 3011 oz 18dwts.

Mr W. J. Barry has, for the third time, been elected Mayor of Cromwell, notwithstanding the efforts made by the friends of the opposing candidate, Mr Goodyer. He was beaten by two votes by Mr Barry. The polling resulted as follows: — Barry, 22 votes; Gcodyer, 20 votes.