LAWRENCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 876, 12 September 1868, Page 2

LAWRENCE.

(from oue own cobeespondbnt.)

3rd September.

The success of the principal industry here, as your readers know, depends upon the supply of water, and the late severe weather binding up the sources of the water supply in frost or snow, has beenmost injurious to the district—the sheer loss amounting to many thousand pounds. In the higher part of the Molyneux River, the loss is a great deal mitigated by the exposure of the beaches, consequent upon the fall in the river, and many rich claims can be worked with advantage during the time that labour here is at a total standstill. From thence, however, no gold comes to this district ; and there is no compensating relief except from the water that is stored \\p in the lower dams, and the surface water from the lower ranges.

During the late* severe weather, I took a walk over the ranges at the back of the Blue Spur to have a look at the Tuapeka Basin. The spurs are exceedingly steep and very slippery, and it was a work of some little toil to surmount them ; but the view amply repaid it all. To the south-east appeared the Kaihiku Ranges, and the Kuriwao Peak, with the wooded hill of Popotunoa, dotted with Mr Logan's woolshed and other buildings, and right on to the Waipahi, and a glimpse into Southland. To the southward and westward appeared the Tapanui range covered with snow far down the spurs, the gullies contrasting strongly with their deep purple bush. There is seen a magnificent spur reaching from the summit hill, commonly called Mount Valpy, along and down to the Molyneux, and forming the | side of the Black Heugn, at the head of !the New Zealand and Australian Land Company's run, known as Douglas and Alderson's, and another which seems to come towards you and join on to the high land on this side of the Beaumont, so that one can hardly imagine where and how the great river gets through. As I mounted to the higher water-races, which wind round the hills in a manner very striking to a stranger, the cause of the scarcity of water became abundantly evident. Some of them wereempty, and others frozen to the fottom, though we were far below the sources of the water supply. One spot was inexpressibly beautiful ; the upper side of the race had fallen in a little, under a mass of superincumbent snow, which had partially thawed and frozen again, making an incipient glacier of fairy proportions. From under this crept out a delicate creeping plant, the name of which I cannot ascertain, though I have often seen it. It is rough and prickly to the touch, and bears a blue berry, very transparent and delicate ; a I spheroid, not oblate, but slightly elongated at the poles. Over this, from every point, trickled drops of water, which crystallized as they fell, and formed an exquisite tracery of stalactite and stalagmite, " made so f airily well, a miracle of design." The upper part of this little scene was in shadow, but a ray of the sun came round the side of the hill, and lighted the lower part up with a prismatic brilliancy of color, only surpassed by the diamond. At the top of the next Mil the Black and White Umbrellas came in sight very beautifully, and far beyond them towered a very high mountain, I should judge at least 2000 feet higher than they are, but I cannot make out its name, either from the map or description. The Lammerlaws were now to the right, and at my feet the great Tuapeka basin. I cannot conceive a fitter place for a reservoir than thi3 affords. There are acres on acres of flat, traversed by a running stream, and perfectly embraced on the hill sides by races, and as these have a fall much greater than there is any necessity for before reaching the sluicing ground, it is evident, even to a person who has no knowledge of engineering, that there must b6 fall enough and to spare. I suppose these races are private property ; but I believe the owners would be glad enough to come to an equitable arrangement with a view to provide against the failure of water to the spurand gully. I understand my old acquaintance, Mr Millar, F.S.A., has visited the spot, and says it would cost L 20,000 or a little under. He of course speaks ex cathedra, but I fancy he has allowed a considerable margin for profit, unless he counts also on carrying the water down to where it may be wanted. Now the advantages to be derived from this are obvious to any one who knows ,the wants of the Tuapeka district. It should store water for the longest drought in summer, and if kept a sufficient depth,, in winter, it should, even though covered with surface-ice, supply enough to tide over the worst time, and so prevent therecurrence of the dreadful loss sustained this season. The Wetherstones Beser~ voir — the Company now known as the Phoenix Water Company— has not only prevented any loss to those claims which it can supply, but it is now paying a dividend which promises to increase so as

to be a very good investment indeed : but the whole of the water stored there would prove only a drop in the bucket to what might be stored in the Tuapeka basin.

On reaching the places where this water supply is to be made available for goldproducing, viz. : — Gabriel's and Monroe's Gullies, the Blue Spur, Wetherstones flat and spurs, with the Tuapeka Flat at the end of them all, a great and increasing difficulty presents itself — how to get rid of the tailings. To make this intelligible to many of your readers, a short explanation may be useful. Sir Roderic Murchison, and with him, I believe, all geologists of repute, maintain tha* gold only exists in situ in the primary formation, as in quartz ; but by the action of water ages ago, it has been conveyed to a considerable distance in the secondary formation, and has been deposited, by its own specific gravity in various spots, when the diluvium could carry it no further. Now, what nature did long ago, our diggers are copying at present — with pick and shovel, with gunpowder and lever, they break down and triturate the secondary hills, where the gold has lodged, and when it, the cement, or whatnot, is sufficiently small, they subject it to the action of water in long troughs, technically called boxes. These are inclined at an. angle, steep enough to secure a rapid fall of water, and to carry through the lighter material of which the hill is mainly composed, but net enough to carry away the gold, which sinks to the bottom, and is caught by various contrivances, differing with the means and skill of the miner. But they do not catch all the gold, a great deal of it gets away in lumps and nodules of the lighter stuff; and these accumulate at the lower end of the boxes, or more property, still further down, at the foot of the tail races, which, in order to preserve a fall, must be gradually built up till they reach a point at which no further fall can be obtained. This accumulation is rapidly going on at the Blue Spur, both on the Gabriels and Munroes side, and something must be done to get rid of it. A fair way out of the difficulty appears in the fact that, as I s+ated before, these tailings contain gold, so much gold that I believe, and every one else believes, that it would pay well to wash them over again, and so make room for the workers on the Spur. I remember, when visiting this district more than two years ago, there was a project mooted for buying up these tailings, but somehow or other it fell through, perhaps from the natural dislike of the bona fide miners to the stockjobbing that was then going on. At present I learn from many of them that they would be happy to join in a well-digested scheme with this object in view. Money, so easy now in England, should soon be easier here, and gold mining is here carried on, as in other places, in so steady a manner as to compare favora* ly with agriculture or wool-growing.