WATER FOR THE GOLDFIELDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1003, 18 February 1871, Page 11

WATER FOR THE GOLDFIELDS.

TO THE EDITOR.

8lB — I notice a letter, in your issue of the 11th under the above heading which, I think, will require • a little explanation. First; —Mr Fuller says there are in the Province 574 water-races carrying 1479 heads of water. I think I can shew that instead of carrying 1479 do not carry above half that, quantity. If Mr Fu ler had 'said they were registered for that number of heads of water, I should not have disputed his statement. Now, Mr Fuller knows as well as I do there is a great difference between the quantity of water a raoe is registered for, and the quantity it actually carries. For instance, there are five races on Blaoks : let us find the difference between what they are registered for and what they carry. Tne registered quantity of water for these five races is 32 heads, and I assert, and challenge any person to con sradi.it me, thtt th-y do not deliver on an average more than five heads ; and the difference is very near, if not q'aite as wide, in many other parts of the province. So much for the enormous number of gallons consumed by the miner. Your correspondent might have saved himself a few figures. Secondly, he says the ground whioh the water commands is rapidly being worked out, I will allow that ; hence is the necessity for the Government exerting themselves to bring water to a much higher level th«n that to j which it hitherto has been brought by private enterprise — so that it will command at a considerable elevation the sides of such ranges as Rough Ridge, the Dunstan Ranges, and othe 8. Third, he says it is a wellknown facb that all the water worth having is already Becured by the miners. Now, this is aot the case, as it is well-known to every miner that only the small streams are taken up, while large streams, such as the Mannherikia, in this district, and others equally large and available in other districts, have not yet been touched. And it is the opinion of many of the miners tbat if some such scheme as the Government proposes is carried out, there will be hundreds of acres of auriferous ground opened up, which will pay hundreds of miners fair wages for years to come, and whioh would not otherwise be worked at all. That it will cost a great deal of money to divert such streams of water, I am well aware, but I believe snch a work would amply repay itself. As for guaranteeing interest at the rate of 5 per cent., and encoHraiiag the miners to extend tneir races to payable ground, 1 think those races that do not pay are already extended far enough ; fer it is a well known Uat that the further you take a race, the less water you have at the termination, and also the less elevation, unless they are going wi'h the fall of the country. Hoping you will give this a place in your columns, as I think it is of the utmost importance that such letters should not go ÜBOontradioted. — I am, &c. A. Miner.

Blacks, 13fch February, 1871.