THE HODGSKINSON.

Otago Witness, Issue 1382, 25 May 1878, Page 4

THE HODGSKINSON.

Mr Warden Mowbray says in his report for March : — The continued circulation of rumours that a payable goldfield nas been discovered . further north, has unsettled the minds of a great number of miners who are not on payable shows, and men are daily leaving for the neighbourhood of Cooktown, to be in readinest to start should the rumour be confirmed. The consequence is that very little prospect* ing ia now being done on this field, and mining is geneerally depressed. On the Great Britain, Tryconnel, Lizzie, Redmond, Minon, and Cardigan reefa are shown paddocks of atone, varying in size from 600 to 500 tons, awaiting crushing, and a large output of gold may shortly be expected from these lines. The Monarch and Spring Gully reefs keep their own mills fully employed. The stone *now being raised from the Monarch reef is looking well, and there is great improvement in the yield of gold for the month. The shareholders ' in the Rob Roy reef have procured an engine and pumping and winding gear, which is expected to arrive at an early date. This will be the first machinery of the kind on the field. At Stewartown, the majority of the reefa have given poor yields, and but few have proved payable. Mr Martin is now removing his mill from Deep Creek to Glen Mowbray, where the Cardigan, Lady Mary, Mark Twain, and other reefs show good bodies of stone. A 10-stamp mill is already thero, and kept folly employed. The weather is cool and dry, but sioknesa —especially fever and dysentery— is prevalent. , ; A very unsettled feeling pervades our mining community (says the Hodgkinson Mining News of the 6th instant), particularly that portion of it on second-rate shows, in consequence of the rumours flying about relative to the opening of alluvial goldfields at the King and Ooleman Rivera, the Clohcurry, and in New Guinea. Notwithstanding assurances to the contrary, the miners appear to have decided that there are parties getting payable gold in two of these localities, and that the prospect is good enough to spend a few months prospecting in a third. There are a great many men only awaiting the receipt of favourable news, or the close of the wet season* to clear off to these phantom El Dorados, and it can be readily understood that' the • reefs are not being worked with great assiduity under these circumstances. However, underlie and straight shafts are going down, tunnels and levels are going in, and extra hands are being put on, in a few principal claims that have crushed lately. Contract work, both for opening the mines and stoping out stone, is still increasing in favour, and, but for the shortsightedness of shareholders in not a few good properties, who prefer the hanging-on principle to real vigorous working. It would become a very general method of getting dead work done.

Prof. Crombie delivered the last leofcare of the Baird Leotures in the Blythswood Church, on the 2nd March, on "The internal evidenoe as to the authorship furnished by the Gospel of St. John." The leofcures havt been very auoae.gifu.l,