TUAPEKA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1476, 28 February 1880, Page 22

TUAPEKA.

The Tuapeba Times correspondent sup plies the following in referenco to mining manners at Waifcahuna Gully : — In tho lliehoQond Hill Company's claim an average of about 400 tons of cement are put through tho battery weekly ; tho company employ 30 bauds afc present, and expi.ct Io have a full complement in th/a course of a 'we'?k ; tho battery ia now running 16 houis a day, ar.d will shortly bo running the 24 hours through ; tho main drive ia upwards of 400 fed; long from thfi b ;tfcom of tho shaft, and 270 f<H:t of th:»t distance is uphill, worked on a double incline ; tbe side drives radiating from the main tiinneJ are four in number. The company have commenced to sick another prospecting a'oafb about 50 feet above tho original shuft. Hitherto they hava been in the haMfc of letting by contract the driving of their main tunnel, and have been paying at tho rato of 6s pev foot; the dimensions of the drive lining— 7 feat spread, 6 f«et cap, and height 5 f^efe. How men oould dri'/o out stuff nt on oh a pric^ rather puzzled my m> nd and myself ; but we wero iufmined thai, it re'iuued wen who have gome acrjiiainianc« with cement punching (as it ia tpjmen) to mWie anything like a decent wage at the r.it« moafctoued — Too Somerset ComV'tty's claim his Vxen temporarily aband iti- d A ermf j bas been sunk on the fir<.n<ul t n.d tho r/f foHowwi f-ir a cimidfJMblo distance. Th' 1 prospects obtained wr« tno.ju*A,,jit\g, gold being found i:i piyable qi'in it)'«s from tbe grn s on ihe surface rlow'i id the " p«g" or fahc bolt»!ji, Ia all I'ktlib'o.i t)e ci'on o-.'G!; wi'l make a fiesh tf'UTt ere ti.e J<sp*c of many months, and thea foe, ofetter of. a 10 head, battery will

p-foclaim that ths parfcy are not dead, but rmroly slumbering at p.ssent, and that tbey K,re fujly alive to their own interests. — A short distance beyond the Somerset claim is Sailor's Gully, at the foot of which, on the right band side of the road, in a small areaof unworkod ground, an industrious "old identity " was at the time of our visit busily engaged fossicking in the hopo of dropping aci oss some four pennyweight pieces of the yellow metal. Abjut 15 year 3 ago, so he informed u», he had occasion to cut a race through this particuiar block of grouud, and at the epot (or somewhere near it) where he was now sinking a shaft he picked up a handsome nugget weighing 4lwt. Similar finda have been made in the same locality, aad only a fetv weeks ago in a neighbouring gully a piece of lloz was picked up by a lucky digger. Both the Norwegian party and Barr and party have suspeuded work in the meantime, in consequence of the failure of the water supply. Mr Caosidy's claim at Wetherstones was robbed on the night of tho 17 th, aboat five or six ounces of gold having been abstracted. The Tuapeka Times) states that this is the third timo a similar occurrence has takea place at Mr Cassidy's claim within the past few years, and tho authorities are determined that it eb-tll not occur again.