JOTTINGS FROM THE COUNTRY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1856, 17 June 1887, Page 16

JOTTINGS FROM THE COUNTRY.

(By Our Travelling Reporter.)

Some of the old Goltlflelrts of Otago.— What is being done in the Waitahuna District at present.— The Blue Cement.— A Promising Proposal.— Agricultural Capabilities of the District.—A Starch Factory's Prosp i eta of Success. Glenore. Passing through Milton and arriving .at Glenore, we come to what was at one time known as the Woolshed, and where in the good, old days no inconsiderable quantity of the precious metal was unearthed. Now, however, the glory has departed'from this place, and the mining industry is represented mainly by the übiquitous Chinaman, who has the happy knack of pitching his camp on abandoned fields, where, like the camp-followers of an army, he finds spoil sufficient for his moderate needs in what his rough-and-ready confrere has left behind. It is not an easy matter to get out of the " Heathen Chinee" what his prospects are like, or whether he is making much or little. The solemn-faced yellow man shuts off his European interrogator with > his every-ready "Me no savey," and there is no use in prosecuting inquiry further. The only way to arrive at some sort of estimate of what the Chinese diggers are doing, is by observing their general movements, and if possible to watch them when they take their gold to the. bank. From information of this kind I glean that some parties of Chinamen, both near Glenore and Manuka Creek, are making good wages — something over £2 a week per man — which is more than the European fossicker generally earns. The Chinaman gives us a good example of what industry and sobriety can do, even in these times of deep depression, for there are no unemployed among the Celestials, and none of them, ever clamour for Government assistance, and yet most of them are working ground abandoned long ago by the white man. Waitahuna. Leaving Glenore and Manuka Creek behind, we next come to Waitahuna, where again quite a number of Chinamen are at work turning over ground that has been worked over several times already. Near the bridge on the main road some Chinamen, with considerable ingenuity, are working the river bed, which they manage to do very successfully by casting up a temporary embankment to confine the river in one half its channel while they mine the other. In some cases a small water wheel and pump is required, but generally the ingenious Mongolian contrives to get rid of the water along with the washdirt raised. Besides Chinamen there are some parties of Europeans at work near the township, but according to their own accounts they are not doing much. So great an amount of labour is required to get at the washdirt, which is limited in depth when reached, that it would need to be rich to pay well. The coil and clay, to a depth of something over 10ft in some cases, has to be carted away before the alluvial drift is reached, and then the gravel has to be removed in drays to the race. All this heavy outlay of labour must involve considerable expense, and of course just to that amount reduce /the earnings of th 6 party. Still, as they have been for some time at work, the ground must be payable, else it would have been abandoned. Here and there the old workings are attacked m ith renewed vigour, for the old digger is of far too manly and independent a type to go into the ranks of the unemployed ; and it is surprising to notice, here as elsewhere over the country, what a number of men are driven by hard times to abandoned workings, and few among them but are making a good enough living, although this seldom satisfies the ola campaigner. The increased quantity of gold sent down to Dunedin by last escort bears testimony to the extra number of men fossicking on the old workings, and in many cases mining .new ground thought too poor to work in better times. Here is a field for the unemployed — for such of them at any rate as have energy enough to shake off their lethargy and rough it a bit. Good wages can be made by men who will work steadily and live frugally over a very extensive area of our goldfields ; but as a rule the men who clamour so much for pauper aid are not men of the right stamp to go out into the wilds and leave far behind them the luxuries of civilisation. There is a good area of old ground round about Waitahuna and Waitahuna Gully that will vet be turned over. Even now some of it is being put through the boxes, and much of it that lies all heaped up as left by the early diggers would give remunerative employment to men willing to work for small wages. The rusty remains of an old battery of stampers, where the machine house once stood, gives silent witness of busy times now departed ; but let us hope not for ever. The old system of crushing cement with stampers paid well enough while the bottom stuff remained, but after blocking out this stratum it was found that some other method would have to be resorted to. For some" time back Mark and party have been ground-sluicing at their claim, and with excellent results. When the battery was stopped the drives were allowed to collapse, and this broke the overlying cement so thoroughly that the party haye < been able to sluice away from the face without the aid of gunpowder. Now, however, that the loose stuff has all been sluiced away, it will be necessary to use powder and dynamite ere long. Still the richer understratum which here remains intact will more than pay for the powder and labour of blasting. Farther up the gully the Norwegian party are working away on what is, or ought to be, one of the best claims in this neighbourhood. Here a party of five has been at work at the head of the Waitahuna Gully for over 14 years. A water race, which picks up the water from the principal streams at the head waters of the Tokomairiro river, has been carried over a distance of 40 miles. Fortune has favoured this party, as .when they had sluiced away a portion of their ground, the whole hill face slipped and crushed by its own weight the cement fine enough to work without the aid of gunpowder. What this stroke of good luck has saved them in tunnelling and blasting it would not be easy to estimate. But like all good things, this has come to an end, and the remaining ground will have to be brought down, by the aid of powder and dynamite. , The gold-bearing cement at Waitahuna is « continuation of that at Blue Spur— deposit laid down by some rapid river such as the Clutha is to-day; but mighty changes have altered the face of the country since that time, The great glacial period has held the land in bonds of ice, and the vast accumulations in the uplands have chiselled out new ways for themselves, sent the rivers down different courses, cut the ancient river bed across, and carried its golden treasures

into ; gullies 1 innumerable, there to 1 remain till unearthed by "the digger in these modern times. , ' . j , \ The deposit laid down, at Waitatuna Gully Is of considerable extent, although the surface one does pot appear so very extensive. "The'cement basin, like that at Blue Spur, is evidently, an old lake. bottom ; it is crescent-shaped,' and has been sunk* upon to a depth of 330 ft: The basin is about half-a-mile wide. The two ' claims ,at work have merely touched the outside of the immense deposit, and the fact that the Norwegians have wrested a great amount of golden • treasure from* the outcrop of the deposit proves the untold wealth that lies below, waiting for the pnterprise that will one day bring it to light. - How to profitably get out the gold that lies here just beyond our reach, is a problem for modern engineers to solve. By resorting. to the hydraulic system employed in Gabriel's' Gully, the cement could be worked to a much greater depth than at present ; but it is clear that the bottom cannot be worked profitably with the fall at present available for water. • > Possibly some company with capital at its back> may, in days to come, drive a tunnel from < one <^f the gullies running into the Tokomairiro river through to the cement basin, and so get the f^all necessary to work it out. In these daysof great engineering enterprises much greater difficulties have been surmounted, and there is no d.oubt about the gold lying in waiting for those able to overcome the barriers that hold it closely sealed at present. Here is a good outlet for capital, and the scheme is practicable enough, aad far more within the scope of engineering than; the much-talked-of diverting of the Clutha. Though, as far as mining is concerned, the golden days have departed from Waitahuna, the district has not suffered to such an extent as might have been expected; for the hills around have proved, after sufficient trial, to_ be fairly good farm land. Every year brings a larger area under cultivation, and It is really surprising to see the good crops - of oats grown on hill land which at one time was thought not fit for anything else than sheep grazing. The soil is friable and open, and after exposure to the weather and proper working, comes into excellent order for cultivation. Oats are the chief crop, although wheat of good quality can be grown. With the addition of a little lime, no doubt most of the land in the district would grow wheat, on well drained slopes at any rate. From Waitahuna through Waitahuna West, right on to Greenfield— the splendid estate of the Messrs Smith— there is a large area of good farm land, which, were prices better, might easily support a much larger population than now occupies it. Potatoes of first-class quality can be grown all over the district, and last season splendid crops were raised, but unfortunately for the growers, present prices will scarcely leave a margin for profit after deducting expenses. Some time ago the question of having a starch factory in Ihe district was discusssd, but nothing ever came of it. Could such an industry be started either at Waitahuna or Lawrence, the venture could easily be made a paying one. The difficulties in the way are not very great ; all that is wanted is a little enterprise by some person with sufficient capital to .give the thing a start. A company might easily be formed in the district ; but as a rule these company concerns do not work well. There is better hope of individual effort succeeding where the initiation of new industries is concerned. The field is open, as our consumption of starch foods is large, and if we can complacently consume maizena, cornflour, arrowroot, sago, and tapioca (all made from potato starch), imported from abroad, there should be plenty of scope for a starch factory or two in this colony. The question is one that deserves more than a passing notice.

— A gentleman in nothing at all, about to proceed to the sea, is stopped by a policeman. Policeman : " What do yon mean, ' sir ? You are bathing without a proper costume, from a prohibited portion of the shore," The Gentleman: "Bathing! Nonsense. I'm, going to commit suicide." „ Policeman : " Oh, I beg your pardon, that alters the case !"