WAIPORI MINING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1890, 10 February 1888, Page 12

WAIPORI MINING NOTES.

February 6. There are at present five parties engaged in quartz mining in the neighbourhood of the township. The operations, however, are not of a very extensive nature, there being not more than two or three men employed on a shift in each case. Three of tho parties have taken up areas on the line of the old Victory reef, while the other two are engaged on a reef prospected some years ago by a party of Chinese, and appropriately named the Canton. A couple of thousand was sunk in this enterprise at the time by the Celestials, but through |some misadventure the lode was missed after driving tho lower level. Eaton Brothers and party are now down some 25ft with an underlay shaft, and are driving on the stone, which at present is rather of a slatey or mullocky nature, but contains a good prospect of loose gold. About 40 tons have been raised, aud crushing was commenced to-day. An adjoining claim on the same line of reef has been taken up by Wilkinson and Macledowney, who are sinking with a vertical shaft to catch the hanging wall, and which is now down about 30ft. Several splendid specimens thickly studded with gold were obtained from the cap of this reef a short time ago. The three patties on the Victory reef are respectively Thomson and Baptiste, Hill and Ritchie, and Porter and Carpenter. The last mentioned have lately come off victorious in the Warden's Court in a dispute regarding their claim with Cotton, one of the shareholders in a former company which had allowed its license to lapse. Porter and Carpenter have out a crushing of about 50 tons, which is being carted to the Nuggety Gully battery, a distance of some three miles. This means, as I am informed, an extra charge on the proceeds of about 6s per ton. The Victory reef, or, as it at one period was styled, the Nil Desperandum, is quite interesting in an historical sense. It is none other than the first lode mine ever worked in New Zealand, and its original name attests the fact — The Otago Pioneer Quartz Mining Company (Limited). In a future note I may briefly recount the vicissitudes of the mine. The other day saw the beginning of an extensive and hopeful enterprise in connection with alluvial mining in our district. Mr Hazlett, on behalf of a company, has applied for and obtained a prospecting license for 12 months of 1700 acres on the Waipori flat, with the right to take up a working area of 300 acres. It is proposed to work the tailings and gold bearing drift in a manner somewhat similar to that pursued by the Gabriel's Gully Tailings Company. As there is sufficient water available at a height competent to give tho necessary pressure, and as the tailings are known to be payable for any rapid method of sluicing, it is quite pardonable to regard tho enterprise as brightly hopeful.