CENTRAL OTAGO NOTES. (From Our Own Co-respondent.)

Otago Witness, Issue 1894, 9 March 1888, Page 12

CENTRAL OTAGO NOTES. (From Our Own Co-respondent.)

Naseby, March 6.

Tho weather is still remarkably dry, and ground sluicing is practically suspended all over the diggings. At present rain is falling steadily, but it is not likely to continue for aay length of time.

A Good Yield.— Mr Leslie A. Norman, managing director of the Great Eastern Gold Miniug Company, Rough Ridge, arrived at Naseby on Saturday evening, bringing with him from the mine a cake of retorted gold weighing 2900z, the product of 108 tons of stone, being at the rate of nearly 3oz of gold per ton of quartz. The cake was exhibited in a jeweller's window at Naseby for several hours on Saturday evening, attracting great attention and engendering a considerable amount of excitement. The cake is the largest parcel of retorted gold ever exhibited in this district, and was valued at over £1100. The directors met during the eveuiu j,

and declared a dividend of 2s per share. Shareholders have paid up 0s per share, so that they have thus got over 33 per cent, of their invested capital returned them in one dividend. During the past four months this company has produced 700oz of gold, the yield having in every crushing been over 2£oz per ton. Professor Black, of the Otago University, and Mr L. O. Beal, C.E., Dunedin, recently inspected the claim, and both gave a most glowing account of its capabilities and prospects. They broke out several hundred pieces of quartz from different parts of the lode now being worked by the company, and subjected them to a critical analytical examination. The result gave over 6oz per ton. With proper appliances the company calculate the stone would yield them over 6oz per ton of quartz. I was recently allowed to inspect the mine, and found everything in good working order, with unlimited quantities of golden stone in sight. Tho mine manager anticipates producing 4(J00oz of gold within tho next 18 months, and that with only appliances of a very primitive character at his command.

Green's Reef Company, Ophir. — I uaderstand that some nine or ten applications have been received from different miners, many of them highly accredited for the management of this company's mine. Although nothing definite has been decided on, I hear it whispered that the choice of the directory has fallen on Mr John B. Neale, late of the Scheelite and other mines in the Wakatipu district.

Rough Ridge.— l was shown recently about 3dwt of coarse, shotty gold, washed, I was told, from three dishes of washdirt taken from the terrace on the eastern slope of Rough Ridge, in the neighbourhood of the county nursery. The prospector says there is a limited area of goldbearing alluvium, which he intends to operate on when the wet weather sets in, and out of which he expects to make between £15 to £20 per week. The Serpentine. — Good news continues to reach Naseby regarding the operations of the Golden Gulley United Company at Serpentine. The contractor is still driving the adit along the course of the reef, which maintains an average width of 2ft, carrying golden stone valued at from loz to 2oz per ton. A trial crushing of 10 tons will shortly be sent for reduction to the Great Eastern Company's battery at Rough Ridge.