MISCELLANEOUS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1935, 26 March 1891, Page 13

MISCELLANEOUS.

The leoretary of the Sandhills Goldmlnlng Company reports a return of 16oz of gold for five daya Upper Waipori Alluvial Gold Dredging Company obtained 520z of gold for five days' six hours dredging last week. The Fair Maid Gold Mining Company report for the week ending 18th Marob, 29 hours' sluioing yielded 620z of amalgam. Word has just been received (says the Cromwell Argus) by Pryde, M'Kersie, and Horn's party that the lode of antimony in their claim at Alexandra has opened out to a foot wide. It is intended to take out 13 tons and send the sample Home to be tested. The Beefton Guardian learns than the gold discovery on Courtney's freehold, Inangabua Junction, is of small importance. Some good samples of coarse gold were obtained, but not over an extensive area. Further down the river, at the old diggings, are some flourishing claims. Some men are making £20 per week, and all the claims are permanent. The White Cliffs Dredging Company will begin work about a month heuce. Great hopes are entertained of this new venture, and it is generally expected Co be the Inception of a lasting and profitable industry. At a special general meeting of shareholders of the Sandhills Gold Mining Company held on Thursday evening, it was unanimously resolved to adopt the proposals of the directors for increasing the capital of the company. The manager of the Upper Waipori Alluvial Gold Dredging Company, in his report dated the 14th inst., states :— " The dredge is working well ; face opened about 300 ft wide, average depth about lift. We are now about 240 ft in the solid ground, and I am etill going in the same direction across the flat. Every foot I dredge In the direction in which I am now going increases the va'ue of the property, »• the solid greund runs more or less the whole length of the claim. The width of the solid ground which I am working now is about 600 ft." The Fortrose correspondent of the Southland Times writes on the 20th :— " Dredging is going along quietly ; the Lake Brunton dredge working smoothly. A small lead was struck on Monday last, and gold was showing freely on the cloths, but the main lead has not yet been reached. The dredge is now well out from the beach. The Six-mile Beach dredge is expected to be at work next week. lam informed by Mr Danoan Dundas, the manager, that Mr Welman is now rapidly completing his work. This dredge is to be lie up byeleotriolty." The collapse which we (the Colonies and India) have all along expected in connection with the Transvaal would seem to be near enough at hand. The extraordinary rise of Johannesburg has been followed by a desoent into the very depths of depression. Men who were worth, in realisable scrip, from £10,000 to £100,000 a short while back are said to be practically penniless to-day. The prudent workman who bad saved a small hoard shares the same fate as the reckless gambler. Youths who, having been office boys or barbers' assistants, suddenly made an ostentatious parade of their newly-found wealth.-are engvlfed in the flood of ruin which has swept over the Bandt. Elver and beach dredging have (says the Southland News) occupied, a large share of attention of late years, and a good deal of money has been expended by Invercarglll people testing- supposed auriferous ground, but with indifferent results The dredge Alpha was hired by the Uataura Mouth Company, and worked in the Mataura river for over 12 months at a cost considerably exceeding £1000, and the enterprising shareholders bad hot the satisfaction of getting more than the colour of the precious metal. It is vety discouraging, and calculated to retard the mining industry, that so much should have to be spent to aaoertaln whether ground i* really payable or not, and hence any appliance that will reduce the cost will be welcomed as a boon. Mr B. Cookerell, who is always at work on some new idea, has (ust completed a model of a revolving bucket dredge for testing river beds, which should revolutionise this branch of mining. This bucket is suspended on a wire repe made fast on either side of the river, and ou the working bank is a guy by means of whioh the rope can be pulled tight or slackened off ai required. When slackened the weight of the bucket takes it to the bottom ; a horse then draws It by a chain through the ground to the working side ; a pull at the guy hoists it over the plates, and a handle at the bottom of the buoket (which is only fastened to the wire rope at one end) tips the material out. A man and a horse work the whole concern, which only costs a few pounds, and, by being fixed at only one end, the bucket has plenty of play, and is praotically unbreakable even where large boulders have to be encountered. Thus a man with modest means can, at a reasonable CJat, thoroughly prospect a river, aud, the plant being light and easily carried about, he can test miles of ground in a very few days, whereas -with the maohinery formerly in use it was a more expensive buiiness. Then of course when the payable nature of the ground Is determined the necessary plant can ba procured for workiog it on an extensive scale, and investors will know that they are not running the risk of throwing (heir money away, as has been too often the case in the past. Mr Cookerell's new river dredge should give a fresh impetus to mining. The same paper of the 18th lays :— " Yesterday afternoon Mr John Bailey, who has spent the last 13 months at the diggings on Coal Island, returned to the Bluff by the s.s. lavercargill, intending to lay in a fresh stock of provisions, and to arrange some matters in connection with his interest there. He informs us that most of the miner* have left the island for the mainland, where some good indications have been found of the existence of gold-bearing reefs. At present Mr Wright, who is a very old digger, is engaged with a party of four on what Is known as BTo. 1 Sealer's creek, and they are getting a very satisfactory return. The gold has clearly come from reefs iv the vicinity, as the quartz onn be seen thiokly embedded in it, and the evidence of the existence of very rich auriferous country is considered by experienced men as convincing. The difficulty, Mr Bailey says, which miners have to contend with is that the ground is pretty well covered with moss, and a person might be walking all day over the reefs without knowing it. There is a No. 2 Sealers' creek, and it is ' quite &s likely a looking place for mining as No. 1. M'fifamara and party, who are at Wilson's river, have been doing a good deal of hard work, but they had the misfortune to have a portion of their race washed away some time back by a flood. Mr L. Looguet and party have got a' nice looking piece of ground in Ho. 1 creek, and have set to work, but of course it is too early to give any definite information as to results. On the iiland there are only four parties left, comprising some 1$ persons, and of these it is reported that D. M'Kenzie-'s is doiDg well. Although nothing to cause at>y thing like a ruth has been found, the miners have strong faith that something rich will bo discovered on the mainland." Says the Tapanui Courier :—" The way In which mining affairs are mismanaged in New Zealand was very well exemplified at last sitting of the Warden's Court at Tapanui. When Ferry and Foreman's application' came on for hearing, Mr W. Sinolair, solicitor, showed that under the mining rules and regulations the application oould not be granted, because the Government surveyor had not been on the ground applied for within three months from the date of application. The warden appeared to be unaware of this regulation, and considering that It It the duty of Government to send the surveyor to the ground, the hardship to the applicants is a serious one. Without going into the pros and cons of Perry and Foreman's application, we contend that they have been unfairly dealt with by the authorities having control ov> r mining matters in this distriot, and we reoommend the disappointed applicants to iftnte their case to the Hon. Hichard Seddon, Minister of Mine?. This gentleman is a well-known champion of miuera' rights, nnd he will be sure to fatten the blunder ou the officer's shoulders, and make him. bear the burden of the grots negligent displayed in not sending a surveyor to Tapanui within the time prescribed by law. To think that miners are called upon ta pay the survey fees and then not get the work done iv time to have their application granted is monstrous, and tuoh an anomaly must be done away with. If we mistake not, the present Minister of Mineß will stand no nonsense, and the goldfields officials will iv future have to act up to the mining regulations to the very letter, and not allow suoh a stupid mistake to occur again as that which deprived Messrs Perry aud Foreman of their dredging claim on the Pomabaka fiver."

I Puhipuhi is (writes our Auckland correspondent on the 16th) again looking up, and the ■shares in the silver mines hardening, Another attemptis being made to float one of the mines in the Australian market. Machinery ia being daily carted up to the mines, and three months hence the results should either make or mar the investors. Some ef the mining experts, while expressing their confidence in the prospects of the field, make no secret of their fears as to whether the processes being introduced will succeed in saving a large percentage of the silver in the stone. The original prospectors are incurring heavy expenditure, and are sanguine that they will reap a liberal reward for their enterprise.