Notes from Wakatipu. (From Our. Own Correspondent.)

Otago Witness, Issue 1933, 25 February 1892, Page 14

Notes from Wakatipu. (From Our. Own Correspondent.)

Arrow, February 20.— The rain during the past fortnight, while it has provided an ample supply for the sluicers' needs and for power purposes, has also interfered with work in a few instances. At the Sunri&e Company sleighing of quartz had to be suspended on its account. However, there is nearly the 100 tons complement lying at the battery, upon which delivery the beginning of crushing was made dependent, and it fs expected that the mill will be bet going next Monday. In all there are about 200 tons at grass, which are expected to yield a fairly payable "'fh^Gallant Tipperary Company report having taken 70oz of amalgam off the plates alone, after putting 121 tons of .stone through the batteries, which is a considerable improvement upon the iirst crushings of the season, and bears out the manager's estimate of the mine and the stone raised from it. , „, , The Crown Terrace rush may now be said to be developing on its merits— i.e., if official and departmental wiseacres do not interpose their discretionary wisdom in curtailing the size or claims in the deep ground, to prospect and work which with advantage requires relays of shifts, and therefore large parlies, to bay nothing of the expense of slabbing and other outlay. Nees and party, who have marked out four men s ordinary claims on the lead, and on ground to which other parties lay claim ah>o, seem determined to fight out the battle to the bitter end. Mr Wm. Lees of Dunedin, who represents the party, was on the ground and assisted in the marking. 1 here are likely to be several actions at the next sitting of the Warden's Court, to be held on the 9th prox., in connection withthi.-> claim. The rain has interfered with dredging, as a matter of course, and consequently there has been a decrease in the quantity of gold obtained. Ihe dredge of the Shotover Co. lias been takento pieces in order to be removed elsewhere. The machine has been barely 10 months on the ground. It has been capsized and beached repeatedly, but for all that it has never succeeded in proving the claim in any way— never, indeed, getting down more than a few feet. And for this a road was cut to the place of work for the transport of the machinery, at the cost of the ratepayers of Lake County, and which by the removal of the machinery was proved to have been superfluous, as the boilers and other bulky and weighty parts were hauled up a precipice of about 700 f t; and of course when they could be so hauled up they could surely have been lowered at the same spot and the cost of the road saved, as it is of no earthly use now.