Notes from Wakatipu. (From Our Own Correspondent.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2205, 4 June 1896, Page 20

Notes from Wakatipu. (From Our Own Correspondent.)

Arrowtoavn, May 30.— The mining sensation of the week has been the holing through in the Tipperary mine, Macetown. Owing to the abstnee of reliable plans and data the precariousness of the job was very much increased from the beei«ning, though it may be surmised that by following the lode the uprise would infallibly break through sooner or later. And this proved to be the case. For some time back anxiety has been felt at no water being tapped by the borehole, which wflg always kept about lOffc in advance of the uprise. It must be borne in mind that the workmen rose vertically under the whole body of the water about 10,600 tons, having a, depth of over 300 ft of pressure. Last week water began to ooze through the stone at the walls as well as at the roof of the upriso, and yet no water could be tapped by boreholes in either walls or roof; and the ground became dangerous and threatening to an alarming degree. la this ataU

of affairs work was left on Saturday last, the ri3a being then'' s7ft in a vortical diroction. About midnight between Saturday and Sunday the water burst through in a body in a moat providential manner, there being then nobody in the mine. On the Sunday morning following Mr \V. I. Stanford, tbe ma«ag>,r, and Mr Millap ', the underground overseer, went into the mine to examine the actual state of affairs, when upon neaiing the uprise a sudden and violent explosion of mine gas took place, knocking both men about rather roughly and doiiig no email damage to their hirsute adornments and exposed epidermis.. So violent was tho explosion that persons outbids the tunnel and some distance from its mouth wero almost knocked off their fo%t, while their hat* were blown off their beadf. It will take sonic lntfe time to repair damages a 1 d get tho nuno again into working order. iThe explosion wai not due to firedamp, nor arc such ocourrancea unknown in gold mine 3. I remember several such cases, one of which— happening at Sobastopol, Ovens district, Victoria— resulted fatally to, I think, three men. A mine that had been standing full of water for several years wa3 suddonly tapped by a tailrace, and after tho water had been run off theruino was eutsrod imra diatcly, with the reßulfc stated. The gas is porhap3 generated by excess of hydrogen in the air of wet mines.

Exploitations in the Achilles mi no. Bullendale, continue to be full of promise, and it would seem as if the mine vvere destined to upset- ail preconceived notions of our lodes not living to any depth, or "becoming unproductive at 700 ft below the surface," as we have bean informed on the authority of tho first of New Zealand mining experts. The Achilles-cum-I'hcßuix lode has now been traced to a depth of about lOOTft below its outcrop, aud instead of getting poorer or giving out it becomes mightier ia body and more prolific in yield; and let it be borne in mind this is the only mine rhathas been followed to any depth in those parts. When other mines have had expended upon them an equal amount of perseverance, energy, and mining acumen, knowledge, and experience, the same result will no doubt follow. This obgeivatiou is fully borne out by the recent experience in tho Glenrock mine, Macetowu, where the lodo, after faulting for 170 ft, made again as strong and rich as ever at a vertical depth of upwards of 2000 ft below the surface of the hill siding. The fatal mistake made in following lodes to great depths is the erroneous value attached to low level adits. Tho real worth of such adits as compared with shafts is computable in plain figure?, in tho calculation of which the fact that a shaft is of permanent service while an adit at best is only a temporary makeshift id too often overlooked.