OUR WEST COAST LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2209, 2 July 1896, Page 19

OUR WEST COAST LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Westport, June 10. REEFTON IN k FERMENT. Broadway has a boom on strike. Its footpaths are trodden under the iron heels of "out-opera-tives" who prefer the damp, misty thoroughfare and independent idleness to the scorned wage of £2 10s for six eight-hour day(fin the mines of the Consolidated Goldfields Company. Hitherto the ruling wage of competent goldminera all up and diMvrn tho West Coast has been £3 per week, or 10g per shift of eight hours. Therefore the reduction made by the C.G. Company, far from beiug kindly taken, is being determinedly resented by tho operatives, whose argument is that, beiug mostly married men, they aro compelled to keep up two homes, the scenes of their toil being situated many miles from their family hearths ; tbat the recognised wagei have hitherto been 10s .per shift; find that living is higher on the Weat 1 Const tbxn elsewhere in New Zealand. Mr Ziman, on the other hand, answers that the Consolidated Goldliclds Company offers their Reef ton employees 20 per cent, in excess of the. wage being piid to their Auckland operatives ; that they (the C.G. Company) ara prepared to insure in policies of £oOQ each all their operatives and pay them £2 10s a week of 4S hours per man. Up to last Saturday tho men ware very pronounced in their views, and showed no inclination to resume work at tha reduction. Since thea cod-. dilation has arisen in the air, and up to latest advices strikers and employers have. agreed to ■ have arbitration, and the hope all round i 3 for an amicable readjustmenfof differences. - Mean- . while the Coast press freely canvass the situation. Chief amongst tho papers the Grey Star speaks up b,y saying that if this is to be the price for the introduction of KnglUh capital to woik out colonial gold mines, English CApttal had much be ter remain in Knglnud." The Kokitika Times--a noted Uoveroment opponent now, by the way— pities the poor men over thereduction, but thinks the reduction proper, and then blame 3 Mr Seddcn for it. MINING MATTERS. The latest items from Ro»s comprise the splendid assay at the School of Mines, JJeeftnn, of 9oz lOdwt of gold from stone out of the new discovery at Cedav Creek. Following this the owners of tho mine treated 3901b" of stone from the same source, and obtained off the battery plateß over loz of melted gold worth over £4, or at the rate of 6'oz lOdwt of gold to tho ton. Of course, after such a result as that the whole countryside is being pegged out, and the reef will be profitably, worked. Although Mr Ziman has not. actually closed with the Mont dOr Gold Mining Company yet, practically the purchase has been made byliim for £20,000, the time of paying up the full amount being limited to two months. Messrs Foiter and Caples, chief engineers and mining experts to the syndicate, are now gathering all particulars in connection with the Rosa United Company's claims and the Mikonui water race prior to taking these propertied over for the offered and accepted price of £15,000. In respect to the proposed reduction of w«ges I am informed that the syndicate will pay their employees 83 4d I per eight hours' shift, insure each man's life for £SOO, build comfortable barracks where the men will b« allowed board, lodging, and attendance 'for 2s a day ; whilst for the benefit of the married employees stores are to be effected whero the supplies of the neceasarie-i of life m«y be obtained by them only at a. fraction over EDglish cost price. " MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. Beefton newspapers are unanimous in .their verdict of Incendiarism on a dwelliug house burned last Monday night. • • The Westport Co»l Company open their Granity Ci cek coal works next Saturday. Last Friday evening WiUson's Hall, »t Granity Creek, was gay with the flowers and ferns of the forest, the brilliant lights of art, and all the youth and beauty of that centre and. the country round about, the occasion being a return ball by the bachelors of the Creek to the maids of this Arcadia. Messrs Cooper, Burke, and Raichards severally and jointly managed music matters on the piano, fiddle, and cornet, whilst Mr Charley Sibree'did tho master of ceremony business to [ such perfection that he soon had 60 of tbe gayest 1 of cay couples threading daintily the mazes of waltz, quadrille, mazurka, and oh, ye sprites of the light fantastic! the .medley— and in that fairy whirl how they .floated, pirouetted, and footed it bravely I What grace, what time I ■\yhat a ealaxy of lisso-i a beauty I Look at this couple : she a dainty bit of ,pink and white, he a : stalwart son of earth's first man -gliding round j and round theroom like gay. buttrrfiie? C Following trips a tall, Trilby-footed blonde in a whita blouse and all the other etceteras to match, escorted by a popular beau, soul of every ball. \Then clouds of pink, blue, and yellow flit round and round, and the ball goes on to a small hour in the morning.

Nearly all the bridges on the road between Greymouth, Reefton, and the junction on the Buller road, swept down and partially destroyed by .Istit March's floods, are being' rapidly mended by the General Government. Mr Antonio Zala, veteran prospector of the Lyell, having now his valuable Fraser Peak reef ucder offer to one of the big syndicates, is meanwhile putting in a rock tunnel in the«hope of intercepting •at a low level a' rich leader outcropping on the south-west side of Donnelly's Creek, which, if he ia lucky enough to get, will open, up an important quartz field within the borough of Ross. The miners of Kumara complain to me that the reduction made recently in the water rates on the Government, race are not so beneficial as one would suppose, and they ask that Government should encouragtsluicing operations in the poorer ground by making reductions so that the race stfculd receive a revenue adequate to provide for tbe actual working expenses only. Thoy claim that tbe Government is simply the people, and the' people do not wish, to make a profit out of public works made for the convenience of the country. Were something of the sort done in this case many hundreds of miners would And a fair living on ground about Kumara that cannot br looked at at alLuuder existing water charges.' It not this a key to a solution of the unemployed difficulty? Many practical miners hold that it was a mistake to abolish the gold duty, and argue that even if it were, reintroduced, and miners' rights made free, and Warden's Court fees reduced, and water from public races supplied at nominal rates, all the gold-mining districts of New Zealand must advance and prosper, and the congested state of the labour market be relieved. Here 13 a test for our popular friend Mr O' Regan, who, 1 observe with pleasure, has sensibly relegated single tax to that oblivion whence tt should have never sprung.

Government continues, rapidly pushing on by co-operative labour tha extension of the -main south road, and by the end of the year vehicle traffic will be enabled to get down as far as Okarito.

Mr Beeves, a noted West Coast cyclist, had a rather unique experience the other day. When on the wheel he spied a cow on the road, and gave her the usual cycle signal to get off; bub the bovine creature having, evidently, the bump of argumentativencss abnormally large, refused to budge an inch. The road was narrow, the wheel swift, and the rider steel-nerved, and as the flying pair attempted to shave the co wheel the bovine let out. There was a capsize, and the rider found himself sitting on that portion of the person which need not be particularly described. The cow's hind foot went through the spokes and fork of the cycle, and off she went 40 miles an hour up the hill. When she got the bicycle off she turned and looked at the wreck and at Mr Reeves, still in the mud below.