MINING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2230, 26 November 1896, Page 16

MINING.

THE WEEKS MINING NEWS.

Mr Johnston Brown, the secretary of the recently-floated Bakery Flat Sluicing Company (Waipori), reports, having received advice from the manager to the effect that water has been let Into the pipes, the elevator* tested, and the whole plant found to give satisfaction.

An Invercargill telegram says a cake of 4030z of gold (valued at £1640) from a crushing of 317 tons of stone at the Morning Star Mine, Preservation Inlet, was brought to town to-day by the steamer Invercargill. The value of gold won from the mine since August la»t year is over £13,000 <mr Wakatipu correspondent writes :— " MiPalmer talceß exception to some remarks made by me in a recent report on the Guriba'.di mine. The fault, however, is entirely his owd, as he does not distinguish between 'free gold' and 'gold in quartz.' What I did siy was: 'Very promising prospects of free or loose gold can be obtained from every panful of stuff tried, and the stone itself is impregnated with gold. At the wider portions of the lode really splendid prospects from the loose formation can be panned out. 1 Mr Palmer says no free gold can be seen iv the itone. I did not say it could. In hard solid bodies of itone like that of the Macetown reels free gold is » rare exception, and no miner of any experience would try a panful' of the quartz with a view of obtaining a prospect of free gold and take it as an Index of the value of the lode. I will undertake io show Mr Palmer the gold in the stone provided ,he pays my expenses. As to my statment that the assays made cannot be otherwise than satisfactory, which Mr Palmer says is entirely unwarranted, I challenge Mr Palmer to publish the assay returns he has obtained. I may tell Mr Palmer that 14 years ago I assisted in an assay made at the Arrow School of Mines from the lode in question, wbich yielded at the rate of soz to the ton."

The Miller's Flat correspondent of the Tuapeka Times writes: — "There is considerable excitement in Roxburgh owing to the action of Messrs Laff eyelid party giving notice of cancelling the Di<mal Swamp dam. It is rather a bi^ order to do, and whether they will succeed in doing so or not remains to be seen However, th y deserve credit for their hazardous attempt. There is no doubt, whether the present owners hold their right legally or not, the thing is a -hug<j monopoly 1 and there is more water running to waste in the Teviot stream during the year than is used. Just think what 50 or 60 heads of water would mean to Miller's Flat if it were brought in. It would mean the employment of from 30 to 40 more men, the doubling of the population, increasing the value of property and the commercial pursuits of the district. And is it right to have the means of doing so locked up in the hands of monopolists, especially when they themselves would be the gainers by having a more abundant storage of water at the expense of another party ? As the proposed £200,000 loan for the goldfields has apparently dwindled down io about; £50,000, there is not much usc'looking f r )nrgi assistance from that quarter, so that ih; conservation of water for this district, at least, will have to be carried out by private enterprise, and I think that men like Laffey and party are just the men to do it, if no legal obstructions are placed in theit way. The case will be heard before the warden at Roxburgh at the December sitting, »nd the results are anxiously awaited by the liining community on the Clutha River." TheTapanui Courier sW-p* that rick samples of gold-bearing quartz lia» ecently come ia from the Whitecomb Range, i'ne discoverers of the atone are applying for a prospecting area. Mr J. White, attorney for the Roond Hill Gold Mining Company, has received intimation that the return is 1330z 3dwt, of the value of £525 18a 10d, for 16 days, from the ripples only. .The paddock has not yet washed down. It is reported that rich almvial gold has just been struck fr\ Mtken an<i party, working on the banks of the "\Y > <v river, ieir Orepuki.