Notes from Waipori. (From Our Own Correspondent.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2416, 28 June 1900, Page 19

Notes from Waipori. (From Our Own Correspondent.)

WAIPOKI, June 20. Owing to the severe and continued frosts sluicing operations are almost at a standstill. The Lamnierlaw Hydraulic Claim and the Deep Lead are both shut down, and dredging is being carried on with difficulty. The ice in the paddocks has to be broken daily in order to allow of coal being boated to the dredges.

The scarcity of teams has prevented the contractors who bring the coal from getting in the winter supply before the end of summer, as was the rule in former years. Consequently the road from Lawrence is being much used at present, and it is in a fearful condition. The Minister of Mines, who paid us a visit recently, stated that although not the most dangerous it was by far the worst road he had ever travelled on. A party of Chinese sluicers on the Lammerlaw Creek, who are going in for an elevator plant, are paying their waggoners £3 a ton to cart their pipes from Lawrence, a distance of only 14 miles.

A somewhat sensational report is current that a payable bed of coal has been discovered about five miles from Waipori, on the Broad Creek. The news for Waipori seems too good to be true, but I trust it will prove correct. What a boon it will be- to the dredging companies. I notice in the report of a recent meeting of the Land Board that the Enfield Dredging Company have been granted the right to cut timbei on four acres of the Waipori Bush. If this means timbei for steam-raising purposes I think it is a rnosi unwise step to grant such a concession. Some years ago the Upper Waipori "Company's dredge used manuka from the bush for this purpose for about two years, with a result that a great part of the bush was denuded of thousands of pounds worth of valuable timber that would have been available as props and laths for lode mining. In view of the future of this class of mining the Waipori community should strongly object to such a wasteful policy in the future.