THE SOUTH BRITISH.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1775, 10 September 1874, Page 2

THE SOUTH BRITISH.

I find that my journeys will Lavs to extend, as the machinery on the Thames mines gets almost weekly more distant. Well so much the better.; it is with me only a question of shoe leather. The South British Company is one of the pluckiest undertakings on this field, and not, apparently, riskily so. The shaft I risited this morning is situated on a spur off Murphy's hill. Tho shaft is a most substantial one ; it is nine feet eight by four feet six in the clear, in three compartments, one of them being a roomy section for pump pipes «nd main road. The shaft is down two hundred and twenty six feet, and to a lower level than; the tunnel. Thi3 tunnel commences atithe foot of the Karaka Creek"; it has been carried in towards the foot of Murphy'i hill seventeen hundred feet, and is within seven hundred feet of the shaft I have now written of. This tunnel when completed will be 2,400 feet long— at present partly ventilated by an air shaft. When this tunnel is completed, outsiders .cannot say the the Thames men want pluck. On the surface an engine has been placed during the week, it is a portable/with a ten inch cy inder. A Cornish boiler is being bedded in, for the steam supply. The engine bed an.l spider frames are being most substantially fitted up; tHV. engine ..shed and poppet legs are already erected; the latter look a little low, but they are high enough,' as the tip is good enough to work out the country side. The country comprising the South British Company's claim is in the strike of all the reefs coming> in from Murphy's Hill, many of them known gold" bearers. There are ; also other reefs that must strike through the company's ground. The greater part of this work has been carried on by private enterprise, under the supervision of Mr. Cromer;SWith Mr Taylor for working manager. v