TOTARA.

West Coast Times, Issue 92, 3 January 1866, Page 2

TOTARA.

(From a Correspondent.) The want of raiu has been rather disagreeably felt in this locality lately by the shiicers and those engaged in deep sinking \ on the surface it has, however, proved conducive to the furtherance of other mining operations in the low-lying part of the district. The mildest form of droughts, howover, never last long on the West Coast, and this instance is no exception to therule, rain having fallen heavily during the past twenty-four hours. The principal topic of conversation just now in Ross town is the late discovery of heavy deposits of gold on the flat between Jones' and Donnelly's Creek, Mitchell and party having bottomed a shaft at sixty-seven feet, and obtained the very handsome return of twelve ounces of gold out of the washdirt. There is fourteen feet of this auriferous drift, five of which will yield 4 055S to tho load, whilst the whole strip taken together will pay from Hoz to 2ozs. One of the party declared to me that if it was shallow sinking, they would make their pile in a month. That this flat is very rich there can bo no doubt, for I know several parties who are working on the shallower parts of it who can cradle out from 4 ozs. to 5 ozs. per day. If there is any reliance to be placed on the generally expressed opinion of experienced miners, this district will yet be the Ballarat of Westland, the workings being stamped with a permanency not to be met with elsewhere, and to a certain extent this opinion is justified, for on this flat there are three bottoms, either of which will pay good wages. The second, however, is the one on which Mitchell and party are working ; it is composed of a grey sand intermixed with small stones, and so far as the ground has been tested, is the richest of the three. On another part of this flat two parties having amalgamated, sunk a shaft to the depth of 105 feet, and obtained in some of the layers of gravel they Avent through prospects ranging from one to four pennyweights 4he dish. They are, however, determined to go further to find the main bottom if possible, and for this purpose have erected a whim, which they exppf't be in ~r, -irking order about me new year. Several other shafts - are being sunk for the same purpose, towards Donnelly's Creek, but are much troubled with water, twenty buckets of which to one of dirt being the style of sinking with them. Want of combination, however, is the great drawback to testing this flat ; for I feel assured it could be easily bottomed would the miners only set in together and bail with a will. Mining matters on Jones' Creek are progressing. Those parties who having, in spite of new rushes, remained steadily at work, are now reaping the reward of steady perseverance, —many of the claims yielding from £20 to .£3O per man per week. The great majority of the diggers are now housed in log or slab huts ; a sure sign of their intention to remain for some time, at least, stationary. Nearly the whole of Jones' Creek will pay for a second working, and even a third, when the water races now in the course of construction from Donnelly's Creek are completed. Many hundreds of men will then find remunerative employment in ground now considered worthless. Another race is also being brought in from Donohue's to work the terraces in .the immediate vicinity of Hoss Town. At German Blockade and S wiper's Gullies a considerable population is located, the most of wiiom are making fair wages. The depth of sinking -is from 10 to 25 feet. The returns from some of the claims up Donnelly's Creek are very good, and lead me to suppose that those men who have been so lavish in the expenditure of time and money in constructing dams and races for the purpose of diverting the creek and sluicing its bed, will be handsomely rewarded for their pain?. The cutting in some of the races is very heavy, the ground being full of huge boulders that have to be blasted ere they can be removed. One claim in this creek deserves special mention, for the party, on stripping a paddock, found it so rich that, should the next turn out as well, any further digging on their part will be unnecessary. [In making such statements, we would advise our correspondent to be more definite in his remarks, a report of this kind being calculated to do more harm than good. — Ed.]