THE WAIMEA.

West Coast Times, Issue 609, 6 September 1867, Page 2

THE WAIMEA.

(FROM OT7R OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

September 4. About the only fresh intelligence of the week is the rush to a flat of considerable extent at the foot of Eed Jack's Gully, off the right-hand branch of the Waimea Creek. On Tuesday the news of Wilson and party, who had sunk a shaft about a fortnight ago, and obtained indications of payable dirt, and owing to the loose state of the ground lost their shaft, and bottoming a second hole, which they securely slabbed, and washing therefrom eighteen grains of .gold to three dishes of wash, became known, and" the result was, of course, a rush. The flat spreads itself out towards the Waimea, and if gold be scattered through it, will give work to a very large number of men. The depth of sinking varies from fifteen feet to twenty-five feet through a loose sort of blue earth, and about five feet of washdirt resting on a blue clay reef. Many parties have set in to work in earnest, so that in a week the value of tho ground will have been ascertained. The claims at Quinn's Terrace are now in good working order, and a large population have work there for at least twelve months. ~

At the fourth Scandinavian Terrace and Lamplough no fresh ground is opened ; but parties who are on the lead derive handsome returns from their labor.

The introduction of machinery at the Waimea has been delayed for a very long time, considering that digging has been, carried on for years there. The enterprise of Messrs Parish and Tovell has, however, made an opening for the further development of the resources of this district, they having purchased machinery from Melbourne, for crushing tailings and separating the precious metal therefrom. For the last three days, tlie assistance of a horse and a kind of sledge has been obtained to drag the machinery up the track from the beach to {Scandinavian Hill, where there is a large quantity of payable cement which had been abandoned as tailings. Farish and Co. intend either to run through this refuse for a certain sum per load, or purchase them from parties who now have possession, and then put them through a course of crushing. The same company have a) so sent for another lot of machinery, which is to be worked by steam, and this they intend erecting at the Fin's Rush, Fourth Scandinavian Hill.

No doubt this step taken in the right direction, will cause the obtaining of a larger importation of machinery, and a district which has thrived for over two

years without its aid, will now possess a permanence of which its early inhabitants never dreamt. An extensive work was finished on Tuesday last by J. A. C. M'Donald and party, who, seventeen months ago, commenced a race, which they have since called the "Last Chance," in German Creek. The length of the race is about five and a quarter miles, and- by it water is brought on to Fenian Terrace, below Sawyer s Terrace, which is between Scandinavian Hill and the Second Terrace. The undertaking has boen an extensive one, the race being long, and the ground rotten and 6oft, necessitating the covering of it in here and there. M'Donald and party are now ready to commence sluicing, and this they will do next week, when the Warden purposes to inspect the work. The supply of water will be good, and with the exception of times when the weather is unusually dry, will carry three Government heads of water, M'Donald and party having the first right. Doubtless they will now, by degrees, obtain payment for a work, which of necessity has hitherto been unremunerative.