Wellington Independent WEDNESDAY, 18th JUNE.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3834, 18 June 1873, Page 2

Wellington Independent WEDNESDAY, 18th JUNE.

The benefits that will probably accrue to the Thames Q-oldfield, and indirectly to every other part of the colony, from the Pumping Association having cut the Caledoninn reef in their shaft may not be fully recognised nor estimated by the bare telegraphic intelligence given us from time to time, It requires both a knowledge of the country, the contiguity oi the claims, and an acquaintance with their past yields, to arrive at anything like a just conclusion — or even to understand at all — how the future prosperity of the Thames will be effected by this cutting of the Caledonian reef and consequent draining of the water from the adjacent claims. At the bottom of the spur on which are situated the Caledonian, Tookey's, the Golden Crown, and other claims, is the claim called the Imperial Crown. The claims on the hillside having become flooded with water and unable to be worked, it was determined some two years since to sink the Imperial Crown shaft to a considerable depth, and by cutting the reef at a low level to drain the hill. Four companies joined in the enterprise — the Caledonian, Tookey, Imperial Crown, and Golden Crown — by whom the cost of sinking and the erection of machinery have been borne. The reef has been cut at 380 feet — a considerably greater depth than it was expected would

be necessary to sink. Many people declared the reef had run out; others, that the water flowed in from the sea; some, that the reef would never be cut without being driven for; while only the sanguine and strongheai'ted still dared to hope for success. The coat of sinking the shaft aud erecting the pumping machinery amounts in round numbers to £50,000. The engine erected by the co-operative company, or the Pumping Association, is the largest used for mining purposes in the colonies, working, if we remember aright, two Soin. plungers. The perseverance shown in this instance proves not only that the moDey has been spent wisely, if daringly, but that quartz lodes run to great depths in New Zealand as well ns in Australia. From the Imperial Crown shaft, going towards the spur, some of the claims must have " a back" of nearly 1000 feet of reef to work. Strange to say, in many of the claims in that vicinity, carbonic acid gas has been generated so abundantly that it has proved almost more troublesome to contend against than the water. This is the more singular, from the fact that in the Australian quartz workings it is almost unknown. Not only, however, will the claims already mentioned benefit from this drainage, but the Albion, Otago, Golden Calf, and others will be enabled to work the deep lodes without erecting heavy pumping machinery. A large block is now ready both to profitably work and prospect; and the effect its opening up will bare on the prosperity of the goldfield will be speedily apparent by an increased yield and, doubtless, a large influx of population. Altogether, the event must mark an epoch in our goldmining history, and be looked upon as a beacon of hope by quartz reefers from the Thames to Otago. ,