THE LYELL.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 12 May 1880, Page 2

TH E LYELL.

(Flo* oca own Cobbihpondikt.) The United Alpine cleaned up tot week With a result of 380 oas. gold from 450 tons of stone, The erection of *be new five»head stamper, battery is being pushed ahead, and will be finished m about eight days. The stone taken from the low level continues to increase m qnaliry, and when the new battery is m working order, it is confidently expected that this claim will be second to none m the district m "paying dividends to its long suffering ebarabolders. The half-yearly meeting was .held last week, and nearly all tlie^d directory wer« f««*lett#d with the jdditipji/of Mr Hv Gorrie of the Bank of New Zealand, who was placed ott the new directory. At New Creek, the eontfictors have driven along the wef for a. considerable distance, and are now sinking • winie 70 feet dec Mo' thoroughly prove the reef. Thii company have about 80 tons of excel'ent stone stacked ready to crush, I am informed that the gold is so evenly distributed throughout the stone, that there is considerable difficulty m finding specimens to carry away. When the mine is thoroughly prospeoted it is the intention of the proprietors to register the company under the Limited Liability Act. Serving ■ certain portion for the erection of machinery, which it hoped may soon fake place, as the. difficulty o ( conveying it to the claim will be lessened bf making the new road viaZalatown, which is now being surveyed by Mr Thompson, the Bailer County Overseer, who has after diligent search selected the most practicable .route. .The making of this road will be the; means of locating a considerable, population m that part of the country, ai it is known to abound m •alluvial deposits of the precious metal. Qwiog to the extraordinarily fine sum* mer we have experienced, the Bailer River has been lower than it ever was sjnee the first settlement of ; the Coast, which fact enabled the miners m the U^pefßuller district to make good wages by working the different beaches along the viver bank, ''"".■ •- Th* -fcoman Catholic* of the Upper Bullepheld:* meeting for the purpose of railing' money to build •.•church at JBtampden, %nd over fifty pounds, were subscribed i\ tfos' first meeting, besides a site to erect the building upon was offered. It is creditable to the Catholics thai they art the poineers who first erect placee ot worship and schools m every district ia which they locate themselves. The new^hool at Hampden is finished. Why the Lyell should be so long without j a school is a mystery, and upon inquiring of MY Hodgson, School Inspector, the cause, he said the Education Board aliowedie^iesa.head yearly for every child attending school, as a subsidy. With ■ueh allowance, the district ought not to be goiig a begging fojr, a teacher, as it is a well known fact that gold and babies are tlie Staple commodities, of the dis* tricfc Someiime ago I mentioned m one of my letter^ that several parties had gone up MaelTey's Creek on a prospecting tour. Qae of the parties, via.* Messrs H. and A. Curtis, proceeded inland about twelve miles, and prospected the country towards the back of Mount Frederick— they got gold but not m piyablequan* tity ; they then made for the watershed of the creek, and could heir iht blasts going off at the eoar mines on the West* port side of the mountain. Bain setting m, thepafly proceeded down the main creek about six miles, prospecting as. they came along— they set m to work about half way down, and bearing they had ■tract gotd, and some of the party com* tog m for tucker I determined to find out the truth of the discovery and aoeoms panied them down, the Bailer Btvar m a canoe a distance of about four miles to where the Orakaka (or Mackley's Creek) as it is called, emptys itself. The former is the Maori name of the creek, and signifies male kaka. The creek at ita mouth is about half the site of Larry'* and as rough, running fiat for a couple of miles, which necessitated getting out of the canoe and towing it up stream. Some good fiat land is to be seen on both sides of the creek running back to the ranges. I ant informed a small lake exists about a mile back-at the foot of the hills on the west side of the creek. The gorge is reached about twomUes up. The creek, for the next six miles, is vared by a series j*f steep falls and deep waterboles. The bare rock towering from the waters edge over 160 feet high, and worn into castellated shapes by the floods of ages,' gives the seen* a weird aspect, and conjures up to the mind the centuries that must have elapsed, and the changes that have taken place an our planet sine* that now rttahing torrent was a sluggish n*an» dering rivulet cutting its first ohaonel through and antediluvian swamp. The frequency, of getting out and up to ones armpils on some of the t6vgbe«t fall* df»i?B«Og Jhe canoe, over, has a tendency to drive the romance out of one's com* portion. The country from Ihir gorge up to where the prospectors were camped, consists of high table lands. The rock is metsmorphie schistose and belongs to the paleoiio formation. Running north and south from the camp up, true gold bear* ing rock crops out. It consists of the old saluriau rook interacted m places with quarfa veins. The claim, which the prospectors were working, is situated on the side of the week at its junction with

a small stream, which drains a high terrace, and it ia likely from which the gold was washed dowa. Since my visit to them, the prospectors lia«e left the creek, having worked out the piece of ground from which they got eight ounces of gold. The metal is unlike any gold got m the district, being m shape like coarse bran, worn thio, and partly covered with oxide of iron. The prospectors are going back again when the long days set m to give the country a thorough trial, and from your correspondent's slight knowledge of gold saining, be predicts, when the terrace* are prospected, the opening ip of an extensive goldfietd. The great drawback to prospecting about the district i* the want of a few busb tracks, which would be the surest means of fostering jnd developing the staple industry of the West Coast— gold mining. It the different County Councils would do this, it would be far more credit* able than forming Public Works Com* mittees, whose sole ambition seems to be to persecute their unfortunate contractors. A well-known Westport merchant netted the handsome sum of £650, by selling one thousand shares m the Alpine Company during his visit to Lyell last week, getting 10s per scrip. For five hundred, later on m the eveningjhe sold at an advance of one shilling, getting eleven shillings per scrip. It is g positive fact that the Kelson Waste Lands Board have determined to have all egricuUuraJ leases applied for during the last six years surveyed during the present century. Mr Jennings, late surveyor at the Karamea r has been de* poted to makes triangulation survey of the country between Inangahua Junction and Westport. It is questionable if the department could pick out for the work a more efficient or painstaking officer. The loose manner m which surveys were made was illustrated to t settler the other day, who was astonished when shown that a former,. surveyor had eat bis boundary line seven chains oat of fbe true line. The Boyal Commissioners on railways passed going overland to Nelson. Mr Oswald Curtis, who is out of them, going by coach to Westport. ! Mr Gardner, County Engineer, went I up the Matin ea route for the Cannibal ! Gorge, bit it is questionable if he gets through* owing to a heavy fall of snow, which fell last Tuesday on the high lands which stops traffic daring winter months. Lyell. Ist May, 1880. j