NOTES ON A TRIP TO VICTORIA.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, 16 March 1881, Page 2

NOTES ON A TRIP TO VICTORIA.

, ♦ No. XY: Stawell. Stawell— that is, old Pleasant Creek, is distant 176 miles from Melbourne, and is perhaps the nest most pretentious community in the Ballarat division. The place wps in olden times one of the great golden biyes of the west, and it was here that some of the heaviest and most easily gotten gold of the early days was ob* tained, but the district of late years has lived almost wholly upon its reefing industry. At the time of onr visit, hows ever, the place was in anything but a flourishing condition. Many of the large quartz mining ventures there were either at a standstill, or running only under half steam, and the whole community seemed to be ont of breath, so to speak. There, as is the case on all reefing fields, the proverbial storm bad been succeeded by the inevitable calm, and after a long season of high pressure prosperity the people were tasting somes thing of the bitterness of adyersity. The town possesses some really handsome buildings in stone and brick, but the narrowness of the street— for there is only one main business thoroughfare — murders everything. A. more ill-laid out town could hardly be met with. The street is only about four hundred yards in length, but if stretched out into a straight line would reach about five miles. This peculiarity of the town is congenital, for as the sections were originally built upon, so they'remain to the present day. The population of the town is now only* about 9.000, having fallen off considerably during tb9 last eighteen months. The place returns one member to Parliament, possesses one newspaper, and in politics, is liberal to the backbone. The corporation has just completed a most extensive system of water supply. Up to the accomplishment of this scheme, the inhabitants were dependent wholly upon the rainfall for water for both mining and domestic purposes, for owing to the fhtness of the country and consequent difficulty of constructing storing places, no lasting supply could be conserved. The waterworks have been several years in con* struction. and will cost considerably over £100,000, of which £97,000 has already been spent. The water is obtained from the Grampians, some twelve miles disi tant, and the undertaking includes a tunnel 3300 feet, which is one of the longest lengths in the colony. The water works have been carried out under the superintendence of Mr D'Alton, the Borough Engineer, a gentleman of large experience in works of this kind, and of its success he has good reason to be proud. Mr D' Alton is a brother of Mr D'Alton formerly of Eeefton, the latter having now settled down to farming pursuits in the vicinity of the Grampians. Our first visit amongst the mines wss directed to Waterloo Hill, a large development of quarts situated near the town. It is a similar formation to that of Black-hill at Ballarat. The stone is soft and poor, but otring to the facility with which it can be taken oat a very

small return of gold per ton is sufficient to make the operation remunerative. The hill forms part of the leasehold of one of the companies, but was held on tribute by three men, who crush at one of the public mills, and make 2£dwt. per ton yield them good wages. The St. George Company, hard by, have 42 stamps, twelve of which being after the old Cornish design, and the remainder modern. The battery is equal to 900 tons weekly. The amalgamating ap« pliances consist of the ordinary blanket table?, such as are in use here, Chilian mills, Arastras, and pyrite furnace. The manager, Mr Hobby, has had nearly twenty years experience in conueclion with quartz crashing and amalgamating in Victoria, and to our view, his process ap« peared to be as near perfection as anything of the kind we had seen. From him we obtained a mass of valuable general information upon the treatment of quartz, which I shall endeavor to make use of in a separate article. The \ Northern Company, Mr D. White, manager, was next visited. At this battery there are 55 stampers, each battery being partitioned off, so that crashing from four or five different companies may proceed simultaneously. One man feeds and attends to 30 stampers. The heads are 7cwt., and are run at 70 to 72 beats a minute. Everything at the bat* tery is worked with the most scrupulous regard to economy, and at the same time without Jd any way risking the efficiency of the treatment. We had already bad an opportunity of inspecting Ford's patent rock drills, three of which were in the possession of the Borough Council, baviug been procured for use in driving the Grampian tnnnel. These machines make 1300 strokes per minute, and after about a years' work appeared to be as good as new. They cost £50 each. Mr White, of the Northern Company, in* formed us that Mitchell's drill, which is quite a recent adaptation of the Ford, but is said to possess many superior ad' vantages, was then at work at Hustler's Company at Sandhurst. At a trial of the two machines, Ford's drilled a hole 29 feet in 4 hours 15 minutes, and Mitchell's accomplished 30 feet in 3 hours 45 minutes, the work of the latter being said to be easier at all angles, and even over* head, than the former. 'Jhe Mitchell claims to be simpler in construction, having fewer parts than any other machine of the kind, and therefore less likely to get out of repair. The cost of these machines is £80. But to proceed with the description of the Northern Battery. At this battery, silvered tables take the place of blankets. Immediately under the splasb of the stamper boxes is a ripple of abont 2 inches in width, 2 inches in depth, and filled with silver ; floating in the centre of this tipple, is a longitudinal copper rod of the same length as the ripple, also well silvered, and of about half an inch in diameter. In falling, the tailings are thus prevented from dropping perpendicularly into the silver, and thereby causing a possible splash or flouring of the latter, bat flowing on to the surface of the rod with sufficient force to accelerate amalgama* tion are driven laterally into the mercury, and ran off in the usual way, the rod not projecting above the surface. The slight movement of the rod also prevents the possibility of a crust forming on the | surface of the ripple. No great perfection, I believe, is claimed for the pnn« pie, though it has been in use some time, and given every satisfaction. Indeed, the principle at this battery seemed to be to give the staff as large an area of silver plates as possible— percussion tables, amalgamating pans, and Arastras, complete the process, and the general yields from this battery would go to show that as between the use of blanket tables, and silvered ones, there is after all but little to chose. Cast«steel cams are one of the improvements adopted at this mill, and they are said to effect a great saving upon the 'cast-iron or even steel-faced ones, The cams we saw had been in constant use eighteen months, and yet manifested no sign of wear. Another great advantage they offer over the wrought or cast cams is, that as the bearing surface does not yield to the friction, the rotation of the stamps is kept perfect, and their influence is thus extended to the shoes and slippers, which consequently wear much more evenly. We nest called at the Great Northern mine, the shaft of which is down 779 feet. We descended, and here saw several of the rock drills at work. An engine of 10-horse power is used for compressing the air. The drills used were those known as the " National." They are on much the same principle as the Ford, bat are said to do their work better, and in fact next to what is claimed for the Mitchell drill, are the best in use. They can be fixed up in five minutes, and worked by a boy—nothing more being required than to turn a handle so as to keep the point of the drifl within striking distance. The whole machine is about 2 feet long by about 10 inches in thickness, and weighs hardly more than 90 or 100 lbs. One of them will bore 10 holes each 4 feet deep in the hardest rock in eight hours, and though they had been in daily use for six months they showed no sign of wear, Of course the drills suffer just as they would in hand -driving, but so far as the machine itself is concerned it appears to be everlasting. For rapidity of motion the movement of the drill may be likened to the needle of a sewing machine, except that the action is

very much quicker. The machine will bore a bole as well with a blunt as with a sharp drill, in fact there need be no point at all on the drill, bat the sharper it is the less the wear on the metal. The drills can be changed in a few seconds. They bore at any anole, and the herder the rock the quicker and eas'er they work, as in a soft face the bole is apt to ran oat of Jim, and so jamb the drill. Thfy are entirely different from the principle of the Diamond drill, and are without doubt one of the greatest mining inventions of modem times. The saving which they effect in breaking down stone is incalculable. The reef in this rain© averages from 4 feet to 9 feet, and 44wts per ton dears all expenses. Fundrei of tons bad been taken oat for a return of 1| dwt. per ton, but 7 dwt. was the ruling return just then- At the West Scotchman, the shaft is down 1050 feet, and « Diamond drill was being erected ti bore* a fnrther distance of 500 feet. The michine bores about 40 feet per week, bat was not in working order at the time. The price of these machines is £800 in 1 Tictoria, the agents being M'Mastera an«l Co., Melbourne. The Moonlight battery has 30-head of self-feeding stumpers, and here again precedence is giren to the silver process for atnalewnatin<% although blankets are also used. Barrel?, percussion tables, and five small berclans, cqmplete the ap« pliancps. The only pecnliarity notice* able here was the precaution taken to prevent the grease from the stamp shanks from getting into the boxes and on to the* tablf s. Small as the matter may appear* it is worthy of mention, and perhaps th» hint may not be thrown away here.