[NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE]

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Recommendations referred to were adopted or not, and would finally remain if the decisions of the Government were liberal in their character.

COAL DEPOSITS.

The supply of fuel to the digging population is undoubtedly of paramount importance, and I think the Government would be justified in going beyond the unworked province in securing it. I do not doubt the existence of Coal in the immediate neighbourhood of Wetherstone’s Gully, and in Waitahuna Flat, and I have seen lignite, a fair substitute for it, in the Waitahuna and Tuapeka Flats. But, although written applications have been made for privileges of working Coal, and I saw specimens of the Coal in store, no one whom I conversed with could give me information as to the locality from which it was obtained; but I have seen lignite in the beds of the Tuapeka and Waitahuna River.

Though I cannot make up my mind to strongly recommend such a course, yet I see now no better way of proceeding in this matter, than by advertising for tenders, from persons willing to contract for raising, say 1000 tons of Coal for the Government at each of the most thickly populated diggings. There are objections to such a course, but they are less weighty than those which exist in regard to the absence of all effort for the supply of fuel during the coming winter.

I am of opinion that a failure to obtain coal will produce much sickness and distress among the mining population as loss to the Province, and vigorous efforts should be made to prevent it.

HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION.

The amount voted by the Council in the last session is totally inadequate to the requirements of the case. A subscription at the Wetherstone, Gabriel and Waitahuna gold fields has been commenced, but without a very satisfactory prospect of its doing much in aid of the Government grant. I have requested the Secretary of each fund to place himself in communication with the Government on the subject.

TOWNSHIPS.

Nothing can be of much greater importance, with the view to making the Gold Fields a means of permanently settling the country, than the sale of Township sites. There will be no difficulty in coming to a correct decision as to where two of these should be — namely, one on the hill at Chaplin’s tent. This is central for the population in Tuapeka, Gabriel’s, and Wetherstone’s, and is where the roads to these places diverge. It is well supplied with water, is not very distant from the lignite in Tuapeka, or from the Coal, reported to crop out of the field near Wetherstone’s.

The second Township should be on the banks of the Waitahuna or Waitahuna Flat, where the Mount Stuart Road, the round Hill Road, and the road from Nuggety and Waitahuna gullies unite at the bridge on the road leading to Tuapeka. The nature of the soil in the environs of each of these proposed Townships is good and well fitted for leasing to small cultivators.

LEASES.

No suggestion of the Government has been well received more enthusiastically than the granting of leases of small farms and garden sites. I would raise the substitution of comfortable clay houses for the tents, and besides cheapening to a great extent the provisions of the miner, would change the character of the nomadic population of the Gold Fields in many instances to that of settled residents. Until some such inducements are offered, they will leave their families in other colonies, and return there with the rewards of their industry, instead of expending them in the country from which they have won them.

OFFICERS’ QUARTERS.

These are in every case unsuitable for the purpose required. I advise the removal of the camps to the sites of the selected townships, and the erection there of suitable buildings of a warmer, more substantial, and commodious character.

The site of the present camp at Gabriel’s Gully I think peculiarly objectionable, and a part of the more central site indicated above should be proclaimed a reserve for the Government use.

Instructions should also be given to the Commissioner on each field to recommend reserves for places of public worship, burial grounds, and temporary townships.

QUARTZ REEFS.

The opinion that quartz reefs exist I find to be very general, and guided by the opinions of authorities on the subject, I recommend that a rule be inserted in the regulations empowering Commissioners to grant rights to successful prospectors for reefs of 200 feet.

Along the centre, or presumed centre of reefs, and extending 150 feet on either side of it.

WET SINKING.

In places like Wellington Flat, below Wetherstone’s Gully, where the bottom rock cannot be reached without machinery for pumping out the water, I recommend the grant of extended claims. The claims now given are too small to justify miners in fitting up horse pumps or steam power; claims should be given bearing some proportion to the horse power erected.

MINING BOARDS.

There exists among the miners a pretty general desire for self-government by means of the proclamation of mining districts, and the election of Mining Boards. I am of opinion that it is advisable to proclaim these districts in every case, as soon as the forms of the Act have been complied with.

In one instance this has already been done, and I suggest that the land in the goldfields included in the Water Shed of the Tuapeka, be proclaimed a mining district accordingly.

ROADS.

In Wetherstone’s and Gabriel’s Gullies the roads require the expenditure of about six hundred pounds immediately. Acknowledging the propriety of helping those who are willing to help themselves, I beg to recommend that power be given to the road inspector of the district, to expend in bridging the creeks in the gullies, and in such other works as may be more immediately necessary, a sum of money equal in amount to double the sum raised by subscription in either of these places.

MEMORANDUM.

By Provincial Secretary, of Alterations required in the Goldfields’ Regulations:—

Rule 2—Strike out.

Rule 8—Amend in this form—‘The extent of ground that may be occupied in alluvial workings by any miner, in respect of surface scratchings, shall be—’

For surface diggings, an area of ... 64 yards
Ditto, if to a greater depth than 12 feet ... 80 ”
For ground where sinking and driving is necessary ... 80 ”
Ditto, where the sinking exceeds 50 feet ... 96 ”
Ditto, where the sinking exceeds 100 feet ... 128 ”

The Commissioners may grant a claim of any size not exceeding treble the area of primary claims, on land that has been worked and abandoned.

Rule 4—Strike out the word “four” in the third line, and insert “any number,” and substitute the word “half” for “two,” in the same line.

Rule 9—To this add:—That any Company, formed for the purpose of laying bare and working a river bed, shall be entitled to occupy and use, for each holder of a miner’s right in the company, 16 yards in length of the river bed; and also, the race, or cut, for the conveyance of the water from the point where the claim commenced, to where it is re-delivered into the natural bed of the stream. And also shall be provided in the surface occupation, during the work of a sufficient bank for retaining the water in the race, and of a track 24 feet in breadth along one bank of the river.

Rule 14—I recommend striking out the word “double” in the third line, and insertion of “treble” instead. And to limit the increased grant to four miners.

Rule 15—In this clause, I recommend that powers be given to the Commissioners to grant suspense claims for seven days.

JOHN HARDY,
Provincial Secretary.

NOTICE.

IMPOUNDED on the 27th of January, a Dark Grey Gelding, branded TR on off shoulder.

If not claimed on or before the 6th day of March, 1862, will be sold by auction to defray expenses.

JOHN BARR,
Poundkeeper.

Printed for the Provincial Government by D. CAMPBELL, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.