THE GOLDFIELDS REPORT.

Otago Witness, Volume 11, Issue 2280, 11 November 1897, Page 21

THE GOLDFIELDS REPORT.

(Fhom Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, November 5.

Mr Wilson, inspecting engineer, in his annual report to the Department of Mines on the goldfields of New Zealand, says : — The mining boom which commenced in 1895 continued throughout the past yeir. A large number of areas ' were taken up within the principal mioing districts of the eoloDy, and~ex!ensive works undertaken in the prospecting and

development of the mines. In a great number

of .cases the claims have been disposed of to English companies, and operations liave been commenced and machinery erected to an eifceub only possible by a large expenditure of capital. The demand on the part of investors for legitimate miniDg properties has not to aoy great extent been lessened, notwithstanding the shrinkage in the yield com-

.pared with last. year. The decrease in the yield is not altogether due to the scarcity of the metals or to the mines being exhausted, but chiefly to the fact that on English companies becoming the owners a change in the policy of working was adopted, and a good deal of work and improvements in machinery carried i on in the place of. the continuance ot production. An immediate increase iv the returns

Cftunot be looked for, inasmuch as, in addition, to

preliminary work, the new appliances adopted and tho construction of the water races will take a considerable time to complete, during

which the actual recovery of gold in many of the mines will be almost totally suspended. • In the newer mines, also, in 'which diecoveries have been made of a promising nature, gold returns cannot be expected until the mint s are developed, and the necessary machinery and appliances provided, both for the quartz lodes in the North and Middle Island and the alluvial deposits in the latter island. In the near future, however, the number of gold-producing mines will

be materially increased and a steady yield maintained. Mr Wilson goes on to say that

the great interest evinced in qa&riz mining and the large amoant of capital' now invested will mark a new era in the history of the industry in New Zealand, but -in the rush to secure properties land has been acquired where at present there appears very little chance of valuable discoveries being made, and- where no indications warranted the preliminary expenditure required to secure a tifcie. Mr Wilson urges that care should be exercised in placing before ra-

vestors a true report of the- value of any propetty on' which' the expenditure of capital is involved. , * -