Goldfields Inspection.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 152, 30 June 1887, Page 5

Goldfields Inspection.

(by telegraph.— own correspondent.)

« . Wellington, this day. Mb Gordon, Inspecting Engineer of the Mines Department, will not be able to pay another visit to Auckland goldfields until the end of the, year. , : He has just started on a. tour of the West Coast,goldfields, and after completing it he will visit each of the other mining centres in the South Island. Cabinet Meetings. . . Several meetings of the Cabinet have been held this week, and have been attended by every Minister except the Premier and the Hon. Mr Reynolds, both of, whom are still in the South. I have excellent authority for stating that the question of retrenchment in the Ciyil Service has been discussed at 'considerable , length by Ministers'lately. ■' '•■■' ■'.'•'' IWTr Pargavillc. A local politician, who pretends to " know a thing or two," tells me not to be surprised if I hear in the course of a few days that Mr Dargaville has been called to the Upper House. .My informant assures me he has reason to believe that the member for Auckland West will be the next new lord, and that the dignity; will be conferred in a very short time. Mr Dargaville is still in Wellington. The Ball Wredger Company. I learn from the Mines Department that Mr Brook Smith, the New Zealand representative of the Ball Dredger Company, has been permitted to take up two leases on the Five Mile Beach, below flokitika, on condition that he places a dredge costing a thousand pounds upon each area. Mr Brook Smith has taken up two claims of 1,00 acres each, and is now forming a large company in the South to work them. For years past a number of men with the aid of Calif or nian pumps have been making fair wages by sluicing the gold out of the black sand in the locality referred to, But as the Ball dredger is better suited for that kind of work than the appliances now in use, it is thought the Company which is being formed will make a very good thing out of their enterprise.