The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1896.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 166, 16 July 1896, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1896.

For tho c&uiß that lacks assistants, lac tc» ■mam that needs resistance, Fee fu future ia the dlsteaos. Axd the giud that w« can do.

The general run of people whose interest in finance is confined to the augmentation aud administration of their own private incomes, probably found Mr Seddon's Budget, which appeared in our columns last evening, a trifle dry. But, if a large part of the Statement was hardly more than skimmed by the average reader, we are certain that one paragraph was very carefully read, noted and inwardly digested by everybody. That paragraph was the one dealing with the goldmining industry. We have all followed the recent developments in the Hauraki Peninsula too closely for even the Premier to be able to give us much further enlightenment. The Budget can tell us little about the present state of the goldflelds with which we are not already well acquainted, nor can anything it says of the prospects of the future of the industry make us more hopelul and confident than we now a x re. The future"of the goldfields is assured without the help or encouragement of any Budget. The intrinsic value of the industry is its guarantee of success. At the same time, it is to the interest of the country and in the power of the Government to accelerate that success, and it is the proposal to do this that constitutes the most important part oftthe reference to mining In the.Budget.

It will have been seen that the Treasurer intends to devote a sum of £200,000 towards the cost of thoroughly prospecting and opening up by means of tracks and roads the various auriferous areas of the colony. The money is to be part of a proposed loan of ,£1,000,000. The word loan has a disagreeable ring to most of our ears, but if there ever was an occasion on which borrowing was justifiable we think it is in connection with the development of what is probably one of the richest of the colony's resources. If any public expenditure is likely to compensate the taxpayer for an increase in his burden by stimulating trade and giving employment to large numbers of men, it is the spending of this ,£200,000 on rmr goldfields. Public works are frequently unremunerative for many years after they have been completed, and in some instances they can never become directly remunerative er

cvea, by ministering to the greater convenience of the public, indirectly so. And there is- a possibility that work done on the geldfields with public money may come under that category. But the possibility is extremely remote, and like many similar possibilities in every avenue of life cannot be allowed to influence us if we are to progress at all. \ There is a great work to be done in the Hauraki Peninsula in the way of prospecting, both above and below ground. The country has only been partially examined by the explorer, while to the miner who knows that the coveted gold lies locked up in the reefs deep down, it is almost a terra incognita. Look at the recent maps which have been issued and see what a comparatively small proportion the ground pegged out bears to the whole area, and again consider that the ground taken up has in the vast majority of instances never been examined except to the extent of proving that it contains gold. One does wot at first grasp the idea of the enormous weallh which may be contained in that great block of mouatains. The mere superficial aiea is enormous, but one has not to think of superficial measurement, but of solid measurement, when estimating a goldfield. It is not a farm whose value depends on the quality of the first foot ©f surface soil. You have to think of these rich reefs carrying deep down into the bowels of the earth, and to remember that if a man has only enough surface room to sink a shaft he may reap treasure that outshines "the wealth of Ormus and of Ind." Compared even with the famous goldfields of .the world, the Coromandel Peninsula occupies a very respectable area. The gold-producing beds of the Transvaal Rand only coyer ioo square miles or so. Our peninsula is laced and interlaced/by reefs over an area of ten times that extent. And there is this further difference between the two places: The Rand has been thoroughly explored, because it is easy of exploration, and the amount of gold it is likely to yield has been calculated almost to an ounce; the Hauraki Peninsula is difficult to explore, has never really been explored in any exhaustive way, and no soul can pretend to estimate the wealth which it may nrOduce.

Although it may appear strange, considering the prizes to be won in goldmining, the prospecting of goldbearing areas has almost always been of a very inadequate character. This is instanced by the fact that the world - famous goldfieids of Ballarat, Bendigo, and Ararat, in Victoria, were all rushed and deserted when first opened up. In Otago again at the Dunstan'diggings, it was only when the Clutha overflowed and covered the beaches, that the diggers •were driven back into the gullies where the richest gold was subsequently found. •■ And this was ia cases of alluvial mining. Prospecting in the case of quartz mining is, from the expensive nature of'the industry, carried on in a still more unsatisfactory manner. New Zealand especially has suffered from a want of capital, to test the value of its gold reefs. One authority states that compared • with the other colonies of Australasia, her progress in quartz mining has been very slow, and adds that in one line of reefs in Bendigo probably much more capital has been invested than in all Olago. Quartz-mining without capital is impossible, and it is because capital has not until lately been obtainable in New Zealand for mining purposes that one of the most lucrative industries has been so long neglected. Money is wanted first for thorough prospecting, and then, when the gold is found, for prosecuting the industry on an extensive and economical scale. , Without very thorough prospecting, it is quite possible to pass over the very richest areas, as has been proved over and again in the history of goldmining. Without a large plant capable of treating, enormous quantities of stuff, low grade ores are unprofitable to work. These two facts should be borne in mind by everyone.

With regard to the question of the utilisation of low grades ore, it is one which is of particular interest in connection with the Hauraki Peninsula. A well-informed writer pointed out ten years ago that the future of the Hauraki district must depend upon the working of those enormous reefs popularly termed barren or buck reefs, which yield about 3dwt to. Bdwt of precious metal to the ton. He quoted Victoria to show that mines there paying good dividends averaged only 4dwt of gold to the ton, and it is well known that the average yield from all quartz reefing in Victoria is under rodwt. In the Rand it is about i2^dwt. . Recent discoveries on the Hauraki Peninsula, < and the application of cyanide to gold-saving, has proved, however, that there are immense deposits of gold-bearing ore far exceeding in average yield the reefs of the Rand.

We may trust to the large companies interested in the Coromandel Peninsula to open up the properties they have purchased. From their experience of mining in Europe they know what the systematic development of a quartz mine means. We in New Zealand do not know. We require to pay a visit to some of the mines of Germany, for instance, where mining operations have been carried on for seven hundred years in the same properties, to understand the elaborate system of cutting and cross-cutting which is pursued so that not a grain of gold may be left in a cube foot of reef. A similar system of underground prospecting,is carried on in Brazil. Under such methods of developments the Hauraki Peninsula would continue to be a source of wealth to New Zealand, not for a decade or two, but lor generations and generations. But while the private

companies carry on their underground operations — the Government aiding thera — the latter may facilitate matters very greatly by opening up the approaches to the auriferous region. An authority from whom we have already quoted declares that the most valuable assistance which can be rendered to the mining industry is by putting the roads and tracks into good order and cutting new ones.