THE MINISTER FOR MINES.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7863, 14 May 1891, Page 6

THE MINISTER FOR MINES.

OPINIONS OF THE THAMES GOLD-

FIELDS.

(PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.)

AUCKLAND, May 13.

When interviewed by a "Herald" representative regarding his impression- of, the goldfields in the Auckland district, Mr Seddon said the big pump at the Thames was a very expensive plant and quite obsolete, the type of engine used having been condemned thirty years ago. He found that excellent work was being done at the Thames School cf Mines, where there were thirty or forty pupils, from the schoolboy of fifteen to the grey-haired man of fifty or more. The difficulty was the lack of practical metallurgists, and it was his intention to endeavor to make arrangements with Professor Wilkinson, of the Otago University, to spend part of his vacation there. If such an arrangement could not be effected he proposed to get Parliament either to import a first-class metallurgist from the English School of Mines, or give a vote in aid to assist the Thames School of Mines to do so, in order that the ores might be subjected to the different methods of treatment required in the various districts. As to Cassell's process, whilst he spoke highly of it, he said he considered the charges so high that it was cheaper to lose the extra gold and to go on with the old wet process. The Wairongomai field presented in some respects a lamentable and heart-breaking state of affairs, large and expensive works shut up, capital misdirected, shareholders ruined, and the district depopulated. If a twentieth part of the money devoted to the plant had been spent in prospecting and assaying the quartz discovered, there might to-day be at Wairongomai a fine goldfield.