MINING MATTERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXIII, Issue 153, 28 June 1902, Page 4 (Supplement)

MINING MATTERS.

5 On OTAGO NOTES. Tho dredgemostcr of the new Halfway House repoitt'd on the 7th inst. that ho thinks the juound will improve as he woiks .ihu.ul. The bottom was still h,nd, Auth a little -wabh on the top, and (hu gold was all in Ike leef, and could be seen in it when pieces were LuoLi'ii off. 'ihe Tuapoka, Times undei stands that lho TuupeLa Dredging .Company has leceived p<. muss-ion jrom the Minister of i'ubliu Wojks to dredge through tho lailwaj le-trve at Tu«ipcko- Flat, and the dredge -will commence operations at once. At the beginning of the half year ended 14th May, Alexandra Eureka "Company's profit and loss account showed a credit balance of £74 13s lOd, and the gold returns for the six months represented an income of £2142 19s sd, nukmg a total gold yield of £2217 13s 3d. The expenditure reached an aggregate of £1268 Vs 5d in addition to which £600 was paid in dividends, equal to Is per share, while there was a credit balance of £349 5s lud to be carried forward. Prior to shifting the Leaning Rock dredge down tho river the dredgemaster washed up and obtained lloz of gold. Before going through the gorge ho bot> toincd at 38ft on a hard reef, which carried no gold. He then pulled a length ahe.ul, but could not work, so ho stopped work, and shifted farther down. The Manuherika dredge has obtained eomo excellent returns since work was resumed, and as a result tho directors have been enabled to declare a fourth dividend of 2s per share. This means a distribution of £1200 among shareholders while the total sum returned in this way is £4800, or 8s per share. Tho excellence of the returns may be gauged from the fact that this is the second dividend declared since 19th, May, shareholders thus receiving 4s per share in three weeks. The bulanco-sheet of the Alpine No. 2 Company shows that the finances of the company are in a satisfactory condition. On 30th April, 19U1, the profit and loss account showed the uum of iJb^Z 17s 9d to debit, and the expenditure ' duiing the year amounted to £1427 2s 9d, making a total of £1955 0s 6d. The dredge won 5450z sdwt 6gr of gold, ' valued at £2114 9s lOd, and the sum of, £160 7s 5d was received from the salt) of shares, thus leaving a credit balance} of £289 16s 9d. The nominal capital i 6 £6500, but 290 shares have, been unallotted, thus reducing it to £6210. Thert's is a loan of £200, the accrued interest on which amounts to £9 4s, and there aro other liabilities to the extent 'of £173 2s 4d. j THE WEST COAST. ' The Caledonia Company is dissol\T.ng in sorrow, but not in anger. The sh a reholders' present at tho meeting in Dunedin the other day seomed tacitly to admit that if the claim had proved a duffer it was not the fault of the directors, who hud tir&t thoroughly tested the ground, and had afterwards carefully consideied propositions for now claims, but m both directions without success. The shareholders, therefore decided to g,o into voluntaiy liquidation with a prospect of getting bock a 3s 3d dividend. Comparative promptitude was at any rato a virtue of the Caledonia directors, for they have built their dredge, t.vorkcd it, and proved their ground uup-a.yable, while other companies floated at t'hesaino time havo not got a bto.rt, and their failure or success is still in thi) region of hope deferred. though b!««t with a title that has a glorious reconi at the Thames — the Caledonian was perhaps the greatest show of reef gold ever seen — this Coast property is a case of pujte failure. After a second trial had proved 'unsuccessful, tho directors had to decido -whether they should take up a new and not very roseate venture at the cost of calling up (if possible) another £2000 of capital, or whether they should sell the dredge at the Blackwuter River Company's satisfactory tender of £2250. They chose the latter course, and co — exit Caledonia. The Hokitika correspondent of the Mining Journal, after mentioning that in a foitnight only 17 o-it of 24 C oast dredges bare been cble to give re-turns, says: — 'Tho causes can only bo assigned to the several dredges pot fc,eing able to cope with the ground, and when the fact is taken into consideratiaa that they have been specially select* jcfi and designed to deal with the individual properties it makes the outlook for t Ine industry none too promising • just now. Certainly many have had to go under repairs and alterations, only for this consideration a considerable amount of blame must be attached to those Avhoso liands they have passed through." THE NORTHERN GOLDFIELDS. Tho intermediate level in the Broken Hills, Tairua, appears ior the present to "be through the run of gold at both ends, but it is expected that the rich stone will make again in tha south end. The chief ground for this- hope is that the oro in tho south end of the low level, which is 50ft farther 6outh than the end of the intermediate level, has greatly improved. All the slopes are producing good ore. Two of the new vats are already in use. The English company owning the Haurnki mine at Coi'omonde} has in good days paid a tidy sum iv dividends out of tho ground, and has still a fair amount of capital in hand. Latterly the mine's returns havo much decreased, and as Coromandel deep levels do not, after Kapanga experience, attract the Home investor, tho company decided not to expend its nest-egg in tirther prospecting or m deep development, but to withdraw and remove its plant. Tho local people of course complained of an alleged injustice done to the district by absentee landlords who have feathered their nest (they certainly don't all do it), and local feeling has so far becu successful as to prevent tho Huuraki proporty being protected in its mining title except on condition that tributors are permitted to enter and glean what the company leaves. So now it is announced that four parties (three each) of tributors have commenced work in the Hauraki mine in the drive where Edmonds and Warner did so well six years since. Surveyors are now lay,ing off tribute blocks iv the seaward side, and all tho available blocks ore applied for. 41 Liist week it was mentioned that tho Mines Department would place at the disposal of the Victoria Company boring tubes that would enable the company to tost tho Thames foreshore i:o 1200 ft. 'The information afforded by tho recout bore, so far as it went, is summed up in a model at the Thames ScJiool of Mines, which shows that for the first 25ft situd. was passed through ; from 26ft to 170£'e clays of vaiious kinds; fiom 170 ft 11»1 1» 180 ft, pipeclay; from 280 ft to 330 ft, iuulesite boulders ; from 330 ft to 350f I , clay ui*ain ; from 350 it to 380 ft, soft andesite; from 380 ft to 500 ft, solid anclo site The half yearly report of the Eclipae, Tarniu, shows that after paying £b'!s in dividends and £2035 iv wages, tlao company had in the bank a balance of £272. The mine yielded bullion for the half year valued at £3089. Manonu's last two returns — April, «429 tons, £1100; May, 540 tons, £1400— read well. Of the last return, £900 Avas from cyanide, and £500 from amalgamation. Rising Nun (Owhaioa) reports an* oxtraction of £5 16s Id n ton from a p»*arcel treated. But how big was the parcel?

1 * With 1 the re-settlement of the country) after the war (says the Cape Argus.) noti to speak of new enterprises, the laboufl market is bound to be in an exceedingly) irregular state for a long time to come^ and we shall have to put up with th« consequences which sueli a state of thingjQ entails oa both employer* and empbveafc