TASMANIA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 129, 1 June 1907, Page 9

TASMANIA.

At the last meeting of the Marino Board it was intimated that the Government had approved of the board expanding £11651 as their share of the cost of repairs and additions to Swan Island lighthouse. Some members appeared to think that tho Governments of Victoria and Now South Wales might repudiate thoir sharo of the cost, and it was decided to inform them of the steps being taken,- and ask them if they were prepared to meet their proportion of tho expenditure. Tho Tasmanian Secretary for Mines has issued statistical tables relating to minera 1 yields for the quarter ended 31st March. The njost important items are summarised thus : — Gold, qnartz, and cyanide, 16,086£0z; silver-lead ore, 22,576 tons; tin ore, 886 tons llcwfc; blister copper, 1920 tons; copper and copper ore, 463 tons; coal, 10,949 tons; iron ore, 1000 tons; wolfram,' 3 tons; bismuth, 2cwl. The numbers of Europeans and Chinese engaged in the industry during the quarter were respectively 7240 and 139, as against 6402 and 159 during the corresponding period of 1906. Mr. H. J. Rhodes, Commercial Agent foi Tasmania in South Africa, is on a visit to Hobart. He says that there is a^ growing demand in South Africa for Tasmanian timbers for mining purposes, and also for the best classes of fruit from this State. Stud merino sheep are also in request, 9000 having been imported recently. South African production is likely to keep out imports, of frozen meat, jam, and preserved fruits. Th. fuUm, of labour troubles, Mr. Rhodes says, depends on the action of the Transvaal Government, and the resident.-, are anxiously awaiting to sea what it will do in the matter. Those best able to judge are sanguine that within twelve months there will be a change for the better, and that a new period of prosperity will set in for mining and commerce generally.