COMMERCIAL.

Evening Star, Issue 8007, 9 September 1889, Page 3

COMMERCIAL.

The amount of revenue collected at the Custom-house on goods cleared to-day for consumption was Ll,C4llßa 9J. TheTiraatu ‘Mail,’writing on the export of grain from New Zealand during the current year, brings out the following startling result: That while in 1887-88 the Now Zealand cereal exports only totalled 691,453_ bushels, in 1859 the exports reached 3,670,205 bushels, or an increase in bushels of 2,878,752, and in monetary value an increase of LI, 544,400. So far as the figures for 1887 and 1888 are concerned, those given by our contemporary are entirely misleading. The statistics published by the Government for the years 1887 and 1888 show that exports of wheat, oats, and barley were respectively 630.214 bushels, 3,189,898 bushels and 135,7i0 bushels, or a total of 3,955 822 bushels for 1887 ; the figures for 1888 being 2,307.971 bushels, 2,610,985 bushels and 75,444 bushels, making a total of 4,994,400 bushels of grain exported for the year, THE LABOR MARKET. Mr Skene reports that there is a steady improvement in the country demand, and town is brushing up fast. Wagts: Couples, L 65 to L7O; shepherds, L 55 to L6O; ploughmen 20s, second class los and 17s 6d ; milkers, 10s, , 12s, and 15a ; grooms, 15s and 20s ; gardeners, , 20s and 255, and 6s to 8s per day ; boys. 6s to 10s; bnshmen, 4s to 8s per cord ; store hands, 15s and 20s ; station cooks, 20s and 25s ; hotel cooks, 30s to 60s, I PROPERTY SALES. The Perpetual Trustees Company offered at i auction to-day the freehold of part of section 1, ( block 25, Dunedin, having a frontage to Dow t ling street of 41ft Sin by a depth of 132 ft. The , imildisgy oa the i.viad comprise Toomey's

I Shades, ft number of offices, and part .of Upion I Chambers. . Tlie property was passed m at > L 3:000, not reaching the'reserve. _ , , . James Samson and Co. report hsvirg sold to Mr F. Middleton allotments 100 and 101, town- > ship of Mansford, near Port Chalmers, for the S sum of L 27; also section 29, township of Darley , (Oaversharo), passed in to the trustee for the mortgagees at Ll6O, MINING NOTES. The Reefton gold returns for the past week i were Globe, 182oz of amalgam from 174 tons; Keep-it-Dark, 1260z of amalgam from 155 tons: : Scotia, 6270z of amalgam for five days’ crushing ; Inkerman, 1720z of amalgam from 60tons; Inglewood, 670z of amalgam from 55 tons. The success of the Weltnan dredge at Waipapa Beach has induced the proprietors of the claim at the mouth of the Olutha to take stops for thoroughly testing the richness of their claim. Mr Barrell, a mining exnert of extensive experience in Victoria and th>s colony, has been engaged during the week in sinking holes all along the claim between Kaka Point and Port Molyneux. Gold has been found in all the holes, but as Mr Barrell has not yet separated the gold from the black sand, it ia impossible to say whether the claim Is as rich as it is believed to be by all diggers who have visited it. The difficulties of working claims bslow high-water mark and saving the fine gold having been successfully overcome at Waipapa Point, there is every reason to believe that a dredge will shortly be at work on the Molymux beach, where the gold is known to be coarser, and consequently more easily saved, than at Waipapa. —‘Olutha Leader.’ The excitement anent the recent deep ground discoveries at Tinkers is intensifying. Preparations are being made to sink other shafts ; the real value of the discovery will therefore soon be known. The big prices (f 310 and L 340 respectively) realised for the two 32nd shares of L 175 paid up iu the Mountain Water Race Gold Mining Company, Tinkers, as sold by

auction, is the very best po-sible evidence as to what is thought locally of the recent deep ground discovery. The prospects of the deep shaft at Tinkers are as promising as ever, and the strata now being gone through indicate the vicinity of the main reef, when something particularly good may be looked for. Some of the claims on this line are being amalgamated, with a view to sinking. Some 200 acres have been marked out on the north side of the German Hill diggings by Mr B. Flannery, a party of some thirty Dunedin men having been formed by him for the purpose; and as these gentlemen aro prepared to go to an outlay of LIOO apiece for prospecting, something good is bound to result, Who will say now that mining is done in Otago ?— ‘ Dunatan limes.’ At a complimentary dinner in London to Mr William Knox, secretary of the Broken Hill Silver Mines, New South Wales, after he had floated this great mine on the London market, Mr Knox said that aboutf three years ago this mine might have been bought for L 16.000, but now it was valued at more than L 8,000,000. The shares originally issued at the price of 19 each were now worth nearly LSOO. Within the previous twenty months 3,047,700 ounces of silver had been received in London from the mine, in addition to 11,886 tons of lead. An American inventor claims to have perfected machines that will separate and extract gold from washdirt by the dry process, independently of the use of mercury, water, or chemicals. On the IGth inst. a number of persons interested in mining attended an experimental trial of the ‘‘Tiorra Scca” machines—as they are called—in London, and were both surprised and delighted at the results obtained, The machines have been reported upon by numerous mining experts, who appear to have formed a high opinion of their va'uo. They are utilised (1) for extracting, by the dry process, free gold from alluvial and placer soils; (2) for extracting, by the dry process, free gold from crushed quartz; and (3) far concentrating by the dry process refractory ores. There is also a portable hand prospecting machine, for testing, on the spot, without water, the richness of gold and mineral-bearing depo .its. The principle adopted is the introduction of the materia' to be concentrated into a box through which flows an intermittent current of air. This rising through a sieve in motion, sustaining a super-imposed layer of shot, carries away the lighter gangtre, while the heavier particles of metal, falling by gravity among the shut, fink through the sre<e into a suitable discharge. The machines perform the operations of pulverisation, co r centration, gradation, and separation. They are light ard easy of transportation they require little motive power, are readily adjusted and .e----paired without the employment of skilled labor, and apparently economise time, labor, and materials to a surprising degree. Amongst other experiments exh bited was the deposit of a little free gold into two casts of earthy material. The whole was passed through one of the machines, and 96.3 of the gold mixed up was recovered.—' Argus’s’ correspondence.’