THE VICTORIAN GOLD-FIELDS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1832, 19 June 1874, Page 4

THE VICTORIAN GOLD-FIELDS.

[Argus summary for may.] Mining affairs in Victoria are represented as being very dull in nearly all directions, the quartz-reefing district of Sandhurst, which has been so very prosperous during the past few years, being no oxc ption to the gener.il rule. The dulness haa been gradually increasing for some months past, notwithstanding the hopes which naturally existed that some new discoveries would be made on our leading gold-fields, or new diggings be found in country not previously worked. Hitherto such hopes have generally been fulfilled somewhat according to the expectations of the parties entertaining them ; but we have now. passed over a number of months without meeting with fresh encouragements in mining of a nature sufficiently important to lead to the belief that there will be any extension of mining industry for months to come. The depression now existing may be traced to a variety of causes, the first being that absence of new discoveries has led to a most serious depreciation in mining shares, and a universal disinclination of shareholders to pay up calls in prospecting mines, unless there is some immediate prospects of a return for the money invested. That disinclination has, in numerous instances too, caused a stoppage of working operations, the minors, many of whom work on wages, being as a consequence thrown out of employment. Another cause of the depression has been over-speculation in the past in mining property on Sandhurst, Ballarat, and the other principal gold-fields. The great success which was achieved in some of the quartz mines in Sandhurst in 1871 raised the prices of mining shares in that district to an unprecedented height, though the prices were at the time considered to be only reasonable. The success of those companies also led to the formation of some hundreds of others to prospect ground where it could be surmised there was any prospect of finding the rich reefs supposed to be running under the surface. It is now known that many of these new companies had only the remotest hopes of success, and were really speculative concerns, started with the view, primarily and chiefly, of benefiting the very few persons who, by promoting them, became early possessed of shares which they were able to dispose of to others at good prices at a time when the mining excitement was at its height. A large proportion of such companies are now extinct, and, as a matter of course, the money invested -in them by the public has been lost ; but that is not the only evil which has been done. So many persona have lost money, and so great a disinclination to in\ est in progressive mines has been caused, that it will be a very long time before the public are again as willing to invest in mines as they have been in the past. It must not be considered, however, that there has been any vital injury to gold-mining, such as would be likely to extinguish it altogether. Mining is still carried on in thousands of paying claims, both quartz and alluvial, and although the total weekly yield of gold is supposed to be not quite so high as it was six months ago, there is not a very great decrease in it, especially when it was remembered that at all times some diggers are leaving their occupation to settle on the land or follow other pursuits in our cities and towns which may be more congenial to their' tastes, or at which they may believe they have better chances of eventual success than at the rather uncertain one of gold-mining. On Sandhurst the opinion gains groiind that the only legitimate way of meeting the present depression in mining is to sublet the mines t j working parties where companies have failed to make the lodes pay under their system of working, and thus check the making of calls as much as possible. Already a large number of claims in the district are in the hands of parties of working men, who, being competent miners and earnest workers, will probably by energy and experience, do what expensively managed companies failed to do, viz., obtain gold from the mine which will not cost them over LB l7s per ounce. Where mere prospecting work has to be done it is also noticeable that the contract system is rapidly gaining ground. Formerly it was a constant practice to pay for the sinking of shafts or driving of cross cuts with day labor. Now a better state of things prevails, and very few works are being prosecnted on any other terms than contract, which is more satisfactory to all parties concerned, and in depressed times, such as at present experienced, when so many miners are out of work, must result in a large percentage of saving to the companies. Mining is said to be languishing in the Ballarat district, but there are symptons shown by a good many persons of a desire to make another effort to support it ; though as yet no definite course has been marked out. Two have been propoßed — the first is to make a great effort to get a loan or grant from the Government to meet the cost of putting down two lines of bore 3 across the country lying between Ballarat and Burrumbeet, which contains an area of over 300 square miles of quite untested schistose country, covered with volcanic deposits ; and the second is to make another attempt to test the Ballarat deep lodes for payable quartz on other lines of reef than those now being worked. A third idea has been suggested, which may possibly be the best of all— that is, to try and obtain machinery that will so reduce the cost of abstracting the gold, that the enormous quantities of quartz and tailings on Ballarat may be made to pay. The news from B&'larat East quartz mines continues satisfactory. A most beautiful specimen of gold was shown about a fortnight ago from the claim of the Black Hill Company. It was a solid piece of gold weighing 115oz, and with it were 220z more, all obtained from a small quartz leader at the deep level. The Parade Company were also reported to have got some singularly rich stone from their small leaders about the same time as the specimen was obtained by the Black Hill Company. Elaine keeps up its reputation as a district containing remarkably rich quartz. By the last quarter's returns it seems there had been 1276 tons of quartz crushed there, yielding 21220z of gold, the number of quartz miners employed being only 110. It seems strange that so promising a district should be so tldnly populated with good miners. Large claims and "shepherding " have, however, obstructed the progress of Elaine and the neighboring district very much. The Chines district shows satisfactory signs of. improvement. Creawiok iB still yielding well, but the

local minps present no features of int' res' exct-pt that the Prince of Wales Company's tributers are reported to have struck a fine-looking quartz reef in the deep level of their quartz shaft. The shareholders of the Bonshaw Freehold Gold-mining Company, Ballarat, at an extraordinary meeting held at Phair's Hotel, Melbourne, on the 29th ult., aureed unanimously to wind up the company and sell the property, the ground left unworked beiny considered too poor to justify the directory in continuing to pay wages to miners, or to induce a sufficient number of tributers to take it up on terms. The mine must in the past have been a very payable concern to some persons. During the time it was worked the gold obtained from it realised L 372,150 9s lOd, out of which L12G,024 was paid in dividends, and L 121,969 in wages. "Fresh discoveries made at Yarrara, a mountainous tract of country about 40 miles from Albury, point," says the Murray and Hume Times, "to that locality becoming a scene of busy mining industry. Recently, we are informed, four new reefs have been discovered, all of which show well for gold, while the reefs in the leases taken up are proving of a valuable nature. A small crushing from the reef in Messrs Day and M'Lennan's leape took place at Hawksview lately, and gave the good return of two ounces to the ton ; the reef is said to be 2ft. thick and well defined. One of the latest discoveries made by Mr Palmer is very highly spoken of. The reef is said to be from 3ft. to 4ft. in width, with gold showing well through the stone. At Ournie work has been going on steadily since a crushing plant has been erected, and the atone at grass yielded remarkably well, varying from 4oz. to soz. per ton. The valuable nature of the stone in the Peep o' Day Reef, and the fact of crushing machinery being now available, is likely to give an impetus to prospecting,' and we believe it is only a question of time before other and valuable discoveries will be made."