OUR MINING INDUSTRIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9086, 21 June 1888, Page 5

OUR MINING INDUSTRIES.

AN EXPERT'S OPINION.

Mr. John William James, C.E., F.G.S., a gentleman who has had a large and varied experience in mining in South Africa and the colonies of Australia, is at present on a visit to Auckland, and has visited the Thames. A Herald reporter, having been introduced to Mr. James by Mr. W. J. Courtney, who was intimately acquainted with Mr. James when the latter was engineer at the Kimberley diamond mines; the reporter was naturally anxious to get from him what information he could, especially on mining affairs. Mr. James was for five and a half years hydraulic engineer to the Government of New South Wales for inland cities and towns, water supply and drainage. "As regards mining outside New Zealand," said Mr. James, "I may say that when a digger finds fair prospects, and has an area of, say, from five to twenty-five acres, capital is required to develop it. Take, say, the goldfields of Australia and South Africa, or, above all, the great diamond fields of South Africa, where mining has been reduced to a science, from 1§ to 3 per cent, per month may be expected as a return. When mining is carried on on such a sound basis not only will capital be invested but the banks will advance the requisite money ; but where wild-cat schemes are attempted they will not look at it. I think the people in New Zealand do not study their own interest. Take, for example, some of the mines in Karangahake which I have recently visited. They are represented by shares of from £30,000 to £40,000 capital each, but all the work in them is being done by tributers on 20 per cent, returns to the companies, and these tributes will return, say, £200 to the company per annum. This is a very small return for the capital invested, and that is what leaves mining at such a low ebb here, and the fictitious price placed on the properties, and more especially the proviso for paid-up shares, debars capitalists and those who have reduced mining to a science from having anything to do with them. When directors take hold of a mine they do not want paid-up shares, which tended to destroy the main elements of the success of a mining property ; bub if the owners or prospectors who found reefs would waive the point of paid-up shares and take their positions as contributing shareholders, as in other countries, then operations would be carried on more satisfactorily. The prospecting areas are being supported in the same way, and in fact the digger has the whip hand. They expend a few pounds, but very little work is done. If the prospector or discoverer has something good he can always go to the capitalist with it. In South Africa, Australia, and other countries there are gentlemen who have reduced mining to a science, and their experts have reduced it to a legitimate business, to such an extent that they can make a calculation of what such a length of reef of a given width is likely to produce, and if the returns were greater, it was so much the better for the investor, but their calculations were based on the expert's figures." " Have you not found the mining people here as practical as those of the other colonies ?'

" No. I have not found them as practical as those of South Africa or Australia. I only find schemers here in connection with mining. I mean they do not deal with it in a legitimate manner. From my experience as engineer in South Africa and Australia, where there are large holdings, I cah say that by means of their laboursaving appliances and their manipulation of what is wasted in New Zealand, they are able to obtain fair returns. Altogether they work with more system than in New Zealand."

"Mr. Courtney informs me that you prepared an exhaustive plan of mining in South Africa."

"Yes ; Mr. Courtney, who recently visited South Africa brought away a section plan of deep mining, which I prepared, but I intend to have it photographed." Mr. Courtney : " Yes ; and to any of Mr. James' friends or others interested I will be most happy to show the plan. It is the most compete system of deep mining I have ever seen."

Mr. James: "If the mines were dealt with under a leading head it would tend to purify mining enterprise, and get rid of the wild-cat system. Operations were earned on on a large systematic scale in Kimberley. Mr. Courtney was one of the first contractors under me, and I think the magnitude of that contract would astonish many in New Zealand. An output of 1300 tons in one day, between the hours of six and six, and an average of 1100 tons per day was reached; but, of course, that required an army of diggers." Mr. Courtney : " Tell the reporter of what occurred when you were leaving South Africa."

Mr. James : " When I was leaving, in 1877, Mr. Courtney at the head of about 140 people came to the house. They presented Mrs. James with £800 worth of diamonds, and they also made me a presentation of an address. The presentation to Mrs. James consisted of sixteen diamonds, and one of them is nearly as big as a shilling." "That was a handsome present. You say you have visited the Thames. What do you think of it ?" "Yes, I have been three weeks at the Thames, and have seen most of the mines, and I think there are very good ores, but they are very badly handled."