THE GOLDFIELDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8662, 3 September 1891, Page 6

THE GOLDFIELDS.

[by telegraph.—own correspondent.] Tliam Wednesday. Sharemarkkt.—Cambria, sellers 2s 4d ; Consols, sellers Is Id ; buyers, Is ; Lone Hand, sellers Is Gd ; Jloanataiari, Ss, seller's 8s Gd; Albumin, sellers 2s 6d; Orlando, sellers 9d ; Saxon, sellers Gs 6d ; Victoria, sellers Is 6d ; YVaihi, IBs, sellers 19s. Moanataiari.—Fifty pounds of picked stone were obtained lute this afternoon from the winze upon the junction of the flat lode and cross reef be&w 100 feet level. Fame and Fortune;.—Operations were resumed in this mine on Monday last with two shifts by driving eastward of the main break upon the Golden Age reef. Excellent results have so far attended the work done, and what is believed to be a good run of payable gold has been met with. Jives.—The reef met with yesterday has been cut into fully three feet from the footwall side, and there is no sign of the lmngingwall yet. Good dabs and colours of gold were seen in the quartz broken to-day, and on the right-hand side of the drive there is a band of bright mineral six inches in width showing in footwail rib of quartz for about three feet abovo the floor of the drive in which a little gold is seen. Aid to Prospecting.—At the County Council meeting to-night, Mr. Coopjr introduced the Thames unemployed question, and that with the view of stopping the exodus of miners from this place he thought that the Council should approach the Government, and endeavour to get placed on the Estimates a sum of money for carrying out prospecting works. He therefore moved, " That this Council, in view of the exodus of our miners and the apathy shown by capitalists to invest money on this field, shall petition the Government to place a sufficient sum of money on the Estimates for prospecting purposes to enable the Moanataiari main tunnel to be further extended as already indicated, and to further sink the Big Pump shaft, it being the opinion of the Council that the results from the works indicated will be of such a satisfactory nature as to justify the necessary outlay." Most of the councillors expressed the opinion that if the Council were to approach the Government on the matter it would be wiser to take a broader view of the question, and endeavour to get a sum of money for general prospecting works instead of confining it to the works specified in the proposition. The resolution, however, was not seconded; bub it was ultimately resolved on the motion of the chairman (Mr. James Coutts), seconded by Mr. Deeble, "That the Government be solicited to place upon the Supplementary Estimates a sum in aid of prospecting the goldlields of the colony, as in the opinion of this Council it is imperatively necessary that some such inducement should be offered for further developing its mineral wealth."

MINE MANAGERS' REPORTS. May Queen.— is with pleasure that I write _ to inform you that the preliminary work in connection with the opening up of the No. 2 level is completed. In doing so, perhaps a few remarks concerning the same may be of interest to you, aud v. iiich at the same time will show the large amount of work that has been done to bring about this issue of affairs. The first work undertaken was the sinking of a winze from the floor of the No. 1 level upon' No. 4 lode west of the junction, which was commenced on the 17th November, 1890, but owing to an accumulation of water this winze had to be suspended, after sinking a depth of about six feet. A contract was then let for sinking the shaft a deptli of 100 feet, the contractors commencing operations on the 3rd December, 1890. After reaching a depth of 38 feet, an. inflow of water occurred, aud further sinking had to be stopped. On the 12th December a party of contractors commenced to sink a second winze to the westward upon No. 4 lode on the footwall or eastern side of the No. 3 lode, the object being to obtain a connection with the City of London old workings, situated at the City No. 3 level, for drainage and ventilation for a May Queen No. 2 level. _ After reaching a depth of 106 feet and driving westward about five feet communication was obtained with the old workings, when a start was made to clean out the old drive that led back to the. City shaft. This proved a very difficult and tedious task, owing to the prevalence of gas and the quantity of debris that required to be removed for a length of 440 feet from the bottom of the new winze to the City of London shaft, and which had to be hauled by means of a windlass up the winze to No. 1 level. This work occupied a period of 10 weeks. Upon this being completed driving eastward from the bottom of the winze was started upon No. 4 lode, with the object of intersecting the main break and cross lode, so as to drain the water away from the shaft. After driving a distance of 111 feet the first gold was seen in the No. 4 lode at this level, and several pieces of picked stone were secured, besides which colours of gold were seen for close oil 30 feet along the drive, thus showing that the gold is on the hauginsjwall or western side of the cross lode at this new level, whilst at the No 1 level the first gold seen in the No. 4 lode was on the eastern side of the May Queen break, which proves that the run of gold extends further west at the No. 2 level. The fact of getting gold at this point leads me to the belief that a valuable block of ground exists under foot on the hangingwall of the cross lode, and which will be available when No. 3 ' level is opened up. From this point where gold was first met with, a further distance of 90 feet was driven to the cross lode. This lode proved to be 5 feet in thickness, and on its eastern side of the footwall a leader 12 inches thick was met with, which was driven on for a distance of 40 feet up to the break, gold being seen in the quartz broken for the full distance. The break had the effect of throwing the leader to one side, but after driving 15 feet, it was again picked up, and was at first thought to be the No. 4 lode, but alter stripping a portion and breaking it , down, the No. 4 lode was found to still exist in the footwall side. The quartz obtained however showed gold freely. We then started to strip No. 4 lode, and drove a distance of 40 feet upon its course eastward, gold being seen freely the whole distance, aud a few pounds of picked stone obtained, the lode averaging about feet in thickness. About this time we again resumed the sinking of the first winze at No. 1 level upon No. 4 lode west of the junction, the water having drained away and after sinking a depth of about 107 feet a collection was effected with No. 2 level. In this winze the lode averaged quite 2$ feet in thickness, and showed strong colours and dabs of gold all the way down, and a few pounds of picked stone were also obtained. When this winze was well under way sinking operations were again resumed in the shaft, but after troiug down a few feet a little difficulty was again experienced with the water, which necessitated the starting of a crosscut from the drive upon No. 4 lode at No. 2 level, back towards the point where the shaft would eventually come down. This soon got rid of the water difficulty, and prevented any further stoppage of operations in the shaft, which is now down to No. 2 level, and was connected with the crosscut put in from No. 4 lode at No 2 level about_ten days ago, the latter crosscut being 135 feet in length. Since then the out of the chamber, the dimensions of which are ten feet bv ten feet, lias been completed, and everything is now in readiness for commencing operations upon No. 4 lode. The total number of feet sunk and driven in connection with the abovementioned work is 1173 feat

to attain the new level, and whwi into consideration that the whole of broken had to be wound unthi ?L th At by manual labour to the &o 1 leviS m%a dfffifu that th , e undertaking S'!' difficult one, and one in which nA- Ver been lost in carrying it out Wliii ► ' out the above worklt maybementU*7*s two crushing have taken place ' crushing comprised 47 loads nf „ krsfc and /0 pounds of picked stone w & ir 92ozBdwt melted gold; the second comprised 26 loads of general a l hin 2 pounds picked stone whfch E S e rt f a " d fiv « /2oz lbdwt melted gold. The firfl 1 i^ D of quartz was broken out from the te ' 0t cf leader, No. 4 lode, at No. 2 level ti Vc *,» where the gold was first seen 'al \ J>lace level, and also from No. 4 Lit 2 winze west of the junction at No i'V tlle But the second crushing was whollv'fr 4 lode, being partly from the drive break at No. 2 level, and nar lv f of tl,e winze sunk from No. 1 level !L/ ot " th « junction. The results of these' or ° . the therefore shows in my opinion that th » pany is possessed of a very va v Ki e'vCiornupon No. 4 lode, between Nos 1 a „d 9. block as the quartz included in the k S r e ! elii . averaged nearly 3oz of gold per load cr ? s K' speaks well for the comntmvl, also opening up large payable blocks a u? 5 " ? depth, as gold has been seen alon"hJ7* of.the drive at-No. 2 level »n f, '°° r driven. In conclusion, no "re'it- tin, m? W ekpso before a number of stamnl™ -m° * kept constantly employed on o m ) be out from No. 4 lode, lkwe "„ S tZ , levels, and also to place the cora!l • 11,1 2 a good financial position as to S,ah{ n?Uch declare dividends to the shareholders 11 10 Lom, Hand. Have cleaned out «nr) paired the low level in several places fe ' it was found necessary. The tunnel U ere m very fair condition. I have ]L "° adderway in the No. 1 winze, below t a level. We have now a good travel; '01 from the low to the Moa level <)!!(? last we commenced to open out an int. y diate drive just at the point where th me ' nection was made between the >■;«» i ' COn " o,v level ami the ".'.p«4T l * leader, which is about 35 feet lJin. V No ' 1 level to intersect Nos. 2 and 'i ],!.? ! cording to the underlie otitic?' Acdrive will require to be extended' I f™' our feet to intersect them. a^ out W Alfred.— contractors have «„„i it winze 14 feet, and have risen frL * t!ls level 17 feet; this makes a f o £° « e > they are now very close to each otL f, expect they will meet and hole tn ai 1 (Wednesday). The reef i u tlie \v?,°°-' compact;, and averages about 12 reef in the rise has not been h.-nt- ' the do not intend to have it broken nnrilfi 1 connection is made. We hav P n ani »the finished which connects our new ho Ir J' "'p the county tramway, and completed to-morrow and ready for receivii the quartz There are about ten S i quartz stacked at the mouth of the tuuLf which was broken from the low level* when the winze is through there wi I L t or seven loads more from the rise an i ■; Elx and about ten loads from the S„ d "«, possible I will send the quartz down to t*!f battery by the end of the week 11 in can get the battery, will start crush?ij New Alburnxa.—Battery level : Stonins on Dixon reef above this level is stilll' " ? continued. In the different stole i, ™ 5 gross the reef still maintains its usual £ about eighteen inches in thickness of I ' mineralised quartz. Large quantities of £ per pyrites are at present distributed through the reef, while colours of gold are occasion ally seen A start was made on Frida L forward the quartz on hand totheCamK battery and crushing commenced on Sat!* day with 10 head of stampers. Good pi™ 1 is being made with winze on footwa Head from this level The leader at present rather disturbed on account of arlavll crossing the winze, but a firmer class « sandstone is now making its appearance Whau level: The drive on footwallleader ai this level continues to penetrate agood <1». script of sandstone. The leader, which is from nine to twelve inches iu thicknw continues to show colours of gold at each breaking down, while a few pounds of picked ■stone have been saved from this drive duriirthe week. a Moanataiari.—.Cleaning-up and retorting took place to-day for the good return of 4S0o; melted gold, i 1 or this yield there were 84° tons of quartz and 2001b picked stone crushed, Hie picked stone got from the winze on the cross reef and flat lode were of good quality, being worth over loz to the pound. Jhe loss in melting was rather mom than usual. This was caused, by a leakage which took place in the joints of the retort which was not noticed till the retort came oil the fire. Gold is now being very freely seen in the stope on the fiat lead above the intermediate level. New Manukas.— drive below No, 4 level on No. 5 lode east is now an to th* boundary, and there being no improvement in the lode and the quartz not payable, 1 have shifted the hands to-day up to No, '( level to continue the drive through t'h'a Crown section of mine, when I hope to find the Imperial City lode, which was cutoff by a slide, and other lodes met with in a crosscut drive nut in years ago from the Caledonian shaft on their No. 3 level through the ilauukau section of the mine.