AUCKLAND MINING FIELDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13925, 5 December 1908, Page 5

AUCKLAND MINING FIELDS.

A MINISTERIAL REVIEW.

THE THAMES DEEP LEVELS.

[BT TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Wellington, Friday. Some interesting remarks on. the subject of mining in the northern portion of the Dominion were made to a representative of the Post by the Minister for Mines (the Hon. J. McGowan) to-day.

"The developments both at the Waihi and adjoining mines are," he said, "encouraging. Unfortunately, through lack of capital, things in the Coromandel portion of the district, are at rather a low ebb, but that is one of the class of districts ■which will always be subject to periods of depression on the one hand, and the making of valuable finds on the other. The reefs there are not generally of such an extensive character, but they arc rich. In regard to Thames, the position there is that there is comparatively little real mining, with the exception of the companies that are already 'on gold.' Development there seems to await an important 'find, which is very probable, or the expenditure of capital to develop what is believed to be by geologists and miners, a valuable arear in the lower levels of that field. These have never yet had a trial, the deepest shafts being only 1000 ft below the sea level, while most of the geologists and miners consider that there would, by going much deeper, be a reasonable prospect of coming on to the same class of country from 400 ft to 500 ft— has already produced immense quantities of gold from a small area. The development of the deep levels in New Zealand is a matter of money, and it' appears to me that the local people are not willing, even if they are able, to find the money.

" The unfortunate fact remains," continued the Minister, "that the rich character of many of the smaller reefs at the Thames lends itself more to. 'market' mining than industrial mining. For instance, the business that has been carried on both at the Thames and Auckland Exchanges for 30 years and over, while it is a feature of mining that it would not be desirable to get id of, yet carried to the, extent that it has been in the Northern goldfields, has really worked injuriously, when looked at from a State or industrial point of view. Such operations often lead people to think that they have lost money in gold mining, whereas their money has merely gone into the pockets of some other individual, and this carried to the extent that it has been over a number of years, cannot have a good influence on mining.

" As an industry, as a whole, it is an exceedingly advantageous one for the community, seeing that since 1857, when records were first kept, we have exported gold and silver to the value ~of over £74.000,000. During the last four or five years the product of the industry has been fairly steady— £2,000,000 per annum —and there is no reason, with the judicious employment of capital, why such a result should not continue for many years."