Page 7 Advertisements Column 1

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3648, 26 January 1899, Page 7

A Californian miner, now a soldier in Manila, writes an interesting account of tlie mineral resources of the Philippines. Ho says that the Island of Luzon contains minerals of many kinds, the chief among them being gold. Silver, copper and coal, but in his letter he coniines himself to the production of gold, and its future, possibilities. According to thO miner the . Indians (Igorotes) with wooden bowls wash out dilOO.ooo worth of gold yedrly n--sands of five provinces, which he names. Many idols and of pure gold had been- shown him. He winds up his letter thus : —"But the excessive greed and corruption of Spanish officials of these islands have made anything like continuous mining, even by the wud tribes, precarious and well-nigh impossible. It is my honest belief that if American occupation holds many profitable ventures may be made in placer mining, for nearly all the streams of the northern part pf Luzon are auriferous, and have ah; abundance of water and wood and effective fall." / The French still execute their condemned criminals by means of the guillotine, hut the public spectacles hitherto displaved on the Place de la Eoquette are now to be things of the past. Private agitations of property-holders in the neighbourhood led the Government to seek to remove the scene of these ghastly tragedies to the Pauhonrg Saint Jacques. But the people of that district equally object to the rabble which gathers when a mans head is to be cut off. The outcome of the agitation is that M. Dnpuy is supporting a Bill now being passed to direct that in future all executions shall he private. . The Senate has adopted a resolution in favour of the new proposal, and it is not expected that the Chamber of Deputies will offer any opposition. vv