VICTORIAN YIELD OF GOLD FOR 1873.

Otago Witness, Issue 1159, 14 February 1874, Page 6

VICTORIAN YIELD OF GOLD FOR 1873.

(TJieAge.) We are now in a position to give the exact yield of gold for the past year. It may be reckoned up aa follows :—Exported during 1873, as shown by the Custom House returns, 1,115,987 oz.; received at the mint, 125,304 oz. ; quantity on hand at the mint and banks on the 31st December, 1873, as shown by table below, 99,935 oz. : Total, 1,341,226 oz. From this amount must be deducted the quantity held by the banks on the 31st December, 1872, which waa 190,331 oz., and the 13,733 oz. held by thfi mint on the 31st December, 1873, which ia included in the 125,304 oz. passed in for coinage during the year. Deducting then thd two amounts of 196,331 oz. and the 13,733 oz. from the gross amount given above of 1,341,226 oz., we arrive at 1,131,162 oz. as the total yield given for 1873. In 1872 the yield was 1,317,275 oz., thus showing a decrease in 1878 of 186,113 oz. The mining surveyors' reports gave the total yield for 1872 at 1,138,4480z. Up to the present time, the mining department have not received the whole of the returns for the last quarter of 1873 ; and it is, therefore, impossible to say what their estimated yield for the year will be ; but as the number of miners employed on the goldfields in 1873 is set down at about 3000 less than the previous year, it may be anticipated that the mining returns will show a decrease in the yield. The amount of coined gold issued from the mint during the year was £834,090, consisting of £752,000 in sovereigns, and £82,000 in half sovereigns.