The Mines.

Otago Witness, Issue 1419, 1 February 1879, Page 19

The Mines.

The manager of the Cromwell Quartz-mining Company telegraphed on the 24th : — " Cake brought in to Cromwell on Thursday night, weighing 734'tz., from 418 tons of stone, result of three weeks' crushing. " This will, no doubt, be very gratfying news to shareholders.

The Tipperary Company at Macetowit wa3h'edlup roughly on Saturday night, aftercrushing 140 tons of stone. The result was 725 cz. of amalgam. The mine is looking very well.

The balanoe-sheet of the Cromwell Quartzmining Compauy for the:half-year ending 31st December, 1878, to be presented at the halfyearly meeting of the shareholders on the 29fch inst., shows thefollowingitemsundettheheads of; receipts and expenditure : — Eeceipts : Gold returns— l37B oza 11 dwt 4 grs, 1,4787 93 lid? balance due Colonial Bank, allowing for cheques outstanding, L 636 5* 4J ; total, L 5423 15s 3d. Expenditure : Balance due Colonial Bank, 30th June, 1878, L 1412 6< 7d ; wages, L239S 19s 4d; car tags timber, &c, L 733 11s Bdj machinery (new account) and b'lls payable fop machinery (new account), L6ll 8i 4d ; miscellaneous, including iuteresi; to Bank, £267 9* 4d ; total, L5423 15i 3d. The following is fcher profit and lo»a account : — Dr. : Tocluim and battery expenditure, L330718i9d; salaries, &c.» L 92 Is 7d; balance, L 1621 12* 7d. Or.: Balance, 30th June, 1878, L 234 3s; gold returns, L 4787 9s lid. The liabilities are a* follow : —To capital, less uncalled capital, 164,000; balance due Colonial Bank, L 6365» 4d ; bills payable, L 483 &» 8d; balance, LIC2I 123 7u ; total, L 66.741 ii 7d. Under the .'head' of assets are comi>risbd :— Original purchase oE mine and machinery, L 64,000; machinery, L 146 9^ 7d ; naachinpry (new account), L 1094 15j ; main shaft, LISOO.

The rush to Lake Mahinapua (says the Wesfe Coast Time 3of Saturday Ja&t) is attracting considerable attention, and is likely to prove of much importance to this town and district. Our special reporter visited the ground yesterday, but noS returning until a late hour in tb» evening we are unable to give a full account of the doings at the rush before nest issue-. Meantime we may say that several new claims, have bottomed, and show payable prospects. The ground is taken up for a long cfatance* over a mite in length, and though it will take a few week? yet to determine what extent of ground is likely to become payable, there are at number of olaimholders sanguine that tho lead may be traced for a considerable distance. Me Linneman has a store in course of erection, in f *ct it was nearly completed yesterday, and will be stocked with general merchandise nexfe week. A butchtr's shop is also about to he> erected, and a hotel site has been marked out. '('here are nearly a hundred men at work, and four or five claims adjoining the prospectors 1 have given prouiihing indications. The prospectora are washiug out half an ounce to the load on the average Killeen and party washed out one and a-half ounce from thei bottom of their shaft, which was reckoned to> yield an average of five pennyweights to tha load. Altogether the prospects are decidedlyiuii roving, and the rush promises to extend, itself.

The Lyttelton on the 24th brought over fromL D'Urville Island 50 tons of copper ore which h*s bedi sh pp^d for Newcastle, in the Neptune to be m melted.

•An important discovery of rich deposits of phosphate of lime has been made in Ottawa County, Canada, and the price of land within, the supposed area of tbe deposit bas gone up. enormously on the chance of its containing thovalnable mineral. Quite a new industry has. suddenly Hpruu? «p in consequence ; " rushes?** of speculators and labourers are taking plac* towards t.ne district, and all is activity »wL bu^fcle. The " lumber" trado ia quite neglected in face of the new Rource of wealth. ; new road* a-e being cut in all directions, aid frenh country i-s being rai'id'y opened up. In Templetoit alone boujw 300 men and 50 teams of horsesater engaged iv removing the phosphate, beside* large numbers ia Hull, Wakefield, Portland, and other places. Large quantities of tha phosphate of lime have been shipped to-Eng-land, and to the Coutineut, where its quality has been highly approved. Tho care displayed, by i>r<>dncers and snippers in the drepsing and sorting of their troduoe has placed Ottawa* phosphate iv ihe first rank, and it ib believed, that the new workings will develop into tact largest and richest in any part of America.

The Mining Department has had 1 prepa>«d an estimate of th* amount cf gold obtained sa Victoria during IS7B, the information on which, it is ba-ei having baen obtained by the mining' siivveyor* aud rexistrars on the different goldfield* from bankn, gold-buyers, mining con*, panics, and other-.. The estimate ia (says th* Melbourne Argns) not a fiual one, and will ha Eohjsct perhaps to some corrections when th>- <&• cattment has received two or thr<«e returns which have not yat conw in trom different district*, but it w oonwdeml to be approximately correct. The depaitmeDt estimate* the yields at 755,754 z. as against 79&9L9 in 1877, which, was tha approximate estimate it arrived at in J&nuary Iftft. The e«titaate for 187S ia verynear that erivflrt byi-the-'Ar^us last Monday— namely, 753 793a>s«< ' TW nUmher of miners q£ work at tbaeiid'oMtofc "wrath ,ww computed to he 36,604, and thw".»frtfa,l; v mean number for 1878 w»s ey.timated*^ l^^^