THE MINES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1489, 29 May 1880, Page 11

THE MINES.

No one who reads the full record of mining intelligence which appears from week to week in our columns can fail to be struck with the very flourishing character of this industry. The intelligence reaches us from various quarters, partly from our own correspondents, and partly from the local newspapers. In the main we believe the statements are thoroughly reliable, and they embrace items not only from all parts"of Otago, but from the West Coast, Nelson, and Marlborough. We find among recent items the Reefton mines represented by the Just-in-Time with 474 ounces of gold from 494 tons of quartz, and the Keep-it-Dark with 179 ounces of gold for a fortnight's yield, and two subsequent cakes of amalgam, aggregating 412 ounces, from 382 tons of stone. At Macetown, Otago, the Tipperary, Homeward-Bound, Maryborough, and Gladstone are all doing well, and the latter yielded no less than 367 ounces of gold from 93 tons of stone, or over four ounces to the ton, at a late crushing. At Tinkers the Undaunted Company expect to close up the season with a total of 3000 ounces, and this and the adjoining Mountain claim are regarded as the richest alluvial cUms in Otago. At Wetherstones 700 tcPOO ounces of gold, worth £3000, is the reported yield of three claims. At Okarito Forks, West Coast, £256 worth of gold is said to have been extracted by one party in twelve weeks. At Wairau Valley, Marlborough, five claims are, we are told, paying well, and 14 ounces was the result of a morning's work in one of them. To return to Otago, there is great activity on the banks of the Molyneux, and a new and expensive dredge has been put on the river by enterprising practical men. At Longwood, Southland, the work going on is important, and the prospects wonderful. It is expected that tho crushing machinery now about to be set to work there will demonstrate this to be one of the richest fields in the Colony, rivalling the celebrated Thames mines. These are but a few specimens of the information which is almost daily reaching us from various quarters of the revival of mining industry, to leave out of count altogether coal-mining and tho frequent discoveries of copper, tin, and other ores. Surely this is a ''native industry" tho,t deserves every possible encouragement, and on which, in conjunction with pastoral and agricultural pursuits, the prosperous future of the Colony depends far more than on artificially -stimulated manufactures. We are disposed to agree with the correspondent of a Northern contemporary, who

says rewarding it : "I believe the ' unemployed ' difficulty will be solved, and, with proper management of the mining industry, entirely overcome. It becomes, then, a question of viKl interest to all who desire the natural welfare of tho Colony, the profitable dcv« lopment of its resources, aud havo the prospects of its labouring classes at heart." We, for our part, can but place the facts before tho public and leave them, like seed in tho soil, to fructify, and produce their natural harvest, by turning the attention of legislators, capitalists, and labouring men alike to the riches that lie at our feet.