NOTES FOR THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 1502, 28 August 1880, Page 10

NOTES FOR THE WEEK.

The annual report of the Department of Mines in New South Wales for last year has reached us. It shows that the yieid of gold was 109,6490z, valued at L 407.218, showing a decrease of 98090z as compared with the yield in 1878. The number of gold-miners, including Chinese, is estimated at 8102, but it is doubtful if more than 5000 were constantly engaged in gold-mining throughout the year. The output of coal last year amounted to 1,583,332 tons, valued at L 950.878. About two-thirds of the annual output are exported.

The Livingstone correspondent of the Oamaru Mail writes:— "The weather for the time of the year continues exceptionally fine, indeed it may almost be said that we have had no winter. So little snow lies on the mountains that those who are given to forethought anticipate a scarcity of water for sluicing in the spring. Several of our miners, chiefly those recently arrived here, have left to try one or other of the new rushes. I hear of some bound for the Saven teen- mile Beach, others to Lake Hawea, and again others to Mount Misery (the latter I take to be the most courageous of the lot). I presume in all these cases distance lends enchantment to the view. I trust their arrival at their several destinations will not, a& is frequently the case, increase .the number of the disappointed."

There is nothing of special note from the Hawea diggings (says Tuesday's Cromwell Argus). A number of claimholders are making wages, but the majority of the 200 men on the ground have not got anything payable. In the course of a month or six weeks from now it is expected that the snow will have sufficiently cleared off the higher country to enable prospecting to be prosecuted, which is quite impossible at present in Buch rough country. As experienced miners think the gold deposits in the creek at present being worked have been carried down from the higher regions, they are hopeful of finding something good when they can get the run of the territory between the Hawea and Wanaka Lakes. We are informed that payable returns have been got from the high terraces bounding Panama Creek. This means permanency to the new field,

The Wairarapa Daily of August 16th says:— "We are glad to see that Mr Brandon, the enterprising prospector, has done the right thing at last with his rec-f . It has been obvious for a considerable time that to work it; so that it would be a commercial success required a largo capital. Now in the neighbourhood of the i-eof this capital was not available, nor did the community understand why, if gold was there, it Bhonld not jump out of the stone and find its way to market without any special effort on his part. Mr Brandon, therefore, went down South to Dunedin, whore mining is understood, and got gentlemen there who not only possess capital, but also experience, to back his undertaking. The result has been the formation of the Caledonian Gold-mining Company ; capital LIO,OOO, in 40,000 shares of s=) eaob. Copies of the prospectus of the Company can be obtained at this office. There is now, we consider, a very fair chance of a payable goldfield being established in the Wairarapa, and every man, woman, and child in the district should take a share in the concernnot only because it is their interest to aid a movement which is calculated to largely benefit the district, but also because there are all the elements of success in the undertaking."

The Alexandra correspondent of the Dunslan Times writeß :—": — " I have always known that the quartz-reef on the slope ot the Old Man Range, at the back of Bald Hill Flat, the cap of which Messrs White aud Mitchell have bo*>n sluicing away for the past few years, was valuable, but I really did not think the owners valued it so highly. The cat was fairly let out of the bag the other day when Mr Jameß White bought out his partner's interest, giviug either four hnndred and fifty or five hundred pounds, I am not certain which, but I am most reliably informed it was one or the other. Now this sale opens up a question timea out of number referred to in your columns, as to whether the Blope of the Old Man Range is not worthy of more attention being bestowed on it than it has hitherto received at the hands of miners. Beyond the fact that the outcrop of the reef is on one of the spurs bounding Chainouni Creek (which, by-the-bye, has from time to time for many years past yjeldeol^ highly payable roturm<), the surface indication*! are no different than exist in many parts. The reason, therefore, why the locality hai been neglected is a riddle not oasily Bolved. The fact in itself that the. only olwm on the range side is

worth LIOOO should be inducement sufficisnt for further prospecting to trace either the present discovery or to fiad fresh lodes at the head of either Conroy's, Butcher's, or Blaokman's Gullies, all of which have turned out, and in fact still are turning out, large quantities of gold. I spoke above of Chamouni Creek turning out good gold, and the fact is supported by the sale of a half-share in a claim the other day by Jamos Fish to Mr Mitchell for LSOO. It was not generally known the claims were so valuable, though they were acknowledged to be payable, and the sales have opened people's eyes amazingly ; whether the surprise will stir the people into activity time alone will tell, but it really is to be hoped after the first shock is past they will allow themselves to fall into the old lethargic state they had allowed themselves to be aroused from for " a time. That gold in paying quantities is to be found in this locality there is no doubt, and it requires but the least spice of energy to bring it; to light. I do not know exactly what progress the shareholders of the Conroys reef are making towards - the formation of the proposed company, but the foregoing facts should materially assist them. Conroy'a reef and what may fairly be called James White's reef are on the same line of range, and but; a few miles apart, and should establish a confidence in the district. In Chamouni Creek, about three parts of a mile below the claim Mr Mitchell has bought into, there are other claims at work, Grey and LUhgoe, Carroll and party, and Webb and Sorrenson being the owners. I know nothing, however, about the returns from one or other, but as each claim is worked continuously and systematically, no other conclusion can be arrived at than that they are paying well."

The Tuapeka Times reports that a dividend of LSO for each fourth-share haa been declared by the Wetherstones Cement Gold-mining Company. Last month's yield of gold was 1500z.— The Extended Company, Waitahuna Gully, are reported to be doing remarkably well. They have about 30 hands employed, and the battery is working full time.

The Temuka Leader says :— " We have been informed by a resident of Temuka (who is an old miner) that ho has received information from a friend at the Okarito goldfields, advising him (if in a steady billet) not to go there, buc at the same time stating that men were averaging L 3 a week. It is what is known as a poor man's goldfield. He also stated that a great many men were arriving there from Christchurch and elsewhere."

About a fortnight sines (says the Arrow Observer) a new reef was taken up at Macetown about 300 yards from the public battery, and a company of six have now applied for a prospeoting claim. On Monday some 201b of the stone was crushed, and (although no gold was visible in it) yielded about three grains of the precious metal. This prospect ' is considered so encouraging that a shaft is now being sunk on the reef, whioh it is intended to work vigorously. The reef where the prospect was taken from is about two and a-half feet wide. It appears that a lease of the same reef was taken up by Me3srs Barrell and He&ley 14 years ago, at the time of the West Coast rush breaking out, but was abandoned owing to difficulties attending its working by reason of the alluvial digging then going on in. the vicinity.

A well-defined gold-reef has been discovered in Wicklow, and is probably the source from whence the grains and small nuggets obtained by stream-washing some years ago (in 1864) were derived. The peasant who has made the discovery has lived amongst the mountains ever since the time of the gold excitement in Wicklow. He has now brought down somepieces of quartz with small lumps of gold embedded in them, and says that he broke them off from large rocks of similar constitution, which were exposed to view this spring by the falling of a mass of the superincumbent strata. If his account be true, and if he can be induced to point out the locality of his discovery, we may yet (remarks a Home paper) sen a sudden change in the aspect of Irish affairs. Capital would at once be forthcoming to develop the mineral resources of the country, and the ownership of land would become invested with a new importance. The Hyde correspondent of the Mount Ida Chronicle writes : — "Our miners are at present idle. Our water supply is stopped, owing to the froßt on the mountains during the last week." The St. Bathans correspondent of the Mount Ida Chronicle mentions that M'Pherson and Company are prospecting, with water, the ground between Vinegar Hill and Brown's Gully. This ground is expected to turn out well, and a number of miners are awaiting with interest the result of the present trial. The Extended Company, Waitahuna Gully, are reported to be doiag remarkably well. They have about thirty hands employed, and the battery is working full time. — Taapeka Times. A dividend of £50 for eaoh fourfch-share has been declared by the Wetherstonea Cement Gtoldmining Company. Last month's yield of gold was 1500z3, On Monday night we (Bruce Herald) saw about two and a-half pennyweights of gold that was dug up in five hours at 'the Canada reef diggings by three men who are prospecting the ground in a practical manner. The gold is granular aud good j the grains are generally about the size of coarse oatmeal, and were obtained in crevices of the rock at a depth of three feet from the surface, at the top of the gully. There is a supply of water. There are about 16 men at work, but the party referred to£ is prospecting, , M