The Mines Statement.

Otago Witness, Issue 181, 6 August 1886, Page 13

The Mines Statement.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — My attention has only just been called to your article on the Mines Statement in your issue of the 16th inst., wherein you take exception to my figures in that statement as not being reliable in respect to the value of mjnera.l productions. I admit that it is fair you should criticise the sayings and doings of public men and giye the fullest publicity to -i;iy inaoouraoies you may feel it to he your duty to expose; but I appreh^ind it is primarily your duty to examine closely the items you do not believe to ha?e been truly stated before rashly jumping to a conclusion.

Firstly, you have taken exception to kauri gum being included in the list of mineral productions, on account of its having grown, from the vegetable class. Now, my contention is that any natural production mined for is a mineral ; and while I admit that the point is a fine one, you must allow that it is very difficult to 6ay the exact time that must elapse when certain mineral productions cease to be vegetable. Even you, Sir, would not call coal a vegetable, although perhaps after .mature consideration you will allow that it has been a vegetable at one period of its growth or formation. Neither can amber be termed a vegetable, although it has been clearly proved to have originated from a vegetable resin, changed or altered by fossilisation. Again, amebrito, which is found in this colony, so closely resembles the kauri gum that it is in many instances taken for such. Iqdeed, there are so many oxyginated hydro-carbon oompounds to he mined for that it is impossible to say at what period of time they oease to belong to, the vegetable kingdom.

Dana's definition of a mineral is " Any natural production formed by the action of chemical affinities and organised when becoming solid by the process of crystallisation." Kauri gum ju undoubtedly resin issued from the " Oajnraa.la Australis," yet it ia chiefly found in places where th.c tree from which it came rat^st have been destroyed for ages, a,3 seldom," if ever, can any trace of the tree, be found with the gum or in tfoe locality where the gum is found. In reality

it may be termed an inorganic substance mined for in the earth, and fairly classed among mineral productions, just as lignite and brown coal are.

Secondly, you take exception to the total value of exports for last year, as shown by me. By referring to the customs returns for 1885, you will find that the exports of produce and manufactures of the colony were £0,591,911, while the total exports appeared £6,810,939. Of this latter amount £228,028 were of foreign goods exported by us, and therefore cannot be taken into account when dealing exclusively with the products and manufactures of New Zealand. Thirdly. The next item you deal with is the value of gold for la&t year. If you examine the tables attached to the Mines Statement, from which my figures were taken, you will see that while all other mineral products were given as to the quantity actually exported, the gold was taken from the quantity or total entered for payment of duty for exportation during last year, as this plan shows the yield of gold for the year, minus whatever quantity may be kept in the colony for manufacturing purposes and on which no duty is paid. Again, the value actually exported for the year ending 31st December was £890,056, while the value of the quantity entered at the Customs for exportation was £948^15. This no doubt will account for the discrepancy you fancy you have discovered, because on the 31st December the difference between the two last sums is accounted for by entries having been passed at the Customs for a larger amount to the end of the year than could be shipped away. You will see that the figures as quoted in the Mines Statement are thoroughly reliable, and instead of being overstated in respect to the value of mineral products exported, there are other products which might fairly have been added to the list for last year — such as stone, stoneware, and firebricks, which together amounted to £1052. One of my principal objects when making the Mines Statement was to show in as fair a manner as possible— and which has never been attempted previously — the real value of the mining industry to the colony as compared with other industries of New Zealand. — I am, &c,

W. J. M. Larnach. Wellington, 27th July 1886.

[There can be no objection to Mr Larnach's excluding a certain amount of New Zealand exports from a computation of our resources for the reason he gives ; but his method of including the gold on which duty was paid in 1885 though not exported in that year would lead to complications, unless all calculations were made in the same way and a corresponding deduction made at the commencement of the year. We gave Mr Larnach all possible credit for having undertaken a most useful task' in his Mines Statement. As to kauri gum, it is described in the " Encyclopedia Britannica " as a semi-fossilised resin like the African copal, while a resin is termed " a secretion formed in special resin canals of plants and coniferous trees ; ifc exudes in soft tears, hardening into solid masses in the air." We leave our readers to judge if it can be rightly called a mineral.— Ed. j