PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 35

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Gold. I think it was a fortnight ago that a telegram appeared, stating that some English capitalists had offered £7,000,000 for the Mount Morgan gold mine. As many of you live in gold mining regions you may feel a little interest ia this mine, which, I suppose, is the richest in the world. It is really a hill 500 ft high on a 640 acre section, about 25 miles south of Rockharapton. The section— a square mile— was bought many years ago by a settler named Donald Gordon for 5s an acre 1 and he sold the soft, spongy pumice-stone looking quartz, which has yielded as much as 1200oz to the ton to the good wives of Rookhampton for cleaning hearths and doorsteps ! For some reason he sold out to Morgan Btoa. for £640, and they in a short time formed a company, keeping one-bnlf of the claim for themselves, which they afterwards sold howover for £97,000 The mino at present is worth, I think, about £15,000,000 judging by the price of shares. The mine seems to differ from other mines in the following rospoots : —The gold is so fine as to be invisible, and yet the average yield is 6oz or 7oz to the ton ; secondly, the gold is the purest in the world, being absolutely free from silver and the common metals ; owing to this the mint price of the gold is £4 4a 8d per oz ; thirdly, the gold can only be got by the expen--sive chlorine process, which may be briefly described as follows .—The atone is orusbed very fine and roasted, and then put into barrels containing chlorine gas. This dissolves the gold, which flows froir the barrels as a claret coloured liquid. This is filtered through charcoal beds which retain the gold and pass off the water colourless The charcoal is burned, and 75 per cent, of its weight turns out as pure gold. As burning is so largely employed one does not wonder that 4000 tons of wood are consumed annually. i The mine is worked in three eight hours' shifts, and is lit by electricity. The 900 men employed with their families and tradespeople form a town of 5000 inhabitants), wholly supported by the mine. A ton of gold is won monthly, and in less than three years £1,200,000 has been paid in dividends. The origin of this immensely rich deposit is in doubt, though the general impression is that it is due to a geyser or hot spring which burst out ages ago. It is curious that the surrounding hills, which are similar in appearance, have no trace of gold deposits. The Portuguese in Africa. I read last week a very interesting article in one of the English reviews on this heading. Mr Rankin, the writer, was a consular agent in East Africa and bad exopllent opportunities fr r forming an opinion on their colonising efforts and power tj govern, and he Bums up the Portuguese to ba thoroughly incapable of becoming either colonists or rulers. Towns of a thousand inhabitants have been blotted out by the slave raiders, right under the Portuguse I officials' noses, and they dared not interfere. I On the Mozambiqueohannel Portugal has four splendid harbours Pomba, Momba, Nakala, and Mokamba, but instead of using the harbours they i prefer to place themselves on inlands Burrounded by pestilential swamps, so as to be out of reach of the native attacks, and they stare in amazement at Englishmen planting themselves among the natives, because the ! natives choose healthy localities. They are not only frightened of the natives, but bribe them to keep peace by presenting them with arms | and ammunition. As a proof that they do not | govern the natives and Arabs, who are supposed Ito be subject to them, Mr Bankin says j that there is an Arab settlement not 1 15 miles from Mozambique that supplies that town with fruits, vegetables, and corn. When he visited the settlement the Arabs laughed at the idea of the Portuguese governing them, and drew their fingers acroßs their throats to indicate what would be the fate of any of those gentlemen if they dared to go near them. Everywhere else is the same ; the Portuguese dare not trust thamselves with the natives. The English on the other hand are not interfered with, and every inlet or river on the coast has a hut belonging to some British trader. In connection with the telegrams Quilimane and Mozambique have been referred to. QUILIMANE is on the coast, built on a dreary Bhore of mud and Bwamp, and is more important as a trading settlement than Mozambique. It is the outlet for the streams of slaves gathered in Southern Africa, and carries on considerable trade in gum, ivory, skins, and fruit. It is inhabited by the lowest of the natives and the dregs of Portuguese jails. MOZAMBIQUE stands on a low coral island a mile long and half a mile wide, and is separated from the mainland by a strait about three miles wide. It is over-populated with Portuguese (chiefly convicts and their descendants), Indians, negroes, and Swahilis. It is called "The White Man's Tomb " by Europeans, for malaria fevers either lay them low in graveß or reduce them to walking skeletons. With Quilimane and Mozambique in their hands, the Portuguese could open up Eastern Africa to a wonderful extent, but their influence instead of being beneficial is a blighting and paralysing one, THE SHIRE DISTRICT which I wrote of a few weeks ago has a capital, eituated above the Murobison Falls, in the shape of a charming Scotch missionary settlement of red brick houses surrounded by beautiful gardens. It has been named Blantyre after Dr Livingstone's birthplace. The whole of this district is now sprinkled with Sootch settlers and traders, and there is no doubt that in time Blantyire will become quite an important inland town. On Nyassa there is another missionary settlement called Livingstonia after the great missionary explorer, Buda Pestli. In this twin city we read that the working classes are striking for eight hours, and they wish also, I suppose, to maintain and even increase their present wages. And no wonder, for if what I have read is true, in this large city, though full of stately buildings, churches, palaceß, and tbo now well known Hungarian roller flour mills, the death rate is very high, and the working classes degradingly poor. Buda Peath has long been the Capital of Hunptary. Owing to its fine position its population has increased threefold during the last 30 years. If you look at your map yon will nntise that the Danube, after passing Bud* I Pesth, flows by no other important town until j Belgrade, beyond the dangerous rapids of the Iron Gates, is reached. This is because the river runs through a very level, low, marshy | plain, and no city could be built on the Danubß in this part of its course exoept at enormous expense. Buda Pesth is built at the i last narrow part in Hungary, and this as much j as anything gives it its importance. Buda, or i Ofew, is built on a cliff on the right bank, and Pesth on a plain on the left. The two are conneoted by a magnificent suspsnsion bridge ■ and a bridge of boats.