THE MIDDLE STAR TRIBUTE.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1732, 22 July 1874, Page 2

THE MIDDLE STAR TRIBUTE.

I visited this mine yesterday, and found the mine, so far as'the tributers are concerned, in active operation. A drive has been put in from the middle Star Company's tunnel about 80 feetfrom the mouth, on a strong reef of about three feet thick from side to side. I could not see any defined walls, so cannot describe them. The lode laysdn a hard jointy t country, and is full of black minerals^ the roof shewing for many feet an almost unbroken line of pencilated antimony in the largest quantity I have seen in that district.]; The run of the reef is some-? what different to that of others in : the district; its courso being, so far as I could guess, nearly north and south. I could see no gold in the face or roof/ The upper workings of the mine are away over the hill, and to which there is attached a legend that I know something of: In the early days of the fields a lode was worked on, and a parcel of stone left at the mouth of the tunnel now occupied; the stone lay there for something like a year and , a half, when one of the shareholders returning to the Thames, had it crushed; it yielded three ounces to the ton. The tributers* have now cleaned out an old winxe, ;:and have this same lode in hand. The Middle Star tributers are private individuals, employing wages men, and are carrying on their somewhat difficult work with energy. I could see no stir in business about the mine, other than what the tributers are doing. I looked into the battery that now, and must be for'the' future, idle; all I could see was a pretty little engine, and eight stampers, with berdans and appliances, fast oxidising' away. It looked as though it was nobody's child.