THE WEEK.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2081, 4 September 1875, Page 2

THE WEEK.

As the time conies round for saying something about the events of each week, the task sometimes is a difficult one, in that it is not at all pleasant to have to recapiiulate the mining news of the week, without imparting to the same some measure of originality. . This' is the case at all times, but it becomes more "apparent during what may be called diill times. The monthly returns have been placed before readers this week,' and they were generally satisfactory, several mines showing up uncommonly well—the Queen of Beauty being the only one that touched four figures for the month's yield, the Coromandel Tokatea being the next. It is felt that when the returns within a month reaqh tea thousand ounces, mining matters are not retrogressive, although it was hoped, ODly a few months ago, .that this amount would have been at least doubled before this date. Yesterday it was just six months since the Ohinemuri oyster was " opened." If, on that 3rd day of March —when (so. it ia said) £50 was offered for a horse to carry a man.with miners' rights from the place of issue to the pegging out ground— anyone had prophesied that in sis: months 7 time scarcely an ounce of gold would bo got from the new field, he would have been laughed to scorn. But so it is, for with the exception of a few trial crushings of an ■ encouraging perhaps, but far from brilliant nature, 0 hinemur-i has. not yet figured as a gold-producing district '4.11 the excitement, all the scrambling and hard running ; and all the money spent in various ways to be first in the field in every line, appear to have been almost thrown away. Of the twelve or thirteen'hundred miners' rights paid for, n.pt two hundred are being used by miners on the Ohinemuri field. Of the twenty or thirty licenses taken out for public houses, not a tithe are now being exercised, and the buildings in which such licenses were permitted "to operate are POW c^ospd, monuments of ]the too confiding natures of the pjyßjers, Qhinerauri. has hitherto wofully d^sapponitpd pvprybody, and the money spenj; there Isg helped to depress the mining industry elsewhere. There be some who yet hope to see Ohinemuri a great mining centre 5 there are some indications of a character' calculated to sustain this hope ;.■ and it is certainly to be desired that the hope may n.pjt be altogether groundless. Since dhinemuri d$ not turn out the trump card it was expected, Tajriw ha? attracted public attention. It is

known positively that there is more ground for the belief in Tairua than there was for any faith in Ohinemuri. The former has been in a measure proved. Trials''"which give 40 ounces to the ton must necessarily inspire some confidence; but if something is not done very soon in the matter of road-making, another six months will see Tairua but little advanced from its present primitive state. Ilia not in the nature of things that a district or a country can progress without some efiort being made to overcome the physical difficulties which obstruct such progress. The sooner some start is made the sooner will the work be accomplished. The Hauraki mines have been keeping up their good name pretty well. The Cure's monthly return is reported as satisfactoiy, but no word is heard of a dividend. Perhaps with good luck next month may see such a result. Several accidents have occurred lately—one has not been publicly mentioned at all, but it was considered trifling. In the City of London a man sustained a fractured skull while doingthat which he should not have done. It is useless blaming the man; many miners come to grief from the same cause. Their employ men t at the best is risky, and they are a proverbially daring class. Perhaps each one hopes that he will escape accident. Another casualty has fallen upon the Bright Smile—not extensive, but sufficiently serious to stop the works for a few days. It is the bursting of a steam pipe at the winding works. A prosecution uader the Quartz Crushing Machines Regulation and Inspection Act at Coromamdel is imminent; but particulars have not been received! The Thames Goldfield will not be entirely unrepresented at the great exhibition to be held at Philadelphia, U.S., next year. The Bank of New Zealand purchased some beautiful specimen stone from the Cure Company for exhibition, which "will no doubt be augmented by other " specimens " so as to. get up a good "case " for the inspection of our American cousins.