THE WOODSTOCK MINE.

Thames Star, Volume XXX, Issue 8382, 27 June 1899, Page 2

THE WOODSTOCK MINE.

MR. RICH IN REPLY.

(To the Editor.)

Sir: Would you kindly permit the following a place in your columns ir. reply to several letters recently pub lished concerning {miners for the Woodstock mine:

I have no doubt that the Wood stock mine could be supplied with miners by the Miners' Union, and that these anay be good miners, but, judg ing by considerable and extended trial, it is found that the bulk of these miners, though they may maki excellent progress in ground they are accustomed to, cannot do so in the Woodstock.

That the ore can be mined, profit ably to themselves by pianers accustomed to such ground as ours, and at the prices given bj the Woodstock Gold Mining Company is obvious, because for many months men have been making good wages (better than Bs, as quoted by Mr. O'Keeffe), whilst putting out ore ai our lowest costs per .ton, both from the widest and narrowest parts of our reef in its hardest portions.

And it may be instanced, as showing how different are the results tf what-should be an equal amount of labor, but by different parties in the same kind of ore, the same place and the same .price, that recently one party made 138 per cent more wages per day than their predecessors, who* threw up the contract. There is n< reason to suppose that these pien who threw up the contract were not representative of the class of minersgenerally procurable here, and an} business man would feel rather doubt ful about giving 8s a day, indiscripi nately, under such conditions; or, ii other words, paying the same aunouni to one man for five-twelfths of the work that he does to another for the whole of it,; and it is possible they fnay have all been good miners, but they were evidently not all good as far as our ground was concerned.

It must be considered that there h just as much difference in good miners' work as in other craftsmen's; for instance: though a bridge, building and heavy-timber carpenter jmay be a most excellent man. and well worth 10s or 12s a day at his particular car pentry, he would very probably be worse than useless as a finishing car penter, or cabinet-maker, and vice versa. No contract has been let in the mine that miners accustomed to our class of ore ought not to have made fair wages at.

! As to whether those miners whc failed to "snake a do of it" in the Woodstook mine .are some of the "well-trained practical and trustwor thy miners" mentioned by Mr. O'Keeffe I don't know, for they may oome up to his specification in their own kind of ground; but lam certain that they do not give satisfaction tc themselves or to their employer* id the hard ore of the Woodstock.

It is natural that the harder quartz miner is less abundant here, simply because there is less demand for him in a country where the harder quartz mines do not predominate. But it is hardly to be expected that I should pay a standard wage indiscrimipately to all coiners, without trying to ob tain the jmost suitable labor. Piecework or contracts classify according to merit. Our experience has proved this, and also that our prices are quite satisfactory to those accustomed tc the work.

Contracts can be obtained by apply ing at the mine. I am, eta, FRAtfK BICH, General Manager Woodstock Gold I M.Co. (Ltd.), garangahake.