Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1885. "MEASURES, NOT MEN"

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1168, 5 August 1885, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1885. "MEASURES, NOT MEN"

It is many years now since the late Mr W. H. Harrison, erstwhile a journalist in Dunedin and subsequently the representative in Parliament of a West Coast constituency, moved that certain statistical information relative to the goldmining industry should be every session laid before the House of Representatives. Thus originated in 1869 the annual report on the goldfields, which is presumed to embody a general account of the present condition of the goldfields ; their advancement or otherwise during the preceding year, and their probable prospects ; together with particulars showing the average price of provisions in each mining district, the rate of wages, estimated population, and such other information as may afford a comprehensive idea of the general condition of the mining interests throughout the Colony. Mr J. T. M'Kerrow at present holds, in addition to his other offices, that of Secretary for Goldfields, and we need hardly say that his periodical reports have been complete as fulfilling the requirements of the order of the House, and have, moreover, contained many valuable remarks and suggestions dictated by his extensive experience. The tendency for several years past has been towards a diminution of the yield of gold. The return for the twelve months ended 31st March last was 239,6180z5, of the value of £927,433, being £31,701 less than the preceding year, the decrease having been entirely due to a falling off in the yield from alluvial deposits. Mr M'Kerrow remarks that the surfaceworkings in beds of streams have been pretty well worked out, and "the alluvial miner has to follow the leads of gold in deeper levels, and consequently he is retarded in the search by having either to sink for it or wash away the superincumbent drift by hydraulic sluicing," The quantity of quartz crushed for the year shows a large increase on that of 1883-84; but the quality was, on the average, poorer, since the amount of gold obtained does not bear a corresponding increase,

although the total yield is slightly in excess. The Thames — the most Aw-, portant quartz-mining district in the Colony— shows a very considerable falling-off, but the adjacent district of Te Aioha a, marked increase. ,;The results of th*^ Ojago quartamijiing -aJ/ Macetown, Skippers, and jtees v 'River (head of Lake Wakatipu) give a very marked increase in yield dyer last year's returns. This, as in the Reeftou district, the reports states "can be ascribed to the fruits of a good' deal of past dead work beginning to appear, and to the greater facilities in procuring timber and machinery, owing to the very great improvements in the roads executed during the last two or three years." There have been a few discoveries of fresh ground during the period covered by the report. At Criffel, in Otago, it is noted that on the high slopes of Mt. Pisa, about 4,000 ft above the sea level, a considerable area has been " proved auriferous for sluicing, and may be expected to last as a summer diggings for many years to a limited number." The great range of level in auriferous deposits, and the extensive area over which they are spread, " while it suggests the thought," says Mr M'Kerrow, " that th.ci.-c may still be many places rich in treasure undiscovered, renders it very unlikely that any very extensive goldfield awaits discovery, unless it may be in the southern portion of the densely bush-clad Westland district, or the recesses of the great Southern Alps. " Indeed, it is known that there are auriferous deposits at the head-Waters of such rivers as the Dart and Wai ho, close up to the glaciers; but hitherto the difficulty of access has j prevented any but the most adventurous spirits from venturing into these fastnesses." In the open country,' he adds, the prospector has tried, it may be said, every valley and stream-course in the Colony. "However, the alluvial deposits now being worked are proved over a large area of ground, and will last for many years for certain." The persons engaged in the goldmining industry are returned at 12,034, against 12,206 in 1883-84, of whom 9,975 are alluvial and 2,059 quartz-miners, 3,443 of the former being Chinese, the number of whom, with slight fluctuations, has been nearly stationary for several years. During the financial year, works to develop the goldtields were sanctioned to the value of £34,797. This, with the authorities for expenditure of the two previous years, gives a total of £127,549, of which two-thirds were for roads and tracks, and the other third for water-supply, prospecting, and sludge and drainage channels. Mr M'Kerrow, we are not surprised to find, considers the outlay on roads is much the more satisfactory expenditure, " as it not only opens up the country for mining, but also for its future settlei ment, and may be looked upon as a necessary and permanent work, which would have to be clone in any^ case; while the outlay on the water-races is nooooeaiy only for the one temporary purpose of washing out the gold deposits. That done, the works are no longer of any use, however costly they may have been to construct." On the experience gained in New Zealand, be adds, it may be laid down as an axiom that any water-supply costing more than £10,000 is almost sure to prove a commercial failure ; for, as a rule, the broken and rugged nature of the country does not permit of any one race commanding a large extent of auriferous country. Mr M'Kerrow states that Mr Gordon, the Inspecting Engineer of the Department, was instructed to make an inspection last summer of the principal mining districts of Victoria and New South Wales, and that the result is a very elaborate report now in the Press, which deals at great length and detail not only with goldmining but mining for coal, copper, tin, and silver, and the systems of ventilation, winding, haulage, and other cognate subjects common to all classes of developed mining. It would be impossible, Mr M'Kerrow says, to give in a few lines anything like a synopsis of the report ; but "it may be said, in a sentence, that the hydraulic sluicing systems of New Zealand are more advanced than those of the Colonies referred to, but that in the process of saving fine gold and in the treatment of pyrites New Zealand practice (or. want of practice), and, neglect of that method of obtaining gold, is far behind, and the Colony has a great deal to learn and imitate, which would conduce to the great prosperity of the mines affected." The appendix to the general report contains an interesting paper by the Inspecting Engineer on the works in progress on the goldfields, the report of the Wardens for their respective districts, and of the managers of the Government waterraces, and also the usual statistical tables.

The Colonial Industrial Exhibition, which was formally opened at Wellington on Saturday, may be looked upon as the inauguration of a new order of things, as far as encouragement to local industries is concerned. The very fact of focussing, as it were, the various Colonial products for the inspection of businessmen and artizans from all parts of the Colony must give one and all some better conception of the resources at our command, and point many obvious lessons as to the direction in which these resources can best be utilised. It is only in so far as the Exhibition tends to point a clearer way for the development of the almost unknown resources of New Zealand that the very great expenditure of public money on the concern can be justified ; and if, as the result of the Exhibition, a single industry of Colonial importance springs up, the money will not have been expended in vain. The undoubted resources of the Colony are beyond all question, and anything that would tend to bring

these resources into greater prominence is deserving of every encour. agement ; s for the future prosperity of New Zealand depends, in &', great measure, upon the development of those' ;end^k resources so /^'lavishly ►provided ,Jtyaughout, thcpJength and breadth of the Colony-iTy'sT bountiful Nature. The variety of climate, too, is such as to admit of a widely different range of cultivated products, and between the olive groves of the North and the whear fields" tif the' South the variety of products that might be successfully grown is practically unlimited. It .would. be. quite an easy matter, if sufficient inducements were offered to capitalists to take the matter seriously in hand, to produce within ourselves numerous products for which thousands of pounds are yearly sent abroad. Adequate experiment has proved that sorghum and the olive grow to perfection in the Auckland districts ; while many varieties of sub-tropical fruits find both soil and climate congenial. The climate of the northern districts is eminently suited for sericulture, and, with the handsome bonus offered by the G-avernment, in due time the Colony should be able to export silk. Beetroot grows readily almost all over the Colony, and there should be no particular difficulty in producing all the home consumption of sugar from that source ; though, of course, while sugar cane in such abundance is grown so near at hand, it is unlikely that there ever will be a great market for beet sugar. It has even been suggested that tea might be grown in the Auckland peninsula, although this has never been put to the practical test. Tobacco culture has established itself, and those we have mentioned are only a few of the hundreds of similar industries which are awaiting a little kindly fostering. Turning from the cultured products of the soil, an equally wide and valuable range of resources greets us in the mineral wealth of the Colony, the greater part of which yet remains sealed up in Nature's deep womb. The wealth of gold which already forms no inconsiderable item on the credit side of the Colony's ledger represents but a small fraction of the buried riches waiting to be unearthed. Some attempts have been made to work iron sand at Taranaki; but the expenses in connection with the production of the iron have been found too great to make the venture a payable one. However, nothing daunted by the failure at Taranaki, an Auckland Company has ' erected smelting works to produce iron I from similar sand at Manakau, and the result of their trial smelting is such as to give every encouragement for the ultimate success of the industry. In Otago there is a whole mountain range of the richest possible iron ore, which could be much more easily and profitably worked than the Manakau sand ; coal is abundant everywhere, and in time to come that part of the Colony must take high rank iv tlic iron trade of the world. These are some of the considerations which the Industrial Exhibition may be expected to draw attention to, and only in so far as it does can it be considered a successful venture from the Colonial point of view.