THE Wellington Independent Friday, November 22, 1861. GOLD MINING.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVI, Issue 1687, 22 November 1861, Page 5

THE Wellington Independent Friday, November 22, 1861. GOLD MINING.

The news from Otago by the Lord Worsley, will be found in our intelligence columns, and must be considered not merely as of a most satisfactory, but of a most surprising, character. The delivery per escort still increases in an astonishing degree and places Otago at the head of all the.gold producing countries. Some few weeks since we compared the uum ber of persons engaged in mining pursuits and the quantity produced in Victoria; with the number engaged and quantity produced in Oiago, showing that the yields in the latter were, in proportion, two and a half times richer than those in the former. The Witness of last Saturday makes a comparison in refeto thepresenl improved position x>f Otago yields, and the result is that at •the present date they are three and a half times richer than those in Victoria — the average in Otago per man per week. being I oz. 5 dwts., while in Victoria it is only 7£xlwfs: The richness of Gabriel's Gully still * continues, and there appears no likelihood of its being worked out yet a while. But rich as it has proved to be, it would no doubt have been far more productive had it been worked from the commencement by practised diggers. On all hands it is admitted that the early claimants, in their ignorance of tbe right mode of washing, left behind considerable " tailings.'' We recently met with a curious illustration of the dfficulty of keeping gold even wben it has been obtaiued, in the. fact that a obemist extracted from the soot collected in a smelting house belonging to one of the banks at Melbourne, some beautiful gold dust in the proportion of sixty ounces to the ton of soot. It would take a long time to collect a ton of soot, but the operation shows that at Melbourne the tendency of improvement is to lose nothing. In this the Chinese gave the Australians the first lesson by washing the " tailings," from which subsequently very large quantities of gold were procured and are still being obtained. Some time or other, when the present excitement at Olago sobers down, we may expect to hear df Gabriel's Gully affording most remunerative employment to pains-taking practised hands, long after it has been reported as worked out. Deep sinking is now being adopted at Otago with success. Holes of 50 and 60 feel have handsomely remunerated th§,jijakers. The. modes of mining followed in Australia are developing themselves in the same order at Otago, and will probably be taken up there, as in Australia, by three different classes of miners, (I) Shallow sinking or surfacing. (2) Deep sinking. (3; Quartz crushing. The first is oonducted in Australia by tbe " independent " class of diggers, who will rarely work for wages. These are the men who conduct "rushes. 1 ' Their average earnings are less than those of the two last. They are restless and are not the best of citizens. They are good " prospectors " and if gold is to be found they will find it. This is the class mainly employed at Otago at present, surface diggings until lately having been almost the only kind of mining practised. Deep sinking is now, however, being followed by many, and as the. result has been good, it will no doubt be so to as large an extent as circumstances permit. Deep sinking can only be conducted by- the co-operation of labor and capital, the richest mines in Victoria lying some hundreds of feet deep. At Ballarat, deep sinking from 300 to 460. feet is upturning fresh wealth in the ancient bed of streams — once probably at the surface, at least they have that ap pearance, The greatest depth yet reached. in Otago is, we believe,- 60 feet— in Wellington Gully near to Gabriel's Gully, where a party of four are said to be clearing regularly £100 a man per week. The third mode of mining isby crushing the quartz, as at Bendigo. Wherever gold js found in any quantity,, quartz rapges will be found too, for from theui the surface gold must have been derived. Quartz crushing operations require large capital and, hired labor, or at all events combined labor in companies of seventy or eighty miners. Inglewood commenced a^few years ago with a great " rush." . Tbe surface was soon washed over, and «iow it is sustained (and will be a great •Northern town) in consequence of the gradual development of one hundred and seventy quartz reefs. "Two small fragments of golden quartz " have been found at Otago, says the Witness, and if, when the ranges are discovered, they are found to be capable of yielding 5 dwts. to the ton, there will be sent machinery from Melbourne to work them. In 1858, the m&re.cost. of crushing in Viotoria was 7 or 8 dwts. per ton. Now with good machinery they make 3 or 4 dwts. pay for quarrying, crushing, and amalgamating, in 1856-7, it was said that nothing less than one ounce per ton would pay all expenses; now 6 dwis. leave a large profit. "The men who have rushed to Otugo from Australia, will prove excellent pioneers or pr£Bpec,tqrs. They will examine and

Wash the surface of every gully ihdy mefet with, and having already, introduced deejL sinking 1 , they will . probably make sucK further discoveries as will ultimately introduce quartz reefing as a permanent branch of industry — every description of machinery required for the purpose being now manufactured on a large scale in Melbourne. !