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1898. NEW ZEALAND.

MINES STATEMENT. BY HON. A.J. CADMAN, MINISTER OF MINES.

Me. Speakeb,— It is again my duty to place before you the statement showing the condition of the mining industry. The impetus given to the industry through the investment of foreign capital has directed increased attention to mining pursuits. The large number of companies formed to prosecute gold-mining ventures, although now greatly reduced, owing chiefly to insufficient capital being subscribed, are in many instances carrying on works that must ultimately prove reproductive, and the mines which should become profitable concerns thereby increased. In the Auckland District of the North Island prospecting work entailing the employment of numerous parties of men is now very much curtailed, and areas of mining land over which an option of purchase had been nominally secured on behalf of British investors are now thrown back on the hands of the original owners ; in most cases, however, this has taken place in connection with land in which a fair and reasonable prospect of successful discoveries did not exist. In the Middle Island, throughout the West Coast, Collingwood, Otago, and Southland Districts, many of the mining companies are carrying on extensive works in quartz as well as in alluvial mining, and, in the latter, more especially in dredging and the building of dredges. I have endeavoured as far as possible to furnish the latest information procurable as to the position of the mining industry, but it will be found that the results set forth in the returns are in some instances supplemented by more recent information in the Statement itself.

MINERAL PRODUCTION. The quantity of gold, silver, coal, and other minerals, including kauri-gum, produced for the year ending the 31st December last will be found in Table No. 1., annexed. The total production of gold and silver was 435,537 oz., representing a value of £1,001,076, compared with a value of £1,052,017 for the preceding year. This shows a decrease of £50,941. Of other minerals, including coal, 849,105 tons were produced, representing a value of £856,517, as against 800,205 tons, of a value of £862,224, for the previous year —the decrease in the value for this year being in a great measure due to the less value of the mixed minerals as declared to the Customs. The production of kauri-gum was 6,641 tons, valued at £398,010, as compared with 7,126 tons, valued at £431,323, for 1896. The quantities and values of the chief mineral productions for the year ending 31st December last were as follow : —

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