Cromwell Argus, AND NORTHERN GOLDFIELDS GAZETTE CROMWELL: TUESDAY, APRIL 23.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 128, 23 April 1872, Page 4

Cromwell Argus, AND NORTHERN GOLDFIELDS GAZETTE CROMWELL: TUESDAY, APRIL 23.

A CORRESPONDENT of OUI'S, who signed himself "'Crusher," made a most important statement when lie said it was a matter 1 requiring careful consideration how our poor quartz-reefs could be made to pay. In fact, economy in working our quartz i lodes is a matter of such vast importance £ that no investigation can ha too tedious, , no enquiry too elaborate, for the purpose ; of obtaining such a result. There are cer- 1 tain initial- considerations in such an en- j quiry that deserve to be fully weighed, to 1 enable us to understand the difficulties to 1 be encountered. Unfortunately, we have no means of obtaining anything like accu- > racy in mining statistics. The mining • surveyors of Victoria take the trouble, i, quarterly, to compile long statistical re- , turns as to the number of men employed in quartz and alluvial claims, their average earnings, the quantities of stone crushed, and its yield ; while the dividends of registered companies are weekly published in the columns of the Melbourne newspapers. Although it is the fashion hero to appear to foster mining enterprise, we are left in ignorauce of all mining details, save the quantity of gold annually exported, and I have to gather mining information from | the crude and detached reports of oar va-1 j rious Wardens. Wo have thus scanty j materials with which to work, or to form , | comparisons. The yield of gold from Victoria appears to be about, equally divided I between quartz and alluvial workings; the| figures for the last quarter of 1871 being 1174,362 02.1. and 178,366 ozs. respectively, j j —for the production of which some 11,700 I [ men were employed in the alluvium against j 16,500 men engaged in reeling. Foi many' j years the average earnings of the quartz miners in Victoria have been in excess of' the alluvial; while improved machinery | I and increased experience appear to still J j further confirm the fact of it -> being more: profitable to work quartz than to wash I gravel. The stone crushed in Victoria! j daring the last quarter of the year ave-j i raged 10 dwts. 8 grs. to the ton, or £2 in monetary value. We learn also that at a depth of 790 feet below the surface, 12,310 tons were raised by "The New North I Chines C 0.," yielding 11 '■'. dwts. to the ton : I while the reefs that would appear to bci I the most easily and cheaply worked, those [ in Clipps Land, yield the highest average, | —some 26 dwts. to the ton. [t r.-ill thus! j be seen that the term "poor reefs" cannot i as yet, with justice, be applied to our al- | eaost untried lodes. The general impression appears to be] j that reefs can be worked mere easily and ] | cheaply in Victoria than New Zealand. 1 We can only understand two reasons for] 'such an impression exist in-*. The first ... . | would bo the difference in the rate of I wages, and. as fu- as Otago is concerned,] I the scarcity of timber, and the Inch price j tnat has to eo paid lor ic. Lut while the | rate of wages may pen banco be y.ai nn)de- j i rated, by combinations taking place among claim-holders and those engaged as work-i men, on the co-opera live principle, or some- j j thing analogous, carefully eschewing the| ! tributing system, whereby " the eyes" of a I claim are as it were picked out,- —the water [that m.ay bo made available for driving' j purposes should be some compensation for I the scan ity of timber, by dispensing with [drivers a::d the cost of fuel. For mining j [purposes, New Zealand, from the numbers of its running streams, atlbrding tlie cheapest and most e'fectivo mode of power, con-j ! tresis favourably with Victoria,-—with the ! ( exception ot itipps Land ami tno Uveas j [districts. Quartz can be crushed and the.] die extracted in Victoria by a six cwf. j [ battery, when driven by water- power, fori .some two shillings and sixpence per ton.i [There is no reason whatever why quart;:! i cannot bo as cheaply treated in NewZca-l land as there. Ikit in the working ofj mines where a quantity of stone is raised, j [every item of expense should be rigidly I I examined, cartage whenever practicable) [dispensed with, surface working carefully! j eschewed, an i the lode worked in the man-[ nor whereby the greatest quantity of ore j lean be raised at a minimum cost. Large] collieries are frequently worked at a prosit! [of threepence to sixpence per ton, paying interest on capital and tenants' proiifc; while the use of Norway timber for pit- [ wood in preference to larch and si>rik-.e, ] the saving of a few pence per gallon on ; train oil, the purchase of seal oil at the i proper time, and rationing fodder tor horsepower, are all carefully considered ;] and the savings so effected are found to! i form ai: imporLi:J < a i;,<-:i' in (la- tmtal! ( ; profit.; de,:k:vl «;, in .-.ij. lv U. miuingjho!

cost of every item must be carefully c 9 dered, care taken in the location of fl teries, efficient and trained men obtaH | to conduct operations, before the cxtnJ of the ore can be expected to be a p9 able occupation and an established irfl try.—We shall revert to this subject.^H