A PLEA FOR BENDIGO.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 133, 28 May 1872, Page 6

A PLEA FOR BENDIGO.

Anyone visiting this whilom flourishing quartz mining district would be surprised to see the evidences of the immense amount of labour performed and capital expended, with no apparent result except the excoriation of the face of mother earth by roads, trenches, shafts, and tunnels, and here and there a ghostly mill, silent and untended, —mementoes of depreciated scrip and blighted hopes. The visitor would be lost in wonderment, and would be apt to enquire what all this work and money expenditure meant, and what the melancholy abandonment was due to ? If I happened to be his cicerone, I should reply,— In some instances, want of capital; in others, -of patience or pluck; and in many, mismanagement. In the early days of Bendigo, the claims for the most part fell into the hands of men who possibly had never before seen a quartz reef, and, like the gentleman who received a royal Bengal tiger in a present, scarcely knew what to do with it. However, a general desultory surface-scratching took place, and in many instances parcels of stone were taken out and crashed ; and certainly the yields in the majority of cases should have warranted a further trial, and a livelier appearance than the place presents at this date. I will proceed to give the results of some crushings which came under my notice ; and I think your readers will agree with me that the district is worthy of further • exploration. On the supposition that such a concession will be made, I will endeavour to point out the best methods of achieving suc- < cess in the experiment. Crushings. Average. A lta Company 10 dwts. Broadfoot's -2 12 ~ Iguana 3 174 »> Victoria 1 8 ~ Kelsall and Co. 1 1J ~ M'Namara and Co. 1 16 ~ No. 10 Logan's line I 23 ~ No. 2 Logan's line 1 14 ~ The above claims are apparently on five separate lines of reef, and are all abandoned. By taking the average it will be seen that the yield has been 14 dwts per ton ; while our Victorian namesake, which is characterised as i " undoubtedly the best quartz mining district in the world," can only boast of an average for 1871, of 11 dwts 1(5 grs to the ton. These facts need little comment. We have, besides, three Companies working: the Cromwell Company, ranging from 1 oz to 7 ozs per ton; the Colclough, 10 dwts to 2oz 14 dwts ; and the Aurora, 8 dwts to 2oz 12 dwts. The foregoing figures surely show us that the present position of this place is due to " something rotten in the state of Denmark." If 11 dwts 1(5 grs per ton, according to the Australian belief, constitutes the best quartz mining district in the world, our return of 14 dwts per ton ought to convince speculative capitalists that further trial is necessary. I may be probably told by shareholders that the stone was too expensive to raise. I answer, that this resulted generally from the crude and unskilful methods of working the lodes ; that crushing and carting were too dear, —this is a fault easily remedied ; or that the reef in many instances ran out, — this is a fact which I have always and still I decline to admit, and my objection has been sustained by Victorian and other experiences, j and is daily receiving confirmation in all quartz mining countries. Latham and Watson, of Sandhurst, spent £12,000 in continuing a, shaft through barren rock, and were rewarded by meeting with a massive reef, richer than any before discovered in the claim ; and in the Dowenville Mine, California, there was an intermittent break of 400 feet ending in a similar result. So, when a man tells me a reef has run out, I conclude he tells me a well, as the boys say, a " whopper." I consider such a statement merely a refuge for incompetence. I believe that the principal reason for the collapse of so many claims here was that the overheated and sanguine imaginations of the shareholders pictured the coming yields as ounces instead of pennyweights, and when the crucial test of disintegration revealed the latter, disappointments and heartburnings supervened, and the speculations were thrown up in disgust. I find that I have not space in this communication for the second part of my infliction, —viz., How to do it; so will, with your permission, continue in your next; and, if Ido not bore your readers, I beg them to credit me with sincerity in my belief that this district is worth another attempt to develop its auriferous wealth. The history of quartz mining is fnll of examples to show us that the measure of success achieved is always proportioned to the amount of patience, energy, and perseverance displayed. If not always, at least often, The attempt Is all the wedge that splits the knotty way, Betwixt the possible and th' impossible. Bendigo, May 21, 1872. VIATOB.