MINING ITEMS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 495, 13 October 1871, Page 2

MINING ITEMS.

Want of sufficient capital, rather than lack of business energy is often said to he the one great drawback to the proper development of the Otago gold mines. It is passing strange that no systematic method of introducing the subject to English capitalists has been yet adopted. Victoria is attracting money from the home market, and our American cousins are as usual shrewd enough to take the tide at its turn which “ leads on to fortune. ’’ The California B nlletin says ; —The mining interests of the slopes are increasing in importance. English capitalists now understand that they can with safety invest in the., mining enterprises of this coast, and realize a larger amount of interest than can be obtained in the ordinary run of investments. The rate of discount at the Bank of England, which guides the other banking corporations, is now two per cent, per annum, and there is such a plethoracy of capital that even at this figure it is difficult to use the money. It is expected that even this low rate will be reduced. Under these circumstances, British capital turns abroad to find a remunerative investment, and latterly California and the Pacific Coast has attracted a large share of attention. Recently, the Comet silver mine, of Yellow Pine district, Los Angelos’ and the Pitsburg gold mine, of Nevada County, have been sold in England, the former for 1.500,000d01, and the latter for 400,000d01. In the case of the latter mine, 225,000d01. cash is paid, and the ballance is taken in fully paid shares. Other transactions, similar to those mentioned above, are in progress. Something like a drive is here recorded : —The Calaveras Chronicle of the 12th of August says : —Messrs, *Hoerchner, Seigler, and Key, proprietors of the celebrated San Bruno Quartz Mine, at Mosquito Gulsh, are engaged in running a tunnel to tap the lead. When completed the drift will be over one thousand feet in length, and cut across the load at a depth of several hundred feet. Half of the distance has already been accomplished. The Union Mill Company, on Carson River, between the Eureka and San Francisco mills, are building a new mill, which is to be completed and running within four months. It will be the largest in the State, will cover an area of two hundred square feet, and will have a crushing capacity of one hundred and seventy-five tons of ore perjday. The Ballarat Star says :—Pumping gear to drain the Caledonian, Tookey, and other mincs’has been manufactured in Ballarat, the lifts of which are twenty-five inches in diameter with all necessary’gear to match. The contract was for about ,2C 000/., and this comprises five hundred feet of twentyfour inch lifts; a plunge poll of fourteen feet long, and weighing over six tons; a working barrel, fourteen feet long, and weighing about three tons and a hdf ; over sixty'pieces of ponderous castings being included 1 in the contract, and the whole weight of metal being about one hundred and fifty tons. With the order from the Union Foundry there will also go the eighty one half inch cylinder Buhl engine imported by the Great North-West Company, an iron monster in the pumping line, well suited to go with the big lifts, which will be converted from a high pressure to a «ondensing c-ngii’e by the addition of an air pump and condenser. This contract also includes threfe Cornish boilers with Galloway tubes and mounting, each boiler measuring thirty three by six and a half feet. In connection with the engine the Langlands’ Company has also to manufacture about one hundred feet of eighteen inch steam pipes, themselves larger than some of our pump lifts. Besides this, the contract includes castings and forging of joints, setoffs, staples, glands and yokes. All the work in this way is heavier than ordinary. As a further instance of the gear, we may mention that the rods which work the pumps are thirty inches square, of heaviest Tasmanian wood. The total weight of castings and forgings is about fifty-five tons, and the total is for over 2,300k A copper lode has been struck in the neighborhood of Palmerston, at a depth of about thirty feet from the surface ; yielding about fourteen per cent, of copper. An ingenius invention is just now coming into general use among beer consumers. It is called the “tell-tale,” and consists of an ordinary metal tap for drawing the liquor, but with a small opening at the top, wherein a strong glass tube, marked to a graduated scale, is inserted. On being screwed on to the tap it is instantly filled up to the exact level of the beer within the barrel. By its means can he ascertained if the cask when, it comes into the house is full or not ; it will account f or every drop of liquid drawn, and at any moment will tell the quantity remaining in the barrel, so that by using it and irregular or excessive diminution of beer can at once be detected. A small on the tube is used to mark the gradual decrease of the liquor. It is surely a wonderful statistical that during last year seven American companies made and sold over 425,000 sewing machines. At the price at which thesa labor-saving implements are realised abroad, they would ’represent over three millions sterling. But this sum is in its turn dwarfed by the value of the work annually performed by these beneficent instruments of industry. There is pleasanter and more homely music in the whirr of the machine than in the jingle of an ill-played piano. There is cheerincss in the tramp of the treadle, the click of the needle, and the whirl of the flywheel. No more real benefactors of the human race have there been than the in--1 ventors of a little engine to take the sighing, and the sobbing, and the sorrow out of Hood’s “Song of the Shirt.” When the time comes round, they must have a cen- | tenary celebration.