MINING ITEMS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 497, 27 October 1871, Page 2

MINING ITEMS.

From Victorian papers we glean the following items. At Sandhurst, the mania for promoting has in nowise decreased. The number of shares which are weekly put upon the market is somewhat alarming, and the call list sufficiently shows the tax which is being levied upon shareholders. The calls for one week amounted to upwards of 7,000?. anil may be expected to increase rather than to decrease. Nevertheless, the confidence of the public remains unabated, and new ventures are entered into with the greatest spirit. The news from the mines continues to be excellent, fresh discoveries being reported every day, and heavy as have been the calls, they are overtopped by the dividends to the extent of more than 5,0001. The favorite line has been the Stafford, and tire noble prospects of the Golden Fleece Company justify the warm anticipations which are indulged in. The mine is looking splendid lately, 107 tons were crashed for a return of 2780z. lOdwt. of coarse amalgam. “It need liardly be a matter for much wonder,” writes the 'Bendigo Advertiser, “that during the existing feverish heat engendered in the minds of the habitues of the Verandah, scenes of a demonstrative character have frequently occurred. Within the last few days the prevalence of the system of repudiation has frequently caused very serious difference of opinion to arise, and a resort to the argumenimn ad hominem has, at times, been the result. More than once lately a sudden rush amongst the crowd has been caused by the sounds of warfare, and the cry of ‘ a ring ! a ring ! 5 has oftentimes varied the call for quotations, or the inquiries for certain stocks, and after a few exciting moments, the difference would be decided, and the crowd having dispersed, and the ground agaiiPcleared, the only indication of the tn&lie would be found on the ground, slrewid with ‘scripand hair.’ ’’ At Ballarat share dealing is becoming a nuisance at the Corner instead of a source of what is known generally as legitimate speculation—that is, the purchase and. sale of shares on the results or prospects of the mines they represent. In place of that a thorough system of gambling has been introduced. Many of the real mining men having withdrawn from the Corner and its dangers, have commenced the introduction of an old system of mining known as the cooperative. It has been tried with one or two of the alluvial, but more prominently with the Dead Horse quartz mines, and consists of a simple code of articles of association, signed by each of the party, a cheap registration, an easy and rapid but just forfeiture, no responsibility, and an economical system of working. The secretary is the only responsible man, as he registers all the shares in his own name in t.ust for the others, to whom they are afterwards transferred in their own names, and all the expensive costs of limited registration, of legal manager, of registered office, of board fees, and of costly books are saved. There may be any number of shareholders, but the general number ranges from twelve to twenty four. A weekly call is made to pay expenses, which run from ss. to 10s., or perhaps more according to circumstances ; seven days is allowed for its payment, and if not paid at the end of that time, the share is forfeited at once under the articles of association, without further notice, and the company can do as it likes with it. One instance of how well this system works may ge given. The Normamby Company, on Cook's line of rich reef, consists of twenty shareholders ; they have got the ground registered and surveyed, and their scrip issued, their transfers effected, and their shaft sunk and timbered to a depth of ninety feet within seven weeks, for the sum of 45?., including U. to the secretary. The Bismarck, the Ballarat Quartz, and Nebraska are three other companies formed on the same or a similar basis.' Mining in the city and the eastern township is still occupying the attention of the public p aid the Government having been appealed* to sent up the chief mining surveyor, to look round tke various mines recently taken up, and to report on these and any probable dangers to public or private property for driving or sinking. This report is anxiously awaited by all sides. A mining league has been formed to protect the rights of the miners, and a property protection league is also to be formed for the purpose its name directs. The Ovens Advertiser has been shown, by Mr. E. H. Dunn, of Beechworth, “ two diamonds which he has recently added to his collection—one a very small one, a pure white gem, is described by Mr. G. H. F. Ulrich, of Melbourne, to whom both were submitted, as a very flat, hexakisoohahedron, the triakisoohabedron with slightly broken faces (at least, we so read the two words just given, with which we are not acquainted). The other diamond, which is ranch larger, and of a yellow colour, is said by th° same authority to be a rather imperfect octahedron. Both wore obtained in the Beeahworth .district—one at the Woolshed, we believe, and the other at Sebastopol.” From another claim on the Woolshed has been obtained, some specimens of tin crystals of large size, the faces and edges of which are so perfect in many cases that they cannot have been much waterworn, or have travelled far from the matrix. On the Tasmanian Gold-fields, the quartz reefs seem looking up. The Launceston Examiner says:—A letter received from Avoca states that Mr. Goodall had just finished a crushing of 70 tons of quartz, which'yielded 103oz 12dwt- of gold, or a fraction over l.Jnz to the ton. The City of Hobart Company have had another small crushing of 7 tons, the yield of which was 2,|oz to the ton. The stone was not picked. There is quite a furore at the Canada reef. There has been three, cases of jumping. 230?. has been refused fdr a share in the Ocean View claim. ,-- .• - ■ .% -r.rv.