The Evening Star THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2374, 10 November 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1870.

It is gratifying to find that at length there is some prospect of the Cromwell reefs being worked. There is not the amount of excitement in quartz-mining that accompanies alluvial diggings. The necessity for more expensive and complicated machinery, and the time required for preparation, arc greater than for surface-mining ; but just in proportion to these is the prospect of permanence of employment. Otago has not hitherto been fortunate in its quartz-mining ventures—why it is difficult to say. Reefs have been opened that gave excellent prospects. Two and three ounces to the ton were announced as the probable yield ; but, through some inexplicable causes, many workings that opened with apparently well-founded prospects of success have not turned out profitable. This is the more singular, as in Victoria quartz yielding one-fourth of the amount of gold obtained here is found remunera-r tire. In the early days of quartzmining in that Colony, precisely similar difficulties -were experienced, but ultimately they were overcome, and the yield of gold has been steadily increasing ever since. It is worth careful investigation why those claims, which started with such good prospects, have not succeeded. It will very probably bo found that it has been in consequence of too much confidence being placed in the amateur engineering and systems of working of those who are termed “ practical miners.” Wc do not mean by any moans to undervalue that empirical knowledge that a man gain by personal observation. As a contribution to the general stock, it may have its value ; but in undertakings requiring heavy outlay like quartzcrushing machinery, something more is needed to be known in the way of management than how the quartz should be placed under the stampers. To retort gold requires some little chemical as well as practical knowledge ; and the management of a quartz claim requires no little tact in its supervision. A man must be able to have things set to rights should they happen to go wrong, and to know when they are right. We have seen many instances in which the man of knowledge has shewn his superiority to the man of dexterity. The latter could do under the direction of the former what had never entered his head to think of. We have seen the practical man at his wits’ end because some new circumstance turned up that defied all his previous experience, and all his difficulties vanish at the suggestion of an accomplished chemist. It is now something more than twelve months since the quartz reefs in Auckland created such a fur ora throughout the. Colonies. Wo do not know that they are less rich than they were then; but all the enthusiasm has passed away, cooled by that practical experience which proves how easily a spurious excitement leading to heavy losses can be created. Several reefs were then discovered in Otago ; and wo think it very fortunate for the Province that on the whole so few persons were deluded into investing in the bubble speculations of the North. Our reefs remain unworked ; and new that more sober ideas have replaced the excitement that then prevailed, tire time Ims como when the question of profitably working them may bo calmly and dispassionately investigated. It seems very strange that with the abundance of fuel ana water we have in Otago, this permanent phase of gold mining has not been more successful. The Government might render great assistance in this respect, by having at command the services of a competent assayer in whose analysis confidence can be placed by capitalists. In initiating new enterprises reliability is what is required. It is too much to expect that, in the face of so many failures, capitalists will invest money on the faith of the representations of a prospector. He may be the most able and reliable man in existence ; but men arc not able to judge of what they have no personal knowledge, and are quite right to hesitate before embarking in schemes that may involve serious loss if unsuccessful. When there are data to act upon it is different. ' Men of business arc able to estimate correctly the chances of a profit upon known and ascertained facts ; but when new circumstances arise which present not even an analogy to anything within their experience, they naturally require some guarantee that what they embark in is not the chase of a Will-o-tlie-Wisp. A competent analytical chemist, to whom reference could be made, would be a valuable officer in a Province the development of the lesources

of which depend so much upon a knowledge of the value of its minerals. We have before pointed this out, and are surprised that the question has not been forced upon the Government.