VICTORIA.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 1020, 2 November 1871, Page 3

VICTORIA.

[AROUS SUMMARY FOR OCTOBER.] The news which has come to hand during the past month from the gold fields has been of an ordinary character. No new rushes or discoveries have been announced, but the industry is being steadily. and successfully prosecuted on all the various gold fields of the colony. The. yield of gold so far as it is recorded i 3 well kept up, and in many instances is considerably in excess of what was obtained at the corresponding period of lastyeari In the two most prominent gold-bearing districts of Victoria, namely, Ballarat and Sandhurst, there is a marked improvement, more especially as regards Sandhurst. In Ballarat, Which is divided into the city of Ballarat and Ballarat East, there has been considerable excitement and discußsion during the past few weeks on the question of the right of miners to sink shafts on Ballarat East, and to drive from the bottom of the shafts in different directions in search of the gold which is supposed to lie under the surface. The sueCett that has attended the efforts of one or two companies which have lately sunk shafts in Ballarat East, and their being rewarded by good payable washdirt— in one case by a high reef wash varying from 6ft to 9ft, of considerable richness— has led to a very general impression that there are still many rich patches, and also reefs of washdirt, left underneath the township, notwithstanding the fact that the ground was thought to have been completely explored by the companies of diggers who worked it years ago. In consequence of the impression referred to, a number of new companies have, been started to re-work the ground, but lie owners of the buildings on the township, many of which are valuable, protest ■against these new companies being allowed to mine, except under very strict supervision. They say that if the miners are allowed to sink shafts on any of the Crown reserves, or on any small allotment of private property which they may purchase for the purpose, they will, immediately the shafts are bottomed, drive underneath the ground in whatever direction the gold may happen to run, and that in thus driving they will mine underneath private property, the consequences of which will be that the ground on which property is built will subside, and the buildings will tumble down and fall to pieces. The Borough Council of Ballarat East, who were appealed to by the property-holders, decided not to en" courage mining On the exempted ground within the borough, but expressed their intention of writing to the Minister of Mines, stating that if the Government would impose certain conditions On the miners and see them rigidly enforced they would not object to the sinking of shafts and the putting in of drives. The miners, on the other hand, express the most positive determination to mine for gold, with permission if they can obtain it, and without it if it cannot be obtained. The Government have been appealed to in the emergency, and as the question is one of great importance, it being highly desirable that whatever gold is in the ground should be extracted from it, if that can be done without serious injury to property on the surface, an experienced Government surveyor has been sent to the district to make full inquiry into the subject, and his report, it is expected, will be published in the course of a few days. At present the state of the case is described very differently by the property-holders and the miners, but it is probable that when the report referred to is published some understanding may be arrived at between the conflicting parties. The new ieef wash which was discovered several months ago in the No. 4 shaft of the Band and Albion Consols Company, Ballarat, at a height of 140 ft above the level of the main gutter in which the company had before found their gold > has proved to be of the richest character, and no limit has yet been found to it. The ' average yield from it is now about lOOoz per day. The great value and extent of this large deposit of gold-bearing earth has caused a general opinion that many similar beds of washdirt have been passed through in former years by the various companies who have bottomed on the deep ground and worked the rich leads whicb/made Ballarat so famous; and it is now thought that the reefs maybe found, by steady prospecting, at such levels. Altogether, Ballarat is showing such signs of health in the shape of new discoveries in various directions and continued good yields that the feeling of dulness which prevailed there some months ago has to a great extent disappeared, and been replaced by a general belief in the assured prosperity of the district in future. The subject of quartz-mining has also lately begun to receive much attention from capitalists and miners , on Ballarat, and it is quite possible that before long some of the many known lines of reefs in the neighborhood may prove to be of a very remunerative character. From Sandhurst the news is now always of the most favorable character. The quartz reefs there, judging from the reports, appear to be almost inexhaustible, and the number of them to bo beyond calculation. The accounts indeed which are received would be nearly incredible, were it not for the fact that they are proved correct in most instances of mines which are being worked, by the substantial returns of large cakes of gold. The yield of gold in Sandhurst during the month of August was at the rate of 6521 oz per week, which average was 886oz per week more than was returned as the weekly average of July. Speculation in shares in the mines of the district vis very active, and numerous new companies are being started with good prospects of ultimate success. Many valuable new discoveries are recorded as having ( been made recently, and th 6 reports from most of the mines in wotk show that the

yields are far beyond what could have been expected some short time ago. About a fortnight since one company — the North Garden GuUy — sent in a cake of gold weighing 23010z. , The Steiglitz gold field has been well prospected for the last six or eight months, and encouraging results have been obtained. Some of the old claims have been re-worked satisfactorily. A party of four has taken up a claim on Scotchman's Reef and obtained excellent quartz, which it is 'expected will yield 2oz !lo the ton. Another party of four has also obtained a good show of gold on a freehold allotment known as Perry's Reef. A trial crushing of stone raised on Mickey Free 3ecf is to take place at the Steiglitz Co.'s , mill. On East Albion Reef a trial crushing -was made, and 16oz 3dwt was obtained. At Hanover Reef, two men in three weeks have taken out 51 tons of stone, which, on being crushed, yielded 13oz sdwt, giving current wages to them. At a latelydiscovered reef, known as Bird's Reef, ,nine tons and a half were crushed recently, and 6ozßdwt realised. The Native Youth claim is likely to prove one of the on the reef, being 3ft in thickness, developed to a depth of 90ft. and rich throughout. On other reefs the operations are being prosecuted with energy. , "The continued reports of the discovery of gold-bearing reefs in the immediate vicinity of Bealiba, and the very satisfactory returns that have been obtained from the crushing of trial lots of quartz from the same, cannot, fail," says the DunoUy Express, "to establish at no distant period Bealiba among the rich and permanent reefing districts of the Colony. All the stone about to be operated on bids fair to be remunerative, and while this is the case with the reefs already discovered, a fresh impetus is given to miners to continue their search for others, the value of which still remains hid beneath the surface."