THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1165, 23 April 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 1872.

Insisting that the management of the .Gold Fields of the Colony should be in the bands of the General Government, and expecting that greater attention would, in such a case, be given to gold-mining as a Colonial interest, the member for the Grey Valley in the House of Representatives, during the lasc session proposed a motion which, in connection with the object which he desired to gain, may be characterised as the thin end of the wedge. The motion to which we refer was to this effect : — "That it is desirable that the Government should cause to be laid on the table of this House, during each session, a report embodying a general account of the present state of the Gold Fields of the Colony, their advancement or otherwise during the preceding year, and their probable prospects; together with particulars showing the average price of provisions during the year on each Gold Field, the rate of wages, estimated population, and such other information as would afford a comprehensive idea of the general condition of. the mining interest in the Colony ; and that his Excellency be requested *o forward a copy of such report to her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies." Seeing that so many and various reports are made to so mauy and various local Governments, it might be considered that, to impose upon the General Government the republication of these reports would simply be to impose upon them additional duties and to swell the proportions of the already bulky Blue Books. But this was obviously not Mr Harrison's design, nor did he fail to see that such might be the result of any hasty resolution on the subject. He was careful, therefore, to recommend only such a report as should "embody a genera 1 account of the condition of the Gold Fields," and, had that recommendation been carried out, we should now have had before us an interesting and valuable record of the progress of mining pursuits — such a record has as been an established, regular, and interesting feature of the statistician work in the Colony of Victoria. We are especially reminded of this motion of Mr Harrison's by receiving simultaneously the apology for a report which has, in partial deference to his wishes, been published for this year by the Government printer, and the very complete and carefully prepared report of the Victorian Gold Fields Department. In the one case the return published is elaborate enough, as it contains the reports of Wardens and Surveyors in detail, but it lacks the perfection and precision of the

Victorian return, because there is' not as ; yet in New Zealand any General Goverrir inept officer, to summarise the -local re-, ports, to select the salient statistics, and to reproduce the general results in a short and' readable statement, presenting facilities for reference and' quotation. Apart frDnranyrdesire'" toseethe management of the Gold Fields relegated to the General Government, it was, no doubt, this defect which Mr Harrison desired to remedy, "and we anticipate that, by another session, he will supplement his resolution by one which will achieve the object in view. The latest selection of the gold-mining statistics of Victoria of which we are in receipt is the report for the last quarter of the year 1871. To the student of statistics, or to those who, without being eminent statisticians, can appreciate the lesson of a few simple figures, this, report 13 equally interesting, and it is especially interesting in this locality and at this particular time, when the whole complexion of the mining industry is undergoing a change by the discovery and development of what are believed to be valuable auriferous reefs. We can learn from it, for instance, what the value is of the majority of the Victoriau mines, and can derive courage from a comparison between the returns received from these and the confidently estimated returns of the mines in our immediate neighborhood upon which capital and energy are now being expended. For mining management, the colony of Victoria, we learn, is divided into seven districts, and, ranging them according to the declared value of mining plant, they stand as follows— Ballarat, £516,825 ; Sandhurst, £454,330 ; Beechworth, £288,840; Maryborough, £272,372; Castlemaine, £266,628 ; Gipps Land, £144,278 ; Ararat, £117,512. If ranged according to the number of miners employed, Maryborough would stand secoud, and the others in much the same order as given above. From quartz crushed in those mines from which distinct information has been furnished to the Mining Surveyors, an average yield of 10dwt8gr had been obtained. In this return the various districts appear with very different averages. In the Ballarat district the return from crushings is |gr short of 6dwt, whilst the Gipps Land workings show rather more than loz. sdwt. Beechworth, Sandhurst, Maryborough, and Castlemaine each yield something very close to the average for the Colony just stated, and in the Ararat district the return for this class of adventure is 16dwt 6gr per ton. The largest average yields for the, quarter are those of the Tarn o' Shanter, at Stieglitz, Bsoz nearly ; Bon's reef at Beechworth, 7£oz ; Loddon reef, Dunblly, 6£oz ; Oram's reef, No. 4, St. Andrew's, nearly Boz. These are quite exceptional returns ; indeed, very few reefs appear to turn out on the average much more than an ounce to the ton. Although the average of the Gipps Land workings is so much higher than that of .the older gold nelds, the highest return from any reef in that quarter is only 3oz 13dwt 18gr, showing that the high genera^ average is not due to a few exceptionally good claims. shown to be individually the richest, Sandhurst, with an average of only lldwt 16gr, is spoken of by the Argus, in its summary for England, as the centre of a district presenting prospects which appear more and more brilliant month by month. In addition, our contemporary continues, to the continued richness of the older reefs there, the striking of a new reef or reefs is reported almost weekly. It is now undoubtedly the best, quartz mining district in the world, and it also seems from the many new discoveries which are . made that it has quarts reefs running in all directions through it, which will soon furnish profitable work for a vast number of miners^ The splendid yields from many of its mines have led to a very healthy desire on the part of capitalists and other persons who have more or less spare cash at their disposal to invest in prospective mines in the district, and a large amount of money is now being laid out in the sinking and development of such mines. Such are the comments of our great Melbourne contemporary on the subject of the Sandhurst mines, and such his description of the interest taken in their development. Referring to the same description, and to the figures which we have collated above, the Lyttelton Times remarks— and it is a remark which even the least sanguine among us may echo : — " If a reefing district which gives an average yield per ton of only lldwt 16gr can be fairly described as ' the best quartz mining district in the world ;' and if the yield we have specified can be called ' splendid,' surely there is hope for New Zealand yet." Another series of figures from the same returns, and upon which some hope as to the future of New Zealand reefs may well be based, is the table showing the results of mining at great depths. The deepest shaft mentioned is that of the New North Chines Company, in the Creswick division of the Ballarat District. This is 900 ft deep, and the level from which the quartz is actually being worked is at a depth of 790 ft below the surface. From this mine - 12,310 tons of quartz, crashed during the quarter, yielded lldwt 17gr per ton. At • the Good Hope Mine, at Crooked River, ' in Gipps Land, 400 tons of quartz, brought ; from 020 ft below the surface, yielded loz i 3dwt and 20gr per ton. A few tons brought from 230 ft below the surface, at > Oram's reef, St. Andrew's, yielded 7|oz . per ton. The Ajax Company, at Alexa ndra (Beechworth), obtained nearly 4oz 1 Bdwt from quartz raised 325 ft. At Sand- ! hurst, the New Chum reef, at 525 ft below ; the surface, yielded, from 155 tons ■ crushed, an average of 6oz lldwt 14gr. i Such as are some of the best results of ' what may well be styled " deep-sinking," , and the vastness of the enterprise of com- , panics in this direction is exhibited by 1 the fact that they relate to but a small i proportion of the number of mines worked i at a depth of from 200 ft to 300 ft below the [ surface. ' Comparing what has been done i in New Zealand with what has been done i in Victoria in this class of mining, it is , obvious that there has not been more i than mere prospecting for reefs in th ; s • country d'iring the past ten years, and, i with such superficial indications as have ; been obtained, it will be strange if, during , the next ten years, New Zealand is unable i to give quite as good an account of its resources,- or to have that account given for it by the head of a thoroughly organised General Government Department.