NEW ZEALAND GOLDFIELDS.

Kumara Times, Issue 1511, 1 August 1881, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND GOLDFIELDS.

The Wellington corr6spondent of the Christchurch Tress gives the following summary of the annual goldfields report, presented to the House on Wednesday last:— Mr M‘Kerro* reports nnusUal activity during the yeai*, especially in prospecting new country. The total * yield of gold for 1880 shows an increase of 17,7840zs over 1879, but the March quarter of 1881 shows the large decrease of 28,G610zs as compared with the corresponding quarter in 1880; The total export of gold from 1857 to the end of June 1881, was 9,659,2600i5, value £23,810,653. The average number of miners at work during the year was 14,736, and the average earnings per man about £75 8s for the year, as against an average of £B2 7s 6d for the four previous years. The average in Victoria is £BO 15s per man, but New Zealand miners have the advantage of cheaper living and fuel, and pay no rent. Fully two-thirds of the year’s yield of gold was obtained from alluvial workings, over 5000 miles of water-races constructed by miners at a cost of nearly £BOO,OOO, in addition to the Government races, which cost £450,000. Ground-sluicing*is stated to be a favorite mode of alluvial mining, and is described as a most dei structive process. The yield of gold ' from quartz and cement was 114,4780»j, an average rate of loz 2dwts 2grS per ton of stone, as compared with 9dwts 15gra per ton in Victoria. Auckland quartz crushings yielded from loz lOdwts to loz 17dwts; Westland, from 13dwts to 18£dwts; and Otago, from lOdwts to ISJdwts per ton.