RICHMOND HILL SILVER MINE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 136, 31 May 1876, Page 2

RICHMOND HILL SILVER MINE.

To the Editor or tub 'Evening Mail.' Sin—ln your leading article of the 17th inst, you give tho retult of an assay (made on a piece of silver ore taken from the Richmond Hill Mining Company's ground at Collingwood, which had been on view in the window of Mr. Jackson, secretary to the company) a* 596 ozs. 7 dwts. to the ton of ore as sent, and you remark it was nearly double the estimate of Mr. Masters. You will therefore oblige by sllowing me an explanation. I stated to the Directors that the whole solid reef would average over 300 oz.o. to the ton, not that that particular piece won d only average that number of ounces. I knew it would assay close up to <i()0 ozs., but I was fearful lest I should mislead the shareholders or the public ; therefore I gave the average of the whole solid reef (made from a great number of assays) «• taken out of the around. There would be no difficulty in finding pieces that would not

assay 100 ozs. to the ton from this same reef vet the whole as taken. from the front of they lo'e will only average a trifle over fl oo ozs :• of silver to the ten of ore, and. this with the copper the ore contains makes it a most valuable property, | which does not require any puffing — lam.&c, \f JottWMASTBKS. "i Manager Richmond Hill Mining Company, Collingwood. Thames, N.Z., May 95, 1876. [We should be sorry to do Mr. Masters "he sligbeso injustice, but on reviewing the circumstances we are unable to see tbat he has - any reason for complaint. We have nothing t» do with, nor do we know anything of, the details of the numerous assays to which he refers, and the result of wbicb he has, doubtless, communicated to the Directors, but we have before ns the ticket, worded; we under-, stand, by Mr. Masters himself, and placed on the specimens which have been exhibited for weeks past in Mr. Jackson's window. It runs thus :— '* Cupreous silver ore from the Richmond Hill Mine, C.lllngwood. Assay value over 300 ounces of silver to the ton of ore." No mention is made bf average, and th 9 obvious meaning is that the specimens *o ticketted contain at the rate of 800 ozs. to the ton. When, therefore, it was' announced by ttie highest chemical authority in ths colony, that there was nearly double tint proportion of silver In one of those very specimens, we were surely not to blame fpr noticing the marked difference between the- result* ot the two assays. Publishing facta is not "puffing."— Ed. N.E.M_ .7