OUR MINES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 24, 8 July 1871, Page 4

OUR MINES.

Our Mines, and what to do with them, bids fair to form a topic of considerable interest to every one in the province, but especially so to the citizens of Wellington ; and in an interest which may be fraught with much good or much evil, according as people are wise or rash in the outset of-these undertakings, it will be well that all suggestions as to how claims should be worked should be received with caution, and properly ventilated before any of the companies now working enter into any arrangements which may prove a source of embarrassment hereafter. We commend the zeal of our evening contemporary in his suggestions to the various companies now at work in this neighborhood as to how they should proceed, but we take leave to doubt the value of his advice. As to the Baker's Hill Company, we cannot admit the present "importance of the mine being tested at a lower level." To do this, it would be necessary to sink a shaft, and that, as every miner knows, is infinitely more expensive and slower as a test than tunnelling. From the configuration of the surface tunnelling for a reef is sometimes impossible, so that the only means of prospecting the ground is by sinking a shaft. The tunnel of this mine is already 135 feet from the summit of the hill a depth that is generally considered a fair test unless indeed there is some substantial reason for sinking deeper. Once a shaft is sunk much over 100 feet the work becomes too heavy for hand windlass work ; and if water should have to be contended with in addition, a whim and horses are rendered necessary, and the expense becomes proportionately increased ; and this is an expense rarely incurred without some tangible prospect is held out. The company have already an enormous—we may say, almost unprecedented —dyke of auriferous stone, which, if not actually rich in its per centage of gold, is rich in the aggregate, and from the facility with which it can be extracted. From the yield of the samples already tested, and from the affirmation of the miners who are working in the tunnel, we believe we are justified in saying that the claim contains hundreds ot thousands of tons which will yield

half an ounce to the ton ; and with such a prospect before the shareholders we should be sorry to see them try their patience and fritter away time and and money in further prospecting. Half an ounce to the ton of stone that is so soft as to entail little or no wear and tear on stampers may not seem rich enough to satisfy those who expect a Caledonian or Long Drive, but it is a yield that will pay handsome returns, if properly worked ; and if any doubts are entertained as to this view, and if we made any suggestions at all, we should advise the secretary of the company to open a correspondence with someone in Victoria likely to afford the necessary information, so as to find out what is the minimum richness of stone which is there made to pay. There is no doubt, if the company were ill-advised enough to commence sinking from their present level, they would soon need not only a whim but a powerful steam engine, and would find themselves thousands out of pocket before they could hope to see a penny in return. As to the suggestion that "the expense of developing the field ought to fall upon one or two companies," we think it as injudicious as the former one, because it would not be calculated to facilitate the object desired, and would be more likely to retard than develop the claims between Baker's Hill and Terawiti. Few places present such facilities for economical prospecting as the Baker's Hill range, and that on which the Never Despair Company are working. Besides, whatsoever expenditure of labor and capital is made on one spot of ground, it is but an indirect benefit to surrounding claims. While it may be an excellent guide to adjoining claims in enabling them to regulate their operations by showing them to some extent what they may have to contend with, if they are fortunate enough to be warranted in going on; but nothing that their neighbors may do in finding gold will save them any work. For these and other reasons—obvious to any one who has mining experience—we deprecate an amalgamation of interest in any shape. That would only lesson and concentrate efforts that are already too limited, and not sufficiently diffused. " Many hands make light work," and especially so in prospecting for gold. How many gold fields would be undeveloped to this day had such a system been adopted ? In gold-mining, success as a whole is often only to be reached through the failure of hundreds. Nor do we concur in the suggestion that the services of a competent mining engineer should be secured, who would point out where to sink the first shaft. One of those things which cannot be learned or taught, is to know where to put a shaft down so as to strike the precious metal; not all the practical experience, all the theory in the world, can show how that is to be done. It is only wben a mine requires to bo properly opened with a view to its safe and economic working afterwards, that the knowledge of a mining engineer is of much value. As regards crushing conveniences for the various claims, we can scarcely regret that the Makara machine is not at Baker's Hill, because the machine was erected where it is for the accommodation of claims then working in that neighbourhood, and if these again went to work, which is not at all unlikely, and a prospect was obtained, they would be placed in the same difficulty in which the Baker's Hill Company are now. Besides, the machine is comparatively useless except for prospecting. It is seldom that two diggings in different parts ot the world, or even in different parts of a country, are found to be exactly alike, or admit of being worked in precisely the same way, and the auriferous deposits of Wellington are remarkable in being unlike any others in New Zealand. It is easy for a good battery of stampers to crush for a number of claims where the reefs run from a few inches to a foot in thickness; but with dykes of stone from ten to twenty feet in thickness, as we have here, ali more or less impregnated with gold, each claim will require its own battery. It would seem to us, therefore, that the most advisable course, either for the Baker's Hill Company, or the Never Despair, which has an auriferous dyke of similar value and character to the former, would be to first find out how thick the auriferous seam is, satisfy themselves with a few crushings of its average yield, and then procure the best machinery they can. By a slight calculation they can see how many tons a day could be turned out by a certain number of men, and then procure adequate machinery to put that amount through. If they fortunately possess the necessary water power, and can manage to make the supply permanent by husbanding it, so much the better; but if there was not body or fall enough to accommodate other claims on the same stream, steam might prove the cheaper mode in the long run. From what we know of the quantity and the value of the stone in Baker's Hill we are certain the company need not expect to do much, if they can do anything, before they get a machine of their own ; and the same may be said of the Never Despair. As to what either of them might do with one, and taking the tests they have had as a basis, may be readily arrived at. Find out by tender at how much per ton the stone can be broken out for and put alongside the machine, and the cost per ton of running it through the stampers, and they have the aggregate expense at once. Compared with these, all other expenses are as a mere bagatelle, so that any balance left after these expenses are deducted may be looked on as gross profit. The sooner this calculation is made by the directors of the companies we have referred to the sooner they will arrive at a proper estimate of the value of their respective claims.