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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4131, 17 June 1874, Page 2

The Mining Department in Victoria has always paid much attention to the collection of as accurate statistics as possible as to the state of mining and the results of the miners’ labors in that Colony. Returns are furnished periodically by the mining surveyors, which are analysed by the Secretary of Mines, whose abstracts are published quarterly. At the close of the year the reports are again compared, and a compilation from them presented to both Houses of Parliament as the “ Mineral Statistics of Victoria” for the year. Itis not professed that the figures are strictly accurate, but they present as close an approximation to the truth as can be prepared. The Secretary of Mines, indeed, finds not a little difficulty in procuring the necessary information. Since the abolition of the export duty on gold, no record could be kept by the Customs authorities of the quantity of gold exported, and though it has been repeatedly proposed that a small tax should bo again imposed on exported gold, so as to compel entries to bo made at the Custom-house for statistical purposes, Parliament has never been found willing to do so. Efforts to procure reliable information from the mines have been only partially successful. It does not suit speculative directors and managers to let their returns' bo known unless under exceptional circumstances, and when, possibly, there is a design to rig the share market. Some of tho more fortunate mine-owners of Sandhurst—men, who have made enormous fortunes—never would permit tho public to know how much gold they were obtaining ;

while tribnters, as a rule, either declined to name the returns they earned, or wilfully falsified them to deceive the parties fx'om whom they held the tribute. By the aid of the banks, the Mint, and private purchasers of gold, however, Mr. Brough Smyth has been able to arrive at tolerably accurate approximate results as to the yields of the precious metal ; while his figui’es as to the number of miners employed are derived from a census taken from time to time, with more or less accuracy, by the mining surveyors.

With these explanations, we proceed to "IVC r. ion or me more prominent facts recorded in Mr. Smyth’s “ Mineral Statistics of Victoria for the Year 1873,” with a copy of which we have been favoured. There was in that year a decided decrease, whether estimated according to the reports of the registrars, or by the sxxpposed amount of exports, or by the purchases by the banks. In 1872 the x’egistrars calculated that 1,331,378 ounces had been raised, and in 1873 only 1,170,398 ounces. lutho first-mentioned period, the banks bought 1,218,094 ounces, and in the last, 1,102,493 ounces. The Mint in 1872 received 121,960 ounces, and in 1873 only 104,891 ounces. During the twelve months 991,674 tons of quartz were crushed, the average yield being about 114 pennyweights. 25,387 tons of tailings and mullock were put through the stampers, with an average return of 2 dwts. 6 "45 grains ; while 5568 tons of pyrites, blanketings, &c., produced an average of over 2 ounces 17 dwts. More quartz was crushed than in 1872, and the. quantity of gold obtained from it by the mill-owners who kept records was 585,982 ounces; but the department say that the return was certainly not less shau 694,879 ounces. Either the stone is becoming richer, or the improvement in the means of saving gold is more marked in the Sandhurst district, as the average return from quartz there in 1870 was 11 dwts 13'83 grains, while last year, from a larger quantity of stone, a yield of 15 dwts 13'86 grains was obtained. From the first commencement of quartz-raining in Victoria to the close of 1873, 10,474,569 tons of quartz had been put through the mills, with an average yield of 11 dwts. 5T9 grains. As much of the quartz crushed in the first years of mining was exceptionally rich, it must be regarded as highly satisfactory that the average yield improves rather than otherwise. This is to some extent due, no doubt, to the better knowledge the miners have obtained as to the mode of treating crushed quartz for the extraction of the precious metal, but it is also attributable to tlie fact, now clearly proved, that the quartz veins are bettor loaded with gold in the deep ground than they are at the surface, or at shallow depths, excepting in ocoassonal instances. It is curious to note how much the average varies at present in the seven mining divisions into which Victoria is separated. We see that in Gippsland, where there has been comparatively little alluvial mining, the average from quartz, omitting grains, was 27 dwts., while in Ballarac, so famous for its “jewellers’ shops” in the olden days, the average was only 5 dwts. In Ararat, a mountainous district, whore the alluvial was rich, the quartz averages 18 dwts. In Sandhurst, as already remarked, it is 15 dwts, in Maryborough 10, and in Castlemaine and Boechworth 9 dwts. During the ten years ending December last, the quantity of quartz tailings crushed was 1,593,594 tons, and the average return 3 dwts 16 grains. It is considered probable that it will soon cease to be profitable to re-crush tailings, as it is pretty well ascertained that very little gold now escapes from the ernshingmill. The alluvial diggings in 1873 produced 760,669 tons of washdirt, from which 61,505 ounces of gold were got. From 76,051 tons of cement an average of nearly 4 dwts was obtained, and it is stated that enormous quantities of auriferous cement remain untouched throughout Victoria.

The number of miners continues to decrease, as the men wander oft’ to new rushes in the north of the continent, or resume occupations to which they were trained before they made acquaintance with the pick and the cradle, or settle upon the public lands, which they can now do on very easy terms. In 1872 the number of men engaged in mining was 52,965, and in 1873 it was 50,595. .The chief decrease was in alluvial mining, in which, last year, there were 33,822 men engaged, while in quartz workings there were 10,773. The Ballarat division still held the largest mining population (11,388), Maryborough following with 10,364, Sandhurst (7977) coming next, with Castlomaine, Boeohworth, Ararat, and Gippsland (2909) in succession. Maryborough had the largest number of alluvial, and Sandhurst the greater number of quartz miners. On the alluvial fields there were 13,413 Chinamen at work, and on quartz reefs only 115. The “ heathen” does not seem to have taken kindly yet to the severe labor of working in rock ; but it is a curious fact that in the Ovens (or Boeohworth) district the Chinese digger’s now outnumber the Europeans; while in Castlomaine—the Mount Alexander diggings of the olden time—the yellow - skins and the whites are about equal in numbers. Mr. Smyth estimates the average earnings of the alluvial miners at £OO, and of the quartz workers at £lO5 per annum, estimated from the value of the gold raised. To drive the quartz-mills 789 steam engines, aggregating 15,521 horse-power, were employed to drive 0501 head of stamps ; while 302 engines of 9579 horse-power wore engaged on the alluvial workings. The machinery in the mines was valued at £2,131,188, and the total area of auriferous ground opened up was 10501? square miles, in which were 3324 distinct quartz roofs. The deepest shaft—that of one of the Pleasant Creek companies—was down 1305 feet, and the Secretary of Mines adds that “the deepest shafts are being sunk to greater depths, and the results of deep quartz mining are everywhere such as to give confidence to capitalists.” Sluicing was followed up somewhat extensively in Beechworth and Castlomaine districts, the number of water-right licenses hold in December last being 171, the length of the races was 19287 miles, and the cost of constructing them £244,246. These figures will give a very good idea of what mining at present is in Victoria.