THE GOLDFIELDS OF NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5147, 21 September 1877, Page 3

THE GOLDFIELDS OF NEW ZEALAND.

A report embodying a general account of the condition of the goldfields of the colony has been laid before Parliament by Dr. Giles, the Under-Secretary for the Goldfields, together with an appendix consisting of wardens’ reports and statistical tables. As to the yield of geld, the total quantity reported for the first three months of the present year was 82,241 ozs., valued at £330,167, whilst the same items for the corresponding quarter of 1876 were 83,2760 z,, valued at £330,523. Although these figures appear to show a steady condition of the goldfields as a whole, this steadiness is the result of the fluctuations of the several parts, the exports from Auckland having fallen off to the extent of 37420z5., and from Otago 55400z5. This loss has been made up to the extent of 10630z5. by Nelson and 7,184pz5. by Westland, an increase which must be attributed chiefly to the new diggings which have teen opened on the West Coast. A similar comparison for the two years 1875 and 1876 shows that during the former year the total quantity of gold exported was; 355,3220z5., valued at £1,407,770, and for the latter 322,0160z5., valued at £1,284,328. The number of miners’ rights issued -in 1875 was 12,369, and for 1876, 10,527. The falling off would have been more marked hut for the increase by more than a thousand of the number issued on the Westland goldfield, in which may be discerned the compensating influence of the Kumara rush.

The total revenue for 1875 was'£s3,64o, and for 1876 £48,226. The amount for the quarter ending 31st March, 1876, was £11,892, and for the corresponding quarter of 1877 £11,407, The principal decrease has taken place in the provincial districts of Auckland and Otago; and increase in Nelson and Westland, particularly the latter.

The wardens in some parts of their reports speak of the importance of a good supply of water, and in one or two instances they mention races which have been constructed by Government as having proved very beneficial. But the Under-Secretary has not been furnished with any data to show whether the benefit derived from these races is sufficient to compensate the cost of their construction and of their repair and management. The Mount Ida race, lately completed, will probably before very long furnish to some extent an answer to this question. The principal discovery during the year is that of the Kumara diggings on the West Coast, which have proved of great importance and value.

The total number of miners on all the goldfields at the close of the first quarter of the present year is stated as 16,770, ;as compared with 16,639 for the corresponding date iu the nrevious year. The number of Chinese employed in gold-mining, which is now stated as 3708, appears to have undergone a diminution of between three and four hundred in the courseof the year. The wardens for the most part speak of the progress of settlement upon the land as steady and satisfactory. The return of agricultural leases, in force on the 31st March of this year, as compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, and of the total acreage under lease, shows very little variation, the number of leases being 881 in the year 1876, and 812 in 1877, whilst the area under lease was 80,889 in the former year, and in the latter 83,189. In reference to the mode of granting agricultural leases on goldfields, and the terms upon which they should be granted, the report says they must always to some extent represent a compromise between the different interests of mining and agriculture. ■ Until a way has been discovered of pronouncing to what extent ground is auriferous without prospecting it, there must always be some little risk and uncertainty in granting an agricultural lease, and all that can be done is to make reasonable provision for entering to prospect and to mine on payment of proper compensation to the lessee. As regards the management of the goldfields, it is stated that the abolition of Provincial Governments, and the establishment of County Councils, cannot be without some effect ,upon the economy of the goldfields ; but as yet the influence of these things has been but little felt. This arises from the circumstance that it is only within'the last few weeks that the gentlemen holding the delegated powers under the Goldfields Act have resigned their offices ; and so long as these powers were held by some one in each provincial district, the machinery of goldfields administration was but little i disturbed. But now that these officers have resigned, a great deal of work will be brought to Wellington to be dealt with, and a great many matters will have to be submitted to his Excellency the Governor, which formerly were disposed of under the delegated powers. The principal point on which any question affecting the goldfields is likely to arise from the establishment of counties will probably prove to be the adjustment of revenue under the provisions of the Financial Arrangements Act. Where a goldfield extends from one county into another, it may happen, and indeed has happened, that miners occupying claims near, the boundary may for convenience take out their miners’rights in the adjoining county, which thus gets the revenue arising from' this source, to the detriment of the other, i The Financial Arrangements Act gives the Governor power to distribute the revenue accruing in two counties fairly between them, but it may not be always easy to do so satisfactorily. Another case in which the county boundary comes into consideration is where one county comprises parts of two goldfields, and it has been thought inconvenient that two sets of mining operations should be in force’ in the same county. The first step has now been taken towards the comple l e extinguishment of this cause of complaint, if such it be, by the preparation of a general code of regulations for the whole of the Middle Island.