MINING IN THE SISTER COLONIES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5442, 5 September 1878, Page 3

MINING IN THE SISTER COLONIES.

The almost simultaneous appearance of the official mining statistics of Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland for the past year (says the Melbourne Argus) enables an interesting comparison to be made respecting the relative success of tho gold-mining industry in these three colonies. The only colony that can be congratulated upon having maintained even the standard of prosperity of the previous year is Queensland, which, notwithstanding the large falling-off in the yields from her alluvial goldfields, was yet—owing to tho success attending the development of her quartz mines—able to report an increase of 20,0000z5. on the returns for 1876. The total yield amounted to 373,266 ozs., which at £3 10s. per oz.—the ordinary value of Queensland gold—gives a gross value of £1,306,431. This sum represents the labor of 17,903 miners, of whom 13,269 were Chinese, so that, speaking roughly, the average earnings per man would be about £73. It must be remembered, however, that the vast majority of European miners were engaged in reefing, and as the yield from the six principal reefing districts amounted to 188,4800z5. the average earnings of the quartz miners may bo estimated at £l7l Os. lOd. P“r man—a rate of wages very considerably higher than that earned by similar work in either Victoria . or New South Wales. In Victoria, the total quantity of gold exported and received at the Mint was 799,6130z5., which, at £4 per oz,, represents a gross value of £3,198,452. Of this quantity, 519,8990z5. were 1 obtained from quartz mines, which makes the average earnings of tho reefers about £139 12s. per man. If, however, the gross yield from alluvial and quartz mines is considered, the average earnings of Victorian miners are reduced to £B2 6s. Id. per man, which, although apparently higher than the Queensland average, cannot be regarded as equally satisfactory, because in this colony the proportion of Chinese miners is far smaller than, in the north, and what may be accepted as a fair rate of wage for a Celestial would not content a European. In New South Wales the yield of gold was only 124,110 oz., or 45,483 oz. less than the previous year. The number of miners employed was 6974, which would make the average earnings about £67 11s. lOd. per man. In each of these colonies the severe drought of last year considerably interfered with gold-mining, and this accounts in some degree for the reduced yield from the alluvial workings. Upon tho whole, at the present time, the mining industry looks most prosperous in Queensland, where there is a vast extent of untried auriferous country, and the introduction of capital and machinery there will probably lead to important results being achieved in the immediate future.