GOLD-MINING IN AMERICA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5481, 21 October 1878, Page 3

GOLD-MINING IN AMERICA.

The followiug extracts, culled from the Daily Territorial Express, of Nevada, July 6, give something of an idea of the extent to which mining is carried on in certain parts of America. On Tuesday last there was a shipment of bullion from the Bonanza mines which completed the mighty aggregate of 100,000,000d015. shipped from those mines. The exact figures wore from the California 40,517,532'20d015., and from the Consolidated Virginia 30,493,532‘85d015. ; a total of 100,011,055'03d015. IVom this sum the California has paid 26 dividends, aggregating 28,050,000d015., and the Consolidated Virginia has paid 46 dividends, aggregating -It,0i0,000do!s., making a total of 69,140,000d015. There have been since the last dividend was declared shipments amounting to 670,G35'&3d015., which will swell the dividends 440,000d015., leaving the full amount of dividends 69,580,000 dollars, or within a fraction of 70 per cant, of the whole gross product of the mines. Those are tremendous figures, and are altogether unprecedented in mining. Turn them about, or analyse them in any way, and the result is magnificent. The yield is equal to one-sixteenth of the interestbearing portion of the national debt; it is equal to the value of all the property of all kinds in an average city of 125,000 inhabitants; it is more than the value of all the real and personal property of this State, and the comparisons might be extended indefinitely. This amount has been taken from a little spot •f ground less than 800 ft. in length and from 60 to 300 feet in width. And the marvellous deposit is still yielding princely sums. As one looks upon the figures he finds himself wondering why there aro any poor in this world, and why so long as gold and silver will purchase any luxury and all reasonable service there aro so many who are.in pecuniary distress. The thought is cured, however, by reflecting that in all the mining of the world no other such success was ever won before. For five years, from 1867 to 1872, a company worked the ground all the time, expending 161,340*41d015. upon the property, without •"realising one cent, in return. At last it was forced to give way, and on January 11, 1872, the property fell to the present management. These men expended 277,130T2d015. on the.property before realising one dollar from it. It was a stubborn fight against the heat and the barren porphyry—a steady pouring out of gold on a hope which continued altogether eight years, and which would have been abandoned in any other country but this, and by any other class of men in the world except Nevada miners. Call it judgment, sagacity, faith, pluck, or what you will ; it is a faculty, or rather a combination of faculties, which exists nowhere else on earth. The old stock (only 108,000 shares for each mine) was worth but 2dols. per share, and some who perforce accepted it for services rendered bewailed their hard fortune. Since then it has made them richer than they ever dreamed of being, and their word is held in great estimation because of their shrewdness in purchasing Bonanza stocks when they were low. At last in a drift which was run from the Gould aud Curry shaft through tho Heat and Belcher mine into the Consolidated Virginia tho crest of tho Bonanza was cut; explorations followed, and tho more work that was clone tho more oro was exposed, until at length, in tho autumn of 187-1, it was fully revealed that an ore deposit had been discovered that exceeded in extent and richness anything ever found before in a mine. On October 18, 1873, tho first shipment of bullion from the Consolidated Virginia was made. That was three months less than five years ago, and now tho product, as wo have shown, has exceeded 100,000,000 dollars, almost seventeaths of which have been in profits. Of the whole amount about 13 per cent, has been gold

and 56 per 'cent, silver. The yield of these two mines has drawn the eyes of tho whole world to Nevada. It lias shown, as was never before shown, the possibilities which lie within tho grasp of labor, pluck, and judgment in our country. It has lifted up the credit of the United States among tha nations of the earth; it has revealed the possible time when the world’s commercial capital may be removed from the eastern to tho western'hemisphere. Its sudden mingling with the world s money arteries gave them for a time an unnatural beat. It made the few dwellers on the Pacific Coast appear as greater producers than ten times their number of people anywhere else in the world around, and the addition was not in an article which the world competes in raising or manufacturing, but iu that material which the world accepts as the perfect representative of values. While this has been going on thousands here have found profitable employment; thousands * in California. have been furnished work and profit in forging machinery and providing supplies, and still the work is progressing, and still the stubborn rocks are giving up their treasures. Better still, this unearthing of treasure at depths so profound has given others faith and courage, and the result we believe is that other Bonanzas, perhaps larger than the one we have been considering, are about to be revealed. Many' have tried, many have succeeded, and many after tremendous struggles have nobly failed. Foremost among the successful stand two men who are entitled to most praise. They came here years ago. They brought nothing but clear heads, stout hearts, and strong arms. They went to work as common laborers, and to-day they justly stand the foremost miners of the world. They are entitled to their position, for they earned ft fairly, keeping all their contracts iu the meantime. Their names make a fitting close to this article. They are John W. Mackay and James G. Fair.