OUR GOLDFIELDS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5521, 6 December 1878, Page 2

OUR GOLDFIELDS.

Amongst the Parliamentary papers laid upon the table of the House of Representatives during the session the report of the Secretary of Goldfields upon the state of mining enterprise throughout tho Colony during tho past year is not wanting in interest or importance. _ Tho working of the Mines Act, 1877, involved the necessity of creating a distinct department with a permanent Under Secretary, the Minister of Lauds being the official head. This is the first report from tho new department, and it is very complete and well arranged. Tho general yield of gold for the year 1877 exceeded that for the preceding year 1876, and the increase was steadily maintained in tho first quarter of the current year ; the figures for the respective periods of fifteen months are 474,315 ounces and 404,257 ounces, the increased yield being 70,058 ounces, of the value of £303,069 sterling. The market price of New Zealand gold varies from two pounds ten shillings per ounce in Auckland, to three pounds seventeen shillings and threepence on some of the Nelson fields. The total of produce entered for exportatation since the first discovery of gold is 8,751,626 ounces, of the value of nearly thirty-four and a quarter millions of money, Otago being the largest producer. Mr. McKerrow tells us that on an average of the year ended 31st March last tho number of miners was 16,180, and the value of the gold exported in the year £1,577,397. The average earnings of the miners would thus bo £97 10s. each a-year. Thisexceeds the Victorian average per man, which for 1877 was £B2 6s, Id, “ This,” says the secretary, “is not “ laborer’s wages at the present rate of “ eight shillings per day of eight hours ; “but considering tho vicissitudes of “ mining industry, and that it is an “ occupation of prizes and blanks, it is a “ very high general average.” It is matter of surprise to learn what a large amount of money has been invested in the work of what is called “ hydraulic alluvial mining;’’ the cost of some 3795 water races, of an aggregate length of 5230 miles, carrying a total of 7276 sluice heads of water, is estimated at £350,000; all of these races have been made by private enterprise. The increase in quartz mining operations, if measured by the increase of machine power and of the number of hands engaged, has not been great. Such increase as there is appears to be mainly due to the operations at the famous Blue Spur in Otago, speaking of which the Warden says : “ The Blue Spur has yielded a very “large quantity of gold fo• the year—l “ believe more than auy preceding year. “ Tne claims in this wonderful hill have “ been worked for the past fifteen years, “ and it seems they are not yet half ex- “ hausted. Two of the claims were first “ sluiced from the surface downwards 10 “to 30 feet, until no sufficient slope “ could be obtained to carry off the tail- “ ings; then, by means of shafts and “ drives, the lowest strata of six or eight “ feet were tunnelled out and passed “ through crushing-mills. All this work “ has been profitable, and now the whole “ of the remaining drift, from top to “ bottom (CO to 80 feet), is being esca- “ rated in a face, and crushed with, I am “ informed, satisfactory results; and “it seems to be certain that, before “ the miners have done with “ it, what was once a precipitous “ hTI will become a deep lake.” There are four water-races under the control of the Goldfields Department, viz., the Thames, the Waimea, the Nelson Creek, and tho Mount Ida, the aggregate length of which is 127£ miles, and the cost £362,272. The prospects of these races as an investment are not brilliant. Any margin that may remain after meeting tho necessary expenditure for management and maintenance “will “bo but a small contribution towards “ interest of money sunk in prime cost of “ construction.”

Prospecting parties, assisted by tho Government from the Parliamentary vote, have been at work in several districts, but as yet without any ascertained results. The quantity of land taken up under agricultural leases is increasing, and that industry in the mining districts is said to be generally prosperous, in the South especially; the Hauraki enterprise at Ohinemuri, in the North, forming an exception. There are many points of interest in ; these papers to which we might refer if space permitted. They will repay careful perusal, and they form a valuable contribution to pur knowledge regarding a very important branch of Colonial industry.