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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 246, 27 September 1884, Page 2

Very encouraging accounts have recently been received from several of the goldfields. As a gold producing country, New Zealand, according to

the annual report of the Mining Department, turns out a million sterling worth every year, and there is no present prospect of its varying much from that amount. The alluvial gold mining is dependent on the water supply, which is pretty constant, the miners not being laid idle, as in New South Wales, for months together by a drought, and the quartz mining being very steady in the absence of new fields. Nearly half the gold comes from the West Coast and Nelson, about one-third from Otago, and about one-sixth from Auckland. About 12,000 men still stick to mining, though the attraction to this pursuit must be more in the hope of a prize, or in its independence, than in actual winnings, because the average per man is only /'"i, and that can be earned in wages in almost any’ occupation. The Government has had to spend over ninety thousand pounds over this particular industry during the last two years, or at the rate of nearly four shillings an ounce ; but as a good deal of this money went in roads, it will be a permanent advantage in opening up the country. The export duty’ and the leases and licenses brought in about fifty’ thousand last year, against which has to be set the cost of administration. Since it started as a gold producer New Zealand has sent into the world gold to the value of £20,000,000, and more would be very welcome.