The Goldfields.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 1, Issue 28, 2 May 1890, Page 2

The Goldfields.

The WakamaHna Gorge Company. A meeting of the directors of the above company was held on Monday afternoon at Blenheim, when a lengthy report was read by the legal manager (Mr S. J. Macalister), the most practical portion of which was as follows : “ At a meeting of directors on the 15th April the question of finance, as regards ways and means, was discussed. It was shown that the wages and expenses in connection with the working of the claim amounted to £550, while the capital in hand was only £IOO, with outstanding arrears of calls amounting to about £l2O. Workmen s wages alone in arrear amounted to over £349, so that the raising of money to meet current wages was a matter, that would brook no delay. In the face of these facts the directors discussed the matter at considerable length, and arrived at the following practical conclusion: —1. That in consequence of the want of capital to pay liabilities incurred and continue work, it was desirable that work for the present should be suspended, until such time as the position of the company was placed before the shareholders ; 2. That they obtain money for the purpose of meeting existing liabilities by their personal guarantee in connection with that of the legal manager to the bank; 3. That the unallotted shares of the company, numbering 1280, be offered in compliance with the Act, first to the shareholders and then to the public, at £1 each, payable as follows ; 5s on application, 6s per call, for three calls, at intervals of not less than one month each; 4. That the legal manager obtain protection for the claim during the winter months; 5. That a general meeting of the shareholders be called as soon as possible. Acting upon these views the directors have, as a matter of fact, borrowed £350 from the Union Bank of Australasia at 8 per cent.

Chamber 1 of Mines.

The Reefton Guardian in an article on the above subject concludes as follows

“To establish these Chambers in any part of New Zealand would to our mind be a farce, and the only places that they might stand the remotest show of becoming popular institutions in would be mining centres. It is a pity that instead of such onehorse affairs as School of Mines, the colony had not established full and complete batteries at the larger fields for the most approved methods of treating quartz and other ores. Had they done so, efficient instruction could have been given by the superintendent at a school in connection with the battery; and so long as the battery was properly situated and the stone was treated at a bare profit, plenty of work could no doubt be found for such a venture. Even now there is a chance for the Government of combining aid to the mining industry and instruction to the miners—at any rate of Reefton—by constructing, in view of the future importance of the Merrijigs district, a large and capable mill on the Inangahua river, where the stuff of any company could be run through and treated, and the profit at which this was done, could go towards the salaries of the staff, and the surplus be devoted to teaching in connection with a School of Mines. Some such scheme would have a practical basis and result, and also if carried out on other fields would be altogether more acceptable, we think, to the mining community than the establishment of quasi-scien-tific Chamber of Mines in non-mineral districts of the colony.”

Miscellaneous Items.

There is a piece of stone on view at Mr H. Lee’s office (says the Reefton Guardian) which the VenuS manager, Mr M'Kenney, sent in as a specimen of the reef. The piece' of stone, in question is .about a foot long, and there is a shoot of gold traversing its whole length and going freely right through it. If there is much more of the like sort in the Venus her star is in the ascendant.

During Sir Henry Parkes’ stay at Broken Hill he received interesting information re the output of the Proprietary mine. The gross output up to 27th March was 15,487,6920 z of silver, or in other words 470 tons of silver calculating a ton of silver at 32,6660 z), and 63,405 tons of lead. The average per ton of ore treated was 44750 z of silver, and 1827 per cent of lead. Taking the silver at 8s 8d per oz for fine, the silver raised was valued at about £2,841,000 sterling, while the lead, at £l2 per ton, had realised £768,000 sterling, making the total gross value of the bullion turned out up to March £3,609,00 sterling. The sum paid in wages alone.by the company, irrespective of coke, machinery, freight, &c., amounted to £534,000— say 15 per cent of the gross value bif the output of the_mine..i