BATTERY MATTERS.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 34, 26 January 1884, Page 7

BATTERY MATTERS.

(to Tin-: i:dit'>u.) Sir, — Uitionclnnout inu found its way into tlu jailor). Tlic amalguiuatwrs have been reduced i'roin £4 per week to £3 9s. I urn ini'otmed that the cost of crushing at the battery during the luontli it was at \v"rk was aliiiost £180. The Golden Crown battery at the Thames is run for £140 per month ; so it will be soon tlioro was plenty of room for retrenchment. I have from time ro time oi : la to seen foolish statements in the Thames papers, to the effect that the battery owners had determined to close the WVmrongoniai l>attery for 12 months. Even if they were so inclined it is quite out of their power ; in accordance with the agreement between the proprietors and tho mines, they are compelled to start crushing when the latter tire ready. The present point of difference between the mine directors and Messrs Firth and Clark is the tailings question. I »m informed that the battery munag >r recommended his employers to demand 25 per cent of the gold from the tailings for the use of the berdans. This, considering the predicament in which the mine directors had placed themselves through their shoitsightedncss in not securing a sufficient number of boidans in the Hist agreement, would h.ive been a fair charge. But the mine owners did not see through the same spectacles as their employes, and their grasping policy again was brought into bold relief. " Oh, yes," they say, '' we'll take the 25 per cent, but we Wiint 10s per day for each berdan as well." An interesting calculation to illustrate the effect of this arrangement has been made. It is estimated th.it the New Find, crushing for 4 yen, with ten head of stamper-?, would produce 23,001) ounces of gold from tailings. At the end of 4 yearn clif» battery proprietors would have had 19,000 ounces of gold, and the unfortunate shareholders in the New Find only 4000 ounces. After this my faith in philanthropists is gone for ever. — I am, etc., "Waiokongomai.