TEE GOLDFIELDS OF NEW ZEALAND.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 60, 26 July 1884, Page 2

TEE GOLDFIELDS OF NEW ZEALAND.

The Government report on the goldflelds of the colony for the year ending March 81st last has been issued, and as usual it contains much valuable and interesting information. From it we learn t'.a' the mining industry is on the whole in a .lealthy condition. Although the total yield of gold as compared with the previous year shows a slight decrease, the circumstance is attributable to the partial stoppage of operations in two or throe of the ri<;her West Coast mines during the erection of air compressing .md utner macninery. For the year ending 3l*t March, 1883, the quantity .jf gold produced was 248,802 ounces, valued at £9')4.r>55. During the period ending 31st March, 1884, it was '239,68s ounces of the value of £059,134, tlnv showing a decrease of £3."), 421. The report states that " the annual value ot the gold exported from New Zealand has kept oIT and on about, a million sterling for many yeirs, and it is not likely to vary much for some time as the alluvial workings which contribute nearly "-.wo-thirds of the amount, are regulated in a considerable measure by flic water supply which is a pretty constant quantity, and quartz min.ng, though increasing, does so very gradually." Up to the date of last report £40,707,074 worth of gold in all had been exported from the colony. Of last year's yield the West Coast and Nelson contributed 49 per cent, Otago 35 per cent, and Auckland 16 per cent, or about one-half, one-third, and one-sixth tespectively. The average number of miners employed during the same period was 12,200, of whom" 10,244 (including 3349 Chinese) were engaged in alluvial workings and 19G2in quarto. Of the latter Marlborough province had 10, Otago 359, Nelson 503, and Auckland 1030. It will thus be seen that the number of quartz mines on the Hauraki and Aroha fields exceeds those employed in all other parts of the colony com- 'ined. The rate of miners' wages per week for the year ending March 31st last varied from £2 2s to £2 14s in the Auckland district, and from £2 8s to £3 on the Otago and West Coast fields. These rates are considerably in excess of the proportion of the gold produced per man of tue mining population, which for the t\elve months is estimated as worth £71 10s, being an increase of £2 6s on the average yield per man 1 for the previous year. Among the statistics of revenue we find that exclusive of gold duty the amount collected on the goldfiolds of the Auckland province, from the Ist Janifary to 29th December, 1888, was £13,103 11s srt, of which £701 14s was from Coromandel, £8970 2s 8d from the Thames, £3431 14s from this field,

11l the Arolta district there weie, ap:ir. from private holdings, thirty registered '•om panics, with a nominal capital o! £687,000 of which £-20,317 was paid up. The report spenk* highly of thn crushing mnohirnvv mi x,he northern fields, btr in mining plants we are still a l.mg wny behind the South. There tlic rock-drill has boon extensively introduced and nearly all the principal companies, especially in the Inangahua district, have eroded air compressing machinery for the- working of their mines. Abonl Reef ton and the Lyell the amount expended on such iippliances is estimated at £70.000. Tho enterprise displayed in these places will we trust soon be imitated here. With facilities for working these boring machines cheaply they effect a vast saving of labour, and On such a field as ours where there is an al'iuulanee of water, the advantages they offer must at once be apparent. We hope ere long to se" them adopted here no le<?s extensively thnn they have been on the quartz fields of the South.