MINING NEWS. OTAHA GOLDFIELDS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 386, 20 July 1889, Page 4

MINING NEWS. OTA HA GOLDFIELDS.

Auckland, July 17. A f!i,\TM.,"\iA:N who has recently returned from Mercury Bay, after having visited the Otama goldfield, speaks highly of the piosp3ct& for the fnttue. In the tiisfc place, the ore is nob letractory, bufc free milling quait.z. In some of the stone the gold can be plainly seen, while in other quarto it only shows after the stone has been reduced as fine as flour, when the precious metal is easily discerned and separated in the usual way. Our informant showed samples of brown quartz which he got at Otama. The gold could be easily seen by a casual observer. He states that there is room for fiom four to five thousand man at Otama. There are miles of quartz, and gold can be seen even in some of the bouldeis in the creek. Already numbers of men ha\e ?ct to work, and theie are others in Auckland who are only waiting for the tine weathei, when they will go dow n to Meicury Bay and try their luck. There is a stretch of country over 20 miles in extent, so that there should be room enough for all who go. One great feature about this held id that it can be easily leached. The iaio fiom Auckland to Merciuy Bay is 30c. Then a tramp of 12 niilcs lands the digger ab Otama.

Mr.l. H. Wifcheford has been in communication with fche Government upon the subject of the development of the goldmining industry, and has been invited by Mi- Cadman, M.H.E., Chairman of the Goldfields Committee, to go to Wellington and lay his scheme before the committee. Mr Withefoid submits the following outline of his proposal :: — <m Now is fche time for the profitable utilisation of tho auriferous lands of the Crown bf means of the colony's surplus labour in tho production of gold. The Stato is more justified in gold producing than in gold borrowing. It would indeed be an absolute saving to the country to produce its own gold in New Zealand, rather than borrow it from England, and would in its ex traction pro yea blessing rather than a curse to the colonists. Gold production, pure and simple, can be profitably engaged m by tho State at merely the cost of wages, by using the ofticial machinery of the gold fields for directing operations. We -want an inciease of moi^ey in circulation — now wealth, but not borrowed wealth, such wealth as the pick and sho% el kept {soing would supply. Experienced mineis out of work would gladly have vocouise to a standing job at 4s per day breaking out quartz or raising auriferous dub for treatment, with the additional impetus of wages being made up to 8s per day if results of periodical settlement |ustih'ed it. Work could be first started on these lines in Otago, Auckland and West Coast. A mint for the issue of New Zealand sovereigns could be established at Wellington. Tho trilling cost at which gold-bearing material could beiaised by such a system, the certainty of a substantial ictuin of gold, gold that the country wants so badlj , is its own eloquent appeal for the works to be started without delay. Miners and others of our working population are still leaving our shores when we could profitably retain them to increase the substantial wealth of the country. Reference to the New Zealand Handbook shows that the average return from the Thames and Coromandel goldfield has been l^oz per ton, 278,648 tons of quartz yielding 457,9160zs of gold, whereas a few dwts. per ton can be made to pay if worked on the above principle, leaving a certain surplus over all expenses."'

Coral is said to bo the coming rage. This may revive industry in removing Samoan reefs. An Historian's Definition of Matrimony. — Choice diiHcu lt— success doubtful—engagement perpetual. A Wichita preacher delivered a discorse last Sunday on " Lying," and when lie went down on Monday morning not more than half the poople he met would speak to him. " Then you don't like Wagner's music ? ' "No, I don't." "Why not?" "Well, I will tell yon. I'm a boiler maker by trado, and wheu 1 wuno music 1 want a chungo.