Our Mining Reporter.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1741, 1 August 1874, Page 2

Our Mining Reporter.

i A retrospective view of mining during the past month is most encouraging. The gold returns'shbw a steady increase—not - from one or two mines producing large j yields, butv payable yields pretty well' distributed. The Manukau lias certainly contributed in a great measure to the increased yield, but, what is more importantjr the discovery in this mine and its results have conduced to give an impetus to the working of all the mines in the vicinity of-this claim, which has- eclipsed its former reputation. The reefs it is said, continue their extraordinary richness, retaining tHeir great width, and from the end towards the Cure Company's;(ground! good gold was obtained yesterday morning,, „ Of ,the,j Pure : mine ; itself I■; was in hopes to be able to report a good gold bearing reef in hand; I am sorry* to say that I cannot do so. There is still a r strong lode in hand running the? Manukau about Wo feet thick, but a large portion of it is mullock or black clay. Two other leaders have been cut in driving, one of wWch shows,a little gold. It is an easy transition from the Cure to the imperial City, which' is on. the same line of reef as the Manukau, and there is every reason to hope that this company will before long take a leading place-in- the Thames sharemarkefc; the .strike of the Manukau reef at its stoutest end bearing directly into that company's ground. I see their scrip were quoted on Thursday—the firsttime for many months. The Waio•t'ahi is making steady progress, but not yet through the reef in their No. 2 shaft. Of the Hand an d Band I can learn nothing, but it is time some active measures were /taken to search for the reef striking towards their ground from tho Manukau. I was in the Nonpareil mine yesterday morning, and from appearances that company is likely to. again come into note as a gold producer; they having cut nearly through a slide that had been troublesome, and picked up a goldbearing lode that, was supposed to have? run out. The improvement in the Nonpareil has caused, the scrip of the Italian , (an adjoining claim) to come into market notice; but as the drive: in which the Nonpareil Company are getting gold is 80ft; from the Italian Company's boundary, it must bo caried further in before I can say much respecting it; Up the Moanatairi Creek the prospects of some df the mines are improving; the Old Whau, Colibaa and , Central Italy, markedly so; the latter claim having within the last 48 hours 411bs. specimens tp hand. The Pumping Association in cbnjuction with the Tookey; Company have achieved a real mining engineering success during the ; week, the former's works having been connected with Tookey's at the 400 ft. -level.■■;• The current of ' ! air now going through both mine* is very great, twelve thousand cubic feet of air being sent ufgfre upcast or pump shaft per minute. The air courses are of enormous length. Mr. Dewar, the Tookey Company's manager, was kind enough to scale the distance for me. The air channels are exactly 2604 feet in length, that;,.;.; is, taking; from' th> top of the chimney on Tookey's hill to the timber plat of the Association's shaft; and so true was Messrs. Wright and Bayldon's survey that ihowbrks.H'when connected—were but a few inches but of line. ;The air below is now perfectly safe to work in; thus one of the great dangers of the workings in these mines, foul gas, has been:done away with. The Pumping have been able to do away with the use of their fans and air furnace. Tho Don Pedro is likely to turn put good jßruahmg; stuff, gold pr,e. having been come across; Thei Long; Drive is" also shewing up well for gold The Bright Smile, Queen of Beauty and the WaioEaraka mines generally are still holding their own; but/many persons are now eagerly looking for dividends from the Bright Smile—^the yield from the /mine being good and th* quantity of stuff crushed being very great. lam informed that the greater portion of the gold realised has been expended in dead work that will be immediately beneficial to the shareholders: The same remark applies to the Bird in Hand Company. The purchase or arrival of steam engines for more fully developing our mines is almost of weekly occurrence, and several more will be shortly required for. progressive works on the field. The Vulcan mine hasJ been let on tribute with—to the Thames;— ■ this rather novel addenda, that the tributers receive one pound per week subsistence, money in case their, efforts to obtain payable gold Should be unsuccessful. During the latter part of the month we. were " m great danger of suffering from a coal famine, supplies from the Bay of Islands falling very short. A small but timely supply has given temporary relief^ but we are far from safe from a recurrence of a similar want of fuel. The great water battle betweei^'the Pumping Association and a number of companies hda been .fought in our Warden- ft Court during this week, and in most of the cases the company obtained a judgment for the amount sued for, but in two others tpblc" a npnsTiLit;Tpokey's .'Gompiiay, constituted in :Victoria, hay ing, strangely enough,/neglected to furnish, their officers in New Zealand, with documents necessary to prove thitr the company is - a legally •- incorporated;: body, j The month of July elbsing on! W Friday, I am unable to make the gold return complete for the present week; «s' Saturday is the, day PA which most of the companies make their lodgments ; ibutil am able to quote, the amount deposited up to noon-of the 3185.: The total amount is 10,769ozsMld:wts. s If an all-round value isf taken of £2 15s per ounce, we have almost respectable total of £29,615 ss. -3d. fbr*"actually less than a winter nionth's work. There is dot the sUgtitest signl bf any of the mines from which this sjpUndidgroßs yield has been given failing

in their resources, and there ii every pro-, bability that in the course «f a few months additional companies, whose works are far advanced towards completion will largely tell on our gold returns. Mr. W. Eowe is providing for the greater convenience of our brokers, having nearly completed a kind of arcade, which will give thirteen roomy business offices, most of which, I am informed, are let.