Our Mining Reporter

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1753, 15 August 1874, Page 2

Our Mining Reporter

THE WEEK.

" Needs must 'when tHe devil driyes " is an adage as,old ais the hills." I never thoroughly.' underjt'pod the entire sense of the proverb.tiir this week, when the exigencies of theltime have'compelled me to A write a synopsis of the mining doings on the Thames for the last six days. Imprimis, the dpingir are notalow in the mining world; ihe .dpfejopemelnt of the rictus of (our t landl -f»thoms fdeep, is steadily.going on,, and in most cases with favPrable results." 'I cannot see any change for the worse in any of the mines I have seen ;or heard of in the Thames district, yet th^ere is a commercial dulness hanging about the place that is a puzile to? an outsider. This to me ca,n only bp; accounted for by there being too many people in business to share the honey in the hive. I may be wrong in my opinion in this respect,'but still I venture to give it. We are not so thirsty that we require over ninety publicans "to supply our wants; -we are hot so hungry as to requu'e a proportionate number of butchers and bakers to feed us ; neither are we so naked as to require so many clothiers to fit our skins. I have, so to speak, done with the legitimate growler, and must revert to the mines which give them their bread land butter. % was not at the meeting of the City of York Company, and I have to congratulate myself on that fact, for the proceedings |as stand.; confessed :by a portion of the^Thames fPress dp not in the least redound to the honor of'the press proprietors— at least to some of them. In my humble opinion a newspaper ought to be like Caesar's wifer^-above suspicion, or else what good are the reports given by it. As to the mines. Of the Manukan I have everything encouraging to say, but that although it does not affect our sharemarket it does affect the place. The mine is one of the most prosperous ones on the Thames, but being held in such few hands it is not demanded of the press to frequently refer to;-it. . From the .Old Whau I have td report encouragingly, the reef having in a measure slewed back into their own,grpund. ■ The Alburnia, by the chapter of accidents in all mine workings, will, from what I can see, have to winze instead of rising in any work they may have to conduct from the Whau level into their own ground; of a certainty the gold does run down from the Whau ,into the Alburnia, but the latter company will not get this .particular shot unless by sinking for it. The Waio-Karaka mines are still making their mark ai gold producers, the Bright Smile especially coming into more favorable notice as a gold bearer, as has also the Crown Prince. The Big B.ump .has nlade no special mark during. tlife week; the .water lifted seems to me to be less Jin volume that it was. What if the works should prove to be in the wrong place, and that the. drainage shaft should have been sunk at the back of the i reefs it was intended to drain; instead of cutting the underlie of them. There has; been many a wilder theory than this advanced, and many a one not half as wild never, been controverted; but for all Thames Companies seem to care, a reporter may play, so to speak, at " skittles" on his own account—he may knock the pins down or set : them up himself as he pleases;. no one seems to haye 1 pluck enough to say him nay, or, if he is in error, to put. him and the public right; and as to any thing like a get-at-able map of the strata of the different Thames mines, ■: and : one clearly shewing how the lodes in the'different mines do run' Mwill be [ brought '■' -out, after a kind of thumb fashion, at a cost to the Province or the Thames of a thousand pounds or so a foot of driving. Our mining laws seem in a curious state. In the case of Smith versus the Queen of Beauty shareholders, and which came on for hearing this week in the Warden's Court, a, late); tributer sued the shareholders. '■' He was nonsuited on the ground that all the shareholders had not signed the agreement as to his tribute (the mine not being in a company.) xNext day the shareholders »ued the tributer. One of the shareholders sworehe was no party to the suit —it had not been brough^ on with his consents ' Yetthe^casp went on, the shareholder's confession, on which the defence raised an objection^being ignored. Our Warden has" plenty law latitude, but must feal rather cramped askto his decisions in equity.