Our Mining Reporter.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1902, 6 February 1875, Page 2

Our Mining Reporter.

THE WEEK. All eyes have been, and are, turned towards Ohinemuri, and the interest which at the beginning of the week had become somewhat weakened by the departmre of Sir Donald McLean for the Waikato, has been again revived by the hasty arrival of Mr James Mack ay, who proceeded to Ohinemuri on Thursday. Although numbers of prospectors have been o%t since the probability of the country's being opened first became manifest this last time, the public generally know little more of the prospects of Ohinemuri than they did seven years ago. This may seem discouraging, but it must be tak«n into consideration that Ohinemuri is not being properly prospected—a fact which,

I may fairly assume, is not known to all. So for the country has been merely skimmed ; were it otherwise there would not have been time for prospectors confidently to "pronounce," as many prospectors have pronounced. The surface is scratched in one place, and another is immediately tried. And this only applies to the clear ezound, the thickly wooded portion of/* country offering difficulties which parties of miners cannot cope with at. this B ta*e, and which therefore may contain the very treasure being sought. betting aside this open question, however, there still regains the indubitable fact that the vast extent of land considered to be auriferous has not been thoroughly searched. Ihe range is two wide. The. character of the country according to competent authorities has yet to be proved. Thus while in many places the surface may have been removed there is a possibility that the reef* sought lie deeper, and have thus escaped observation. From one who has spent a con* mderable time in prospecting at Ohineinuri I learn that he has not as yet discovered—nor seen with others—any quartz of a payable character, though the color has been got. The same authoritr is, nevertheless, in nowise discouraged by««tllis> .for the reason above stated. There is absolutely nothing to say of mining between the Hape and Tararu Creeks. The sharemarket does not exi?t —there is no market; and if „this state of things continues much longer there will be no sharebrokers. One or two specimens of chat genus are looking very thin and hungry ; others have disappeared mysteriously—gone away without flourish of trumpets—just taken themselves off quietly, as it were—sunk"feebly into tha background like the "say-nothing-to-nobody sort of fellows" spoken of by Mr Samuel Weller, in mood ironical. Sometimes a broker may promiscuously be seen looking out on the street like a half, starved raven, who would give a good deal for a bite. If you walk briskly op to this man, you will perceive as you approach a fa<nt glimmering of hope straggling to make itself apparent in his mournful countenance. He thinks you want to "effect".something or otherl' But he relapses into melancholy as .you walk leisurely away, and conceals himself in a ghostly office where he can contemplate midst a eonfusian of paper, ink*bottles and fractured pens, all the business he might, could, or would do, if the business only came to be done. Let us hope that better days are coming for, all parties. The following, are the returns for tha week, lodged in the Bank of New Zealand, up to 12 o'clock to-day :^- - --,r - . . ozs dwt Moanatam .236-.11 Junction (tribute) „[ 9 Alburnia ... .... „/ 187 7 Dauntless (tribute) "" 99 13 Bright Smile ... ... 263,4,- ---_ . Total ' 893 4 , Beside the above there hare been lodged a number of smajll parcels, amount. I ing to about 70 ounces; and a lofc of gold has yet to come. in.