MINING INTELLIGENCE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 107, 26 February 1870, Page 6

MINING INTELLIGENCE.

Speaking of the position of the Long Drive Claim, at the Thames goldfield, the " New Zealand Herald " of a recent date says : — There have been ten dividends during the past six months — two in each of the months of July, September, October, and November, and one in August, and one in December. Four of them were four pounds per share, five of three pounds per share, and one two pounds per share. The last dividend of four pounds per share was paid on the 24th December. The total value of gold obtained from the mine during ,that period — July to December last — was £49,000, and the amount paid in dividends £39,600. The nominal capital of the company is £6000, in 1200 shares of £5 each, with £3 6s. Bd. paid up, so that the last half-year's dividends were very nearly equal to ten times the paid up capital of the company, and were more than six and a half times the nominal capital. We present these facts thus freely, because the circumstances of the time demand that public journals should give full and correct information. The ignorant and timid, more especially in gold speculation, very soon take alarm — they are easily worked upon, and influences are often brought to bear on their fears to excuse them to part with their property during times of panic. Indeed, these panics are often got up with the particular object of depreciating stock, it being well known that a harvest can be frequently gathered during their continuance. The Long Drive stock is an instance, perhaps, of this character. It fell as much as fifty per cent, in the course of a few days. There was no assignable cause for this. Vague rumours, repeated from mouth to mouth, none knowing whence they originated, were sufficient to effect it. Alarm caused persons to offer shares in greater numbers than usual. A lower price must be taken to effect a sale, and money not being very plentiful just now, it was easy to reduce the price when a forced sale was made. To show the amount of misrepresentation and credulity on the subject, it was absolutely stated as a reason why shares should be sold that there had been no dividends for several months ; and people will not take the trouble to get accurate information when it is within their reach. The reaction in respect to these shares set in on Thursday. Persons who sold under the excitement caused by the falsehoods circulated became aware of their mistake, and went into the market to re-purchase ; but they found they could only do so at a very much higher price than that for which they sold Iheir own stock. We know of instances where Long Drive Shares purchased at noon on Thursday were resold towards evening at an advance of £15 each. The "New Zealand Gazette" of Saturday contains a return of the export of gold from the Colony from the Ist April, 1857, to the 31st December, 1569. The total number of ounces was 4,997,969. It would be useless to give the Customs valuation, for it is reckoned at the Mint value of £3 17s. 10|d. per ounce, which is never realised for any New Zealand gold. The estimate, therefore, of nearly nineteen ■and a half millions sterling is an overstatement. The various districts have contributed as follows : — Auckland, 213,489 ounces; the West Coast, 2,235,491 ; Otago, 2,522,061 ; and Southland, 26,928 During the quarter ending 31st December, Auckland exported 40,557 ounces ; the West Coast, 76,430 ; Dunedin, 40,826 ; and Southland, 817 ounces. Total for the quarter, 158,630 ounces. The Auckland "Herald" says :— ult is not because there is a lack of good stone in hundreds of claims that no dividends are paid by them. We have a noticeable instance of this in one of the best claims at the Thames, when at a late meeting the balance sheet plainly showed the why and the wherefore of there having been no dividend for shareholders. Three hundred and six tons of quartz, the produce of 20 weeks' work, had been crushed for 639| ounces of gold, which realised some £1400. Shareholders liad naturally expected that a dividend would be forthcoming, but the per contra account explained all. Each ton of quartz cost in labour to take it from the reef £2 7s lOd; other expenses, including carting and crushing, amount to £1 14s 2d, making a total per ounce of £4 2s. A very small margin is thus left for profit. Now it is manifestly absurd that quartz which will give on the average 2ozs. 2dwts. per ton should barely pay at the Thames, when in Australia from three to five dwts. per ton will give handsome returns. What is needed is a thorough reform in the working of claims ; strict attention by directors •to the expenditure, that no needless cost, no wasteful extravagence goes on, that the work be let by contract, and that the contracts are bona fide in their character, and faithfully carried out by the manager. Too much is left to legal managers ; the auditing of accounts is made a mere matter of form. A change, too, must be effected in the crushing arrangements on the field before shareholders can look for profits. £1 14s 2d per ton for carting and crushing charges, is of itself enough to shut up hundreds of claims that should be payable ones. The Canterbury "Press," of the «6th instant, says :—": — " We were yester-

day shown some fine specimens of auriferous quartz, obtained from the claim of the Pounamou Company, Kelly's Ridge, Taipo. We understand ' that the manager has made arrangements to have half a ton of stone brought to town, to have it tested." The Cardrona correspondent of the " Cromwell Argus," writing on the 13th instant, says : — " Mining matters are at present looking very healthy at the head at the Cardrona Creek. Six parties of European miners are netting £10 per man per week. Their workings are principally paddocking, from sft. to 20ft. in depth, aad the gold is very coarse. Some magnificent quartz specimens have also been found by one of the parties during the month in the bed of the creek." A Nelson telegram states that sixty pounds of stone, taken promiscuously from a reef near the prospectors' at Wangapeka, have been crushed here, and yielded sozs.* 9dwts. I7grs. per ton of two thousand pounds. The stone does not show gold to the naked eye. The reef is eight feet wide. The Auckland papers suggest that the G-eneral G-overnment might materially assist the numerous unemployed workmen at the Thames by at once disbanding the Waikato militia and hiring as many unemployed minsrs in their place. The four shillings a day (says the "Herald") which is a mockery to the Waikato settler, who, by losing his harvest, is at a loss of pounds, would be a godsend to the starving Thames man. At a recent meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society, a very interesting paper by ilr. Skey, of the G-overnment Laboratory, was read. It was on a new method recently discovered by the writer for detecting the presence of gold in stone. Dr. Hector stated that the immense number of specimens of quartz which had recently been sent to him to be tested, had rendered him desirous of finding some simple and rapid means of ascertaining the presence of gold. He had directed Mr. Skey's attention to the subject, and that gentleman, after many experiments, had invented a method which fully met all requirements without the use of quicksilver. The details of the system were briefly as follows : — The stone having been thoroughly crushed and calcined, so as to alter the chemical character of any sulphureous matters, is immersed in a bath of iodine or bromine, and after this has stood a time, slips of Swedish filtering paper are dipped into the fluid and dried, the alternate dipping and drying being continued until the paper is thoroughly saturated with the fluid. The dry slips are then burned in a muffle, and if no gold is present, the ashes present a perfect white appearance. If the stone, however, has contained gold at the rate of one dwt. to the ton, the ashes will be found of a beautiful purple colour. No other subctance than gold will give them this colour, and Dr. Hector stated that as soon as experiments had been made with iodine or bromine baths, containing a known quantity of gold in solution, it would be possible to compile a table of tints by which the colour of the ashes would show the exact proportion of gold to the ton of stone tested. This discovery of Mr. Skey's may therefore be considered a very important one. A small trial of crushing stove from the Never Despair claim, Terewaiti, Wellington, gives promises of a rich return. There is considerable excitement consequent upon the discovery. — Wellington telegram. The following, from a Wellington | contemporary, refers to an announcement recently made in a telegram which appeared in our columns : — We understand that Mr. Billman, who is renting a section of land on the Hutt road, near Ngahauranga, has sent in a claim to the Provincial Secretary for the reward offered for the discovery of a payable goldfield. The claim is founded on the fact that Mr. Billman, guided by an old Victorian reefer, dug, some few weeks ago, about SOlbs. weight of quartz from a likely-looking reef on the section referred to. This was put into a sack and sent to Melbourne to be crushed. Tlie result of the crushing was sent by the G-othen-burgh, and showed a return of 2dwts, of gold to the 501bs. of stone, or 4ozs. to the ton. Mr. Billman has, of course, yet to prove that the field is of sufficient extent to be considered payable, and though somewhat sceptical as to his ability to do so, we cannot but think that the evidences are in his favour.

"Hospital Sunday " at Birmingham. — On a day specially appointed annually in October a collection is made in all the churches and chapels in behalf of the charities of the town. The amount collected and subsequently sent in this year is £3700. The Queen's Hospital takes the funds on this occasion. The average amount collected for the ten years 1868 (exclusive of expenses, about £100 a year) is £3674. Two boys, aged respectively nine and four years, having played truant from school, at Barnstaple Devon lately, wandered into a wood. The elder child was- found by the side of the Middle Leat, thoroughly exhausted. On being questioned, he stated he had been unable to get his little brother home. It was found that the child was dead. He had fallen into the water and.been dragged out alive, but i died from subsequent exposure to the i cold.