WAYSIDE NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 219, 11 April 1872, Page 5

WAYSIDE NOTES.

{From the Heen'vg Star 787 8 Correspondent.)

The great lack in the quartz mining operations is without doubt the existence of skilled men competent to undertake the management of quartz claims. This dearth is by no means singular. The history of mining in Great Britain and other countries in all its branches affords many similar cases. Coal masters at the present day feel the same want of competent men to superintend their workings, as companies in Otago interested in quartz. Colliers from boyhood, though possessed of more than ordinary intelligence, have been found incompetent to preside over the management of a large mine, though acquainted with all its iutrioaoios, goafs, and choked up returns. The technical education — or what stands in its place — travelled experienced, and the careful comparison of experiments with others engaged in the same pursuit, were found to be wanting ; and when competition induced lowei prices for supply through improved appliances for working, the faithful intelligent collier had to lag in the rear, produce his coal some 3d or 6d per ton dearer than his competitors, and give way to those more modernised and experienced than himself. It is found, also, should a parent or guardian pay a large premium with a youth as a cadet to a mining engineer, to qualify him for the management of mines, the chances are the result will not be what is expected. Though enabled to draw well, and accurately plot the workings, understand the use of an instrument, compare the quantity of coal that should be raised per acre and allow a proper proportion for waste, trace the outcrop of a measure for a distance, tell from the rock under his feet what seam should be beneath, can even analyse a sample given him, and tell, if a caking coal, what proportion and quality of coke it will yield, whether the sample may be bituminous or otherwise — will yet be found to be ignorant of many things that a collier understands, and that are as essential in his calling as any of the foregoing qualifications. He wants the rudimentary portion of his education which apprenticeship in the days of the past was in the habit of yielding. He cannot, as a rule, take the tool out of an incompetent man's hand, and shew

him how his work should be done. To provide against this difficulty, and to help the purely practical man — to whom as a rule mine-owners prefer to confine the management of their mines — "The Mining Institute of Great Britain " and " The Mining Institute of South Wales" have been found. Grown men cannot spare the time, nor can their time be spared again to go to school. To provide them with a means of improving their education, and to bring fresh discoveries under their notice, is the object of these institutions. Confining our attention to "The South Wales Mining Institute, "for the reason that we are best acquainted with the working of its details, we shall describe its mode of

carrying out the object of its formation, and sec if any lesson can be learned worthy our notice. It includes in its members coal

masters, mining engineers, colliery managers, and ironfounders. Thus among its members will be found George Elliott, of North Durham, M.P. ; some of the Brogdens ofLynoi and New Zealand ; Clark and Merulaus, of Dowlais ; Dobson, Brown, and Bassetfc, of

Cardiff ; Lewis, of Gadlys ; Vivian and Daniels, of Swansea ; Bedlington, of Ferndale ; and a host of others less noteworthy, but well known among the begrimed coal and ironworkers of the principality. Its rank and file are some five hundred men. Candidates for admission are proposed and seconded by members, and if elected charged three guineas as an entrance fee. The yearly subscription is L 2 2s. There is a paid secretary — at the rate of LIOO per annum, we believe — who lives at Merthyr. On him devolves the duty of keeping the accounts, correspondence, "reading" proofs and correcting diagrams in the publications of the Institute. The meetings are held once a quarter, when papers on various novel subjects are read and discussed, models and diagrams of new in-

ventions shown : which papers and diagrams are afterwards published for the use of the members generally, and sent to them by post to be digested at leisure. 'Ihe places of meeting alternate port, between New Cardiff, Aberdair, Merthyr, Neath, and Swansea The Institute is self-supporting, and generally has a balance in hand. The published proceedings of the Institute form a valuable record of new inventions and the opinions of practical men as to their utility. Thus should a new process of making steel superior to or cheaper than that of Bessemer's be patented, the sample and all its details will be laid before the meeting, and trials solicited. When gun cotton was considered preferable to blasting powder, the manufacturers of the cotton lost no time in informing the Institute of the fact. When Guibal's fans were asserted to be superior for ventilating purposes to the ordinary furnace method, his agents lost no time in making their merits known. When Jones and Chubb patented their hydraulic coal getters, they were only too anxious to bring their merits of invention before the gaze of practical men, knowing that; their approval would ensure success. When a mine manager is in a difficulty, he can state his trouble to his brethren, and obtain their opinion as to the best-

means of overcoming it.

it will be seen from this cursory description the manifold advantages arising from the formation of these societies, and what a fund of information is disseminated by their quarterly publications.

The question arises whether the adoption of a somewhat similar plan would not be extremely beneficial to the mining interests of New Zealand and Australia. The question of expense cannot in the least affect the matter, aa the ordinary run of mine managers in the colonies receive a larger salary than in the Mother Country. Were an institute of this class formed in Melbourne, Dunedin, or Auckland, and composed of mine managers engaged in quartz reefing, and the result of their meetings published, a large amount of useful information would be widely disseminated, and a large amount of money be yearly saved in consequence. We should know then, and possess in a compact form, the general lines and dip of our best-defined lodes, how far a single reef had been traced, what should constitute the difference between a leader and a lode, what crushing should be performed for per ton, the most approved methods of extracting the gold, the best plan of treating sulphurous and arsenical ores, and have at hand every invention of merit on gold-mjning that is only mow and then heard of wjfcen floating through the Colonial Press. Jatpeiience could be ob-

tained and tabulated from California, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and every other portion of the &lobe, and that profound doubtfulness we now all more or less experience be in a great measure done away with: and what results should take place from auriferous lodes under skilful treatment be as clearly made plain as the thickness of a payable seam of coaL