THE GOLDFIELD'S OF NEW Zealand.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 237, 15 August 1872, Page 6

THE GOLDFIELD'S OF NEW Zealand.

lntheyear 1869, Mr W. £L Harrison moved, in the House of Representatives, that it is desirable the Government should cause to be laid upon the table of House, during each session a report embodying a general account of the present condition of the goldfields of the Colony; their advancement or otherwise during the preceding year, and their prospects, together with the price of provisions upon each goldfield, the estimated population, and such information as will afford a comprehensive idea of the goneral condition of the mining interest. In accordance with that resolution, instructions were given to MrHaughton, Under Secretary for the Goldfields, to prepare such a report, and that for 1871, it was laid on the table early in the session. It is a valuable document, containing not only statistical information, but such remarks and suggestions as evince a thorough mastery of th« subject by a clearheaded able man. Its length, and the necessity for attention to minute details render its publication undesirable in a newspaper, and in what follows we merely give an abstract of the leading features of interest. There seems to be a difficulty in | obtaining accurate information in New Zealand, that is not felt in the sister Colony of Victoria. Mr Haughton Bays that very few answers have been returned to circulars sent to mine owners and managers. He attributes this to the absence of the conviction— which cannot be at once forced upon their minds — that it is' for the general good that the real position of our goldfields should be established by such data as can be only afforded by the confidential communication of what must be admitted are the secrets of their business. " This," he says, "is a matter of education," and he thinks Victoria's example will lead to a conviction of the desirability of giving such information. This, and other causes, renders it impossible to state with accuracy the total quantity of gold produced in any one year. The following figures, however, are given as affording " data upon which estimates may be founded " : —

Exported according to returns furnished by the Treasury and Customs Departments —1872, 544,880 ounces ; 1871, 730,029 ounces ; quarter ending 31st March, 1572, 154,997 ounces. Distinguishing approximately the produce from quartz and alluvium, we find in 1870 -Quartz, 87,534 ounces ; alluvium, 457,346 ounces. In 1871 — quartz, 365,600 ounces ; alluvium, 364,429 ounces. Quarter ending 31st March, 1872 — quartz, 119,382 ounces ; alluvium, 35,615 ounces. It is impossible to furnish this information accurately, in default of returns from the Banks and gold buyers, which they are nat, it appears, at present in a position to furnish. This return probably does not represent the whole amount of gold raised within each particular period, as it may fairly be conjectured that a considerable quantity is smuggled out of the Colony in order to evade the high duty ; wh'le amongst alluvial miners especially, a practice of hoarding their gold is very prevalent, with the idea, no doubt, in many cases, of shipping it quietly away without troubling H.M. Customs.

The special taxation of the goldfields, including thejgold duty, amounted in the year ending 3lst December, 1871, to the gross sum of L 153,577 16s lOd, or about L 5 12s 6d per head upon every working miner.

During the year 1871, 80,372 ounces of silver, valued at L 23.145, were exported from Auckland ; and during the March quarter of 1872, 18,683 ounces, valued at L 4.90 0; making the total export of this metal from the Colony up to 31st March, 1872, 147,142 ozs. 2 dwts., valued at L 42,418. This has been exclusively the produce of the Hauraki gold field (Thames), where the gold is found so heavily alloyed, with silver as to render the latter, 'after separation, so considerable an item of export. The mean number of miners employed during the year ending 31st March, 1872, was 27,37t> ; they may be clanssd as follows : — Alluvial — European, 16,847 ; Chinese, 3,701. Quartz— European, 6,828. By the census taking 27th February, 1871, the total population of the gold fields was, so far as can be ascertained by the enumeration according to Electoral Districts, 52,067, of this number 14,779 were females, thus leaving, exclusive of miners, 9,912 persons engaged in business, or male children.

The Chinese miners are nearly all at present located in the Province of Otago, and would appear by the returns to confine themselves entirely to alluvial mining. They thoroughly understand the value of associated labor and capital, and have proved themselves able to work profitably ground which offered no inducement to European parties. The Colony, beyond the duty upon the gold which they may export through the Customs House, obtains little or no advantage from the sojourn upon the gold fields of these foreigners, who are essentially not colonists ; who, without exception leave for their own country, when they have realised a competence, carrying with them the precious metal which they have raised under the protection of our laws, and at the expense of future generations. Dividing the value of the total quantity of gold exported, amongst the mean number of miners employed in alluvial and quartz mining, it appears that in the year 1871, the average was per man LlOl 16s s£d. This mode of estimating the productiveness of gold fields is, as Mr Brough Smythe, Secretary of Mines in Victoria, remarks in a recent report for Parliament, obviously the only method which admits of a fair comparison of the productiveness of one gold field with another, and is now invariably adopted in the Pacific States of the American Bepublic. The result by no means pretends to afford anything approaching an average of the individual earnings of the miners, but simply indicates the measure of success which has attended mining operations generally; whether due to well applied labor and skill, or to the comparative richness of the deposits, cannot exactly be ascertained. Upon a similar calculation the average earnings per man upon the Victorian Gold Fields, where the miners emyloyed during the year 1871 numbered 58,111, was LBl 0s 6£d, leaving a balance in favor of New Zealand of L2O 15s Id.

There are within the Colony 3,595 miles of water. races, carrying 7,056 sluice heads, constructed at an estimated cost of L 711,38 6; but even this seemingly large supply is not nearly sufficient to meet the pressing demands of the present workings, either alluvial or quartz. It will be seen by reference to the Warden's reports that in many districts iii the Province of Otago and County of Westland, mining operations were entirely suspended for two or three months during the last summer from the want of water.

The greatest amount of money invested on machinery is in Auckland, where the plant is valued at 1208,575. Of this large amount L195j175 has been laid out in Grahamsioiwn, .and L 13,400 at Coromandel. West-land-'stands next in outlay, the amount spent there being L 141.874. There is, however, this difference : while the mining in Auckland is ooDfined to quartz crushing, that of Westland is altogether alluvial. In Otago the mining plant is valued at L 123 ,867, fort tfce Jitfcle progreM (bat quarte-ttinhig

has made may be estimated by the fact that while in • Auckland there are 891 stamp heads, in ' Otago there are but 159. Tho money invested m machinery in Nelson is L 85.850; in Marlborongh, LI, 300; and in Wellington, LSOO. Westland has only 15 stamp-heads employed in quaitz-crushing, and Nelson, 95.