Notes and Comments.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 267, 9 October 1902, Page 3

Notes and Comments.

The change of ownership of the Trans- \

'vaal will no doubt make for dey-fclopment in the i mining industry, and the | output, which increased ] from' '23,000 ounces of |

THE TRANSVAAL MINKS.

ore in 1887 to 435,069 ounces, valued at -£15,141.376, in 1892, will go on increasing, One of the chief difficulties which will he met will be the scarcity of water. The present source of supply, rain water stored in tanks, is rather precarious, but a supply is available about c 25 miles from Johannesburg, and this no doubt will be made use of. It is estimated that for every mile in length alonj; the course of the reefs down to a vertical depth of 1000 feet for the dip of the reefs gold to the value of will be extracted. This is ia conservative estimate, at least as applied to the central section of the Rand. If we assume these conditions to obtain to a depth of 6000. feet 'vertically we have the enormous smri of £60,000,000 for each mi).e in length. It is not unreasonable to supppse that these conditions wil'i be maintained along oaost of the central section, say for a distance of te,n miles, in which case we would have an auriferous area within practicable mining depths containing upwards of £600,000,000 value ofgoW.. It is thought by one of the greatest living authorities on mining matters that tho future duration of profitable operations on a large scaln ii\ the Hand district will, bo less than twenty-five years.

The in.mediate cause of all volc"- : c eruptions. is due mainly volca.nlC to the expansive pow'T of eruption's, steam a: a temperature of perhaps 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. A volcanic Eruption is nothing more nor less than t!ie explasion of a boiler on an enormous scale and the scattering of the sides of the containing vessel. It is a well known fact that all active volcanoes are near the sea, not one of them being as much as 300 miles inland. It is from the sea, of course, that the water is drawn that is afterwards tuvned into steam. Evidence shows that the cessation of activity of volcanoes which now lie in the heart of continents was coincident with the disappearance of broad waters from their neighbourhood. The explosions in Krakatoa mountain were heard 2000 miles off and the dost from the volcano travelled round the world for almost three years. Midday was turned into the darkness oi midnight more than 1000 miles away from tha scene of the eruptions. Although the Mount Pelee eruptions caused enormously more loss of life, they were physically of slight importance. The explosions were heard only some 200 miles off, and the force of the eruption was not as great as in any other exnipsion of recent years. The huge jjsffr of life was due to the of the city to the mountain, jrfcfalesson taught should be that the 'neighbourhood of a volcano is not a fit place for the founding of a city.