TE AROHA AND WAIORONGOMAI.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2536, 11 October 1888, Page 3

TE AROHA AND WAIORONGOMAI.

[By oor SrKciAL, Rei-oktkr.] Tk Ahoha and Waiorongomai are built upon land which is held under lease, consequently the lessees and the Town Board of Te Aroha have bestirred themselves in the direction of either obtaining the freehold or having leases granted in perpetuity. The owners of lliu site of Te Aroha, while unwilling to grant the freehold, have, I believe, expressed their willingness to give lenses in perpetuity. Such a concession would be an inducement to people to erect a good class of buildings, and should the treatment of the orsis in the hill prove leuninunilive, more capital would be invested in various ways thai/would be the case on comparatively short leases. While on this subject I may mention that notwithstanding the nature of land tenure many very good houses and business places huvj been built, three of the hotels being very fine buildings. There are also a good many very nice residences iu ami around the town. About half w;vy between the two towns is a very large house built by Mr Carr, but now owned by the Bank of New Zealand, It has 100 acres of vtry good land attached to it, some of which is a flax swamp, and when drained this will be a valuable property. Like all the property there, however, this is all leasehold, being part of a very valuable endowment of the Thames High School. The house contains seventeen rooms, uiul has two fine conservatories, one on the north and another on the south side. It is such a residence its one would only expect to see in Kcmuera, or some equally fashionable suburb of Auckland The time may be near when the business of Te Aroha and Waiorongomai will be of such importance that similar residences w illbe built in the neighbourhood. The 1 6L i between these two townships is of good quality, and could Le profitably worked. In convereat.on with some of the residents I was told that it was a very easy matter to keep the fern down after the land was grassed. In one paddock I went through no fern was to be seen, none having grown since it was broken up and laid down in grass. From the bank property just mentioned to Waiorongomai, the land from the mountain to the river belongs to the Thames Hi"h School. Some ot the lessees told ine that the Act relating to this endowment provided for a certain proportion of the rents being spent in road making and repairs, but that the lessors had enti.ely ignored the matter. The main road from Te Aroha is good enough, but tlios. , in and about Waiorongomai showed signs of having been very badly cue up during the winter. The unusually heavy traflic must, hosvevcr, be taken into cons deration, for the biicks and heavy machinery for the battery were carted over them. The laud farther- up the river is said to be very fertile and suitable for small farm settlements, but of that however, I have uo personal knowledge. With legard to the mining industry, the costly buildings and plant—the latter including more varied processes for the reduction of refractory ores than any other single plant in the Southern Hemisphere—being erected there indicate the iaith of the owners in the future prosperity of the field. Soon after the purchase of the mining properties by Mr W. R. Wilson, a eo.npauy with a capital of £200,000 was formed to develop the mines and erect additional macluuery for the treatment of oies from all parts of the peninsula as well as those from the company's mines. A hostile article appeared iu o.ie of the Auckland evening dailies commenting ou the fact (?) that the propeity was bought for £25,C03, formed in'o a company with a capital of £200,000, while only £10,00u was to be expended in developing it. As a matter of fact, £211,000 wns ths sum paid for the "New Find" and " Silver King " properties, besides, at least, another thousand for expenses In addition to this large amount, a sum of £20,000 was deposited in the bank to cover the cost of additional plant, &c, so that the first outlay was £50,000. At present the wages paid by this company amount to £350 a week, which will be nearly doubled when the works arc finished, for, when everything is in full work, 300 men will be employed, so that the expenditure iu wages alone will come to more than £000 a week ; to this can be added cost of fuel for the furnaces. The amount of money circulated by this company alone will make a wonderful difference to business men compared with the money which would have been in circulation had the mines not changed hands. There arc, therefore, some very reasonable grounds for the hopeful view which residents there entertain of the future prosperity of the place as a goldfield. If the plant to be erected should prove as successful in treating refractory ores as it is claimed to be, mining in this district will undergo a complete revolution, the advantages arising from which can hardly be estimated. There will be a very large population of non-producers—of food— who will be consumers of our produce, and owing to the close connection with Waikato by rail our farmers will have a market practically at their doors. Mr Howell, an American expert, spent five weeks at Waiorongomai. Mr Pond was also their for several days analysing, and the expenditure mentioned is the result of their visit. These gentlemen together with Air Adams, the able manager of the company, went into the matter thoroughly, and the result of their investigations was evidently satisfactory to them. The plant when completed will consist of four stone breakers, sixty head of stampers, twenty-five true concentrators, a revolving roasting furnace, a reverberatory furnace, a boss continuous pan plant, a wet jacket smelter, corrugated rollers, etc. Besides these there are now at work in the tailings plant fifty-two berdans, and a WhitcHowell revolving roasting furnace. The whole of the machinery is driven at a minimum of cost, water power beiDg entirely used. The machinery in the tailings plant is driven by two Pelton water wheels, which also drive the dynamo for the electric light with which the battery and tailings plant are lighted. Alongside the latter building are twenty thousand tons of tailings, which are yet to be treated, and which with improved machinery are expected to yield a, handsome return upon the cost of treating. The battery is built at the foot of the hill, and the trucks ot ore which come down the tramway are discharged directly from the trucks into the hoppers, which connect with the stampers. The conveyance of the crushed ore to the furnaces will be done automatically, so that the cost of handling is reduced to a minimum. The battery and tailings plant are connected by a tramway about ten chains long, over which the ore after treatment at the battery and furnaces will be conveyed in trucks. The capacity of the works when completed will be about 100 tons a day. I forgot to say that besides the plant mentioned is also a very complete assaying plantsvvhere ores brought to the company for purchase will be testsd. These will be bought on a sliding scale of prices according to the assay value. Twenty head of stampers are at work now as well as the berdans and White-Howell furnace, but it will bo at least six months before the other furnaces, new buildings, &c., are finished. The whole of the work is being carried out under Mr Adams' personal supervision. In conversation with this gentleman, I asked his opinion of the permanence of the field. His reply was that it would be a goldfield long after our children were dead. That there will be no rushes is I think pretty certain, but Mr Adams believes the country, when thoioughly prospected, will be found to yield steady payable stone. Should his prediction prove correct, the benefits to accrue will be more solid and lasting than any which would result from extraordinarily rich finds which generally soon run out. The result ot these extensive works is looked forward to with great interest by the wining world. It will

place the fact of the field being payable or not beyond a doubt, for with such a complete plant every coiiceivableclassof ore win he successfully tested. Mauy people say there will never be enough gold found there to pay expenses, but the same has been said of every goldfield that has ever been worked in the Australasian colonies. Forest Creek in Victoria, where such large quantities of alluvial gold were obtained, was pronounced a duffer, and men were returning from there saying it was a fraud, but none the less had others faith iu it, and their faith was in very many cases amply rewarded by rich finds. Tc Aroha may not yield such extraordinary returns in a short time, but it may yield more lasting, and in the end much larger returns. Meanwhile, we must patiently await results which all most heartily wish may prove satisfactory.