Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Mining

Mining.

Goldmining in New Zealand is confined chiefly to Auckland, Otago, and Westland. Nelson and Marlborough have had and still have their goldfields, but as their combined output for the year which ended on the 31st of March, 1899, was valued at only £9288, they may be left out of present comparisons. From January, 1857, till the 31st of March, 1899, gold valued at £54,813,374 was found in the colony, and to that total Westland contributed £23,129,992, Otago £21,621,980, and Auckland was third in order with £8,715,729. However, in the output for the year which ended on the 31st of March, 1899, Auckland stands first with gold valued at £545,463, Otago second with £315,306, and Westland third with £298,824. The increase on the previous year's output was all in Auckland's favour, too, namely, about £144,000, in comparison to about £11,000 for Otago and about £34,000 for Westland. For this improvement in the Auckland mining industry, the patent cyanide process of gold extraction is largely responsible, and still more favourable results are expected in the near future. The value of this invention is much greater on the Auckland fields than elsewhere in the colony on account of the different conditions in which the precious metal is brought to the surface. Claims which were formerly non-paying, now pay wages and yield regular and satisfactory returns on capital invested.

The kauri gumfields of Auckland are second in importance only to the gold-fields, if, indeed, they can be disallowed first place. Even to Aucklanders, through their hearing so much about gold and so little about gum, the statistics of the gum industry are startling. It is hard to believe that the output of gum in the year 1898 was nearly two hundred thousand pounds greater in value than all the gold produced in the province, and that the total output of gum since 1853 stands in value at £9,099,627, and of gold, since 1857, at £8,715,729. Perhaps it might be said that no industry was ever worked more quietly than the kauri gum industry of North Auckland. Thousands of colonists in the south hardly know of its existence, and Aucklanders themselves have no conception of its magnitude. About half-a-million pounds worth of kauri gum per year has to be credited to Auckland in comparing its industrial products with those of the other provinces.

Coalmining, like goldmining, is confined chiefly to Westland, Otago, and Auckland. The approximate total output for the colony up to the 31st of December, 1898, was 12,483,646 tons, to which Westland contributed 5,573,606, Otago (excluding Southland) 3,557,300, and Auckland 2,444,428 tons. The output for 1898 was, for Westland 464,023 tons, Otago (not including Southland) 233,003, and Auckland 144,331 tons. Canterbury's output from the Malvern mines was 13,347 tons, and Wellington's from the West Wanganui mine 1230 tons.