Quartz-mining.

The principal quartz mines in the North are in the Coromandel and Thames districts, about thirty miles apart. In these localities the reefs have been proved to a depth of over 600ft. below sea-level, but the best mines have as yet been principally confined to the decomposed and comparatively superficial rock. Veins have been discovered and gold obtained at all levels on the ranges from the sea-level to an altitude of 2,000ft. The quantity of gold that has been obtained from some of these quartz reefs is very great, and for considerable distances the quartz has yielded very uniformly at the amazing rate of 600oz. to the ton : such reefs are, however, very exceptional in New Zealand, as elsewhere. The value of such a yield may be better estimated by those not conversant with the subject, when it is stated that half an ounce to the ton is in most cases a profitable return.

Auriferous reefs are also extensively worked in the schistose rocks of Otago, and they occur at all altitudes, from sea-level to a height of 7,400ft., the most elevated gold mine in the Australasian Colonies being that opened during the year 1878 on the summit of Advance Peak, near Wakatipu Lake.

Several promising reefs have also been found in the Westland goldfields, amongst which may be mentioned a reef of auriferous stibnite at Langdon's Creek, near Greymouth, which yields from a few ounces to 99oz. of gold per ton; but up to the present time these reefs have not received the attention they deserve, except at Reefton and a few other localities. The importance of Reefton as a well-established mining district may be judged of from the fact that nine mining companies there during one year divided as profit the sum of £63,508 among the shareholders.

So far as this more permanent form of gold-mining is concerned, there is every reason to feel confident that it is still in its infancy in this colony, and that it only awaits the judicious application of capital for its development to a vast extent.