The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-15 00:00:00

THE GOLD FIELDS OF AUSTRALIA.

We take the following account of the goldfields
from the Argus of the 25th November :
" The shipments of gold still show a falling off, and there
is now no chance of the amount reaching the quantity pro-
duced by the miners during last year. The difference will
not be very great, still there will be a deficiency, which we
cannot expect to see made up during the few weeks remain-
ing, and under circumstances anything but favourable. A
want of water is becoming very general on the goldfields,
and many of the Muddlers have been obliged thus early to
leaves their machines and claims till the rainy season comes
round again. While water is plentiful a great extent of ground
can be worked with profit which is quite valueless without,
and there is now little chance of the supplies being renewed
for six months at the least. This failure of the water so
early in the summer is a serious matter, tending to increase
the crowd of idlers at all new rushes, and preventing many
with claims too goad to be abandoned from realising any-
thing from these, and so obliging them to incur debts dur-
ing the months of idleness, which it takes half the working
period of the year to clear them from. The importance of a
copious water supply has long been allowed, and every sum-
mer brings about a fresh discussion on the subject; but even
the most comprehensive scheme that can be devised would
be of benefit to but a limited tract of country, and the reser-
voirs that have been c listructed at the public expense are of
use to only a few miners; so the evil continues this year,
however, to be felt more severely than for some years past.
Besides the numbers driven away from the older fitlds, the
want of water at our last great rush, Landsborough, is
driving many away from there, and they have no fresh
places of any extent to go to. Later rushes there have
been, but none likely to assume large proportions; so the
miners have mostly to betake themselves to old ground,
where the essential element of water is still to be found,
and live there as best they may until something better
turns up. The yield of gold at Landsborough has not been
great in proportion to thr population, the great majority of
claims giving but a moderate return, and none being very
rich. The goldfields on the Gipps Land side of the Divid-
ing Range have been extending but slowly of late, and none
of the diggings since opened are equal to those atthe Jordan,
or Donnelly's Creek. However, there is still very much of
the country to be explored, and the summer is not likely to
pass over without further discoveries of consequence being
made. In the well .known Talbot district, there is now
much activity in following up leads which were thought
little of a few months since, but have quite restored the
prosperity of that district; and in the Ararat district
several lost leads have been found again, under circum-
stances which go far to prove that there is still much gold
to be taken out of them. It used to be the custom with all
but the regular deep. sinkers to leave ground in which water
became troublesome , but now the value of pumping gear is
becoming better understoo4, and the formation of companies
to lease ground where valuable runs of gold have bc.en left
solely for the reason stated will be the means of giving re-
newed life to many of the once favourite diggings, as has
already happened in certain instances. Still, with such a
number of men thrown out of employment all at once by the
failure of the water supplies more room is required, and it is
to be hoped that new fields of some extent may shortly be
opened, to absorb and settle down those who are thus cast
adrift, or too many of them will be running away to New
South Wales or New Zealand if the least excuse offers.
" The owners of crushing-mills are not yet suffering from
a want of water, and the quantity of stone disposed of by
them has most probably been as great as usual ; but the large
yields from quartz have been few, The Pyrenees Reef used
to give the richest stone in small quantities,but the first place
must now be accorded to the Acadia Reef, near Dunolly,
three tons from which produced 9110 z., besides almost
equally good yields having been obtained from smaller
quantities taken out of different claims thereon. It may
not, perhaps, be quite correct to call this a reef as yet, for
only small leaders have been found, but some of these ars
very rich. The last yield announced from the Pyrenees
Reef was 100 ox. 53wts. from five tons of stone. Nor are
the Inglewood Reefs keeping up their old character, the
yields lately obtained from most of them having been compa-
ratively small. Mariners' Reef,in the Maryborough district,
has become famous for the depth to which shafts have been
sunk on it ; a lot of 100 tons of stone raised from a depth of
550 in one of the claims on it produced 5530 z , a yield not
calculated to excite much fear of the gold failing for a while
yet, even at that depth. We do not receive particulars of all
the parcels of stone crushed in the Bendigo district, some
of the claimholders wishing to keep the secret of theh suc-
cesses to themselves; and the only remarkable yields an-
nounced were from a small lot out of the Exhibition Reef,
4 tons producing 103 oz 2 dwt, and another lot of 34 tons,
from Wallace's Reef, which produced 130 oz. The Ajax
Company, in the Castlemaine district, who did so much to
promote the working of reefs in that district when this
interest was at a very low ebb, have not been so fortunate
of late, their best week's work during the last month giv-
ing them 244 oz 7 dwt from 120 tons, and the next best
week 121 oz, from 100 tons, the other crushings having
averaged less than an ounce to the ton. A lot of four tons
from another part of the same reef yielded 30 oz, and 21
tons out of a third claim 63 oz. We had before to mention
the finding of a rich vein on the Vineyard Reef, in this
district, and 21 tons since raised from it produced
There has been a great improvement in the yield from some
of the reefs in the Ovens district, large lots of stone from
these producing from two to three oz to the ten. But perhaps
the richest reefs of all are those among the mountains, on
which little work has been done as yet, in the absence of
anything like efficient machinery. A rude mill has been
erected by the owner of a claim on the Upper Goulburn Reef,
and the yield from 165 tons lately put through it was 1,734
oz, much of the gold being probably allowed to go to waste
at the time. Excepting the settlement of one long-standing
lawsuit and the commencement of others, nothing new has
occurred among the Ballarat companies, which have scarcely
had such large dividends as usual during the last few weeks,
but these must be expected to ftuctuate, as the men are on
rich or poor portions of the leads; nor have the nuggets
found during the month been many or remarkable for size.
The neighbourhood of Dunolly is always the most produc-
tive of these, and the three largest found there weighed re-
spectively 57, 30, and 21 ozs. One found near Mount
Moliagul weighed 320 z. 3dwt., and at Tarnagalla some
Chinese turned up in old ground a piece of quartz of no
great size, which contained 48 ounces of gold, finding be-
sides a nugget of pure gold weighing 19 ounces. A nest of
five was also hit upon by one of the companies in the Bal-
larat district, and these weighed respectively 6,9, 16, 30,
and 50 ounces, or 110 ounces in all."