, 1888-01-28
THE GOLD INDUSTRY IN BRITISH
GUIANA.

1.-THE export for the year having amount
ed to IL, 906 ozs.. valued at S2l3.203. THIS
may not be much for a place which nearly
three centuries ago acquired for itself the
name Of Ell Dorado, and was even then
reputed to be rich in gold; but when it is
remembered that only two short years ago
nothing in the shape or even under the
name of a gold industry existed III the
country; that gold first appeared III the
Customs returns as an article OF export III
1885, when $50 ozs were shipped; that in
1886 the quantity shipped Is" far as the
customs authorities were informed was
651S ozs. and that only during this year
IS80 has any attempt been made to afford
facilities for the legal and systematic prose.
cution of the industry, the rate of progress
may not be held entirely insignificant,
although when compared with the rapid
development of mining enterprise in the
newly dissolved gold regions of South
Africa, notably the Transvaal and DANA
raland, it may appear so. On the LIST
January the Government began to grant
licenses under the provisions of Ordinance
No. Is Of 1886, autlorising placer mining
in the auriferOus region between the Cuyu-
nj and MaSsaruni rivers, and a station
was established at kalaC0on to which all
gold found in tile territory WIS required to
be taken, and a royalty Of one dollar per
on. WAS imposed, Within the first month
80 lbs. Of gold was duly registered, but
was not supposed to represent the quaint
~ actually found, it being believed that a
good deal was (aUd is stilD Struggled, the
machinery for the prevention of that sort
OF thing being naturally very imperfect at
the outset. In the early part of the year
great interest in the new industry was
e Al 49,. 4l $500. ,-l
especially in Georgetown; many compa-
MES and SYndicltrS were formed, and
numerous expeditions. mostly ON a small
scale, were fitted out and despatched.
Naturally, most of these. having little
capital, and being entrusted to the direct
tiou of inexperienced managers and 'prO-
sppctorS' new to the business, resulted in
failure; but a few, chiefly of the SrIni-pri-
vate class, are believed 10 have been fairly
successful, and to nave secured Il fair
return for the capital invested.
An ambitious attempt, promoted by the
Hon. w. f. Haynes Smith and other lead
ing coloniSts, to establish a big company
with adequate, capital to undertake, not
only placer mining, but quartz mining,
also, on a large scale, was only par
italy successful. 1t was at first pro-
posed thar the capital Of the Com
pany should he a million dollars, in two
hundred thousand shares of five dollars
ga IN, Que hundred thousand shares to be
subscribed for before active proceedings
were commenced. But one hundred thou
sand shares We're not subscribed for within
the time limited. 1t was then resolved to
reduce the nominal capital to thirty thou
sand shares Of five dollars each, and on
that reduced scale the Company was final
" constituted Mr.. Waggoner, Il mining
expert from California, was engaged as
proSpector for the Company. He has al
ready visited several parts of the colony
and has located claims for both placer and
quartz mining, on which it is understood
the Company will IN operations
as soon as possible.
About the middle of the year the devel.
Opment OF the industry sustained n check
by reason of an announcement in the
Court of Policy by the Lieut.. Cover
nor Chen temporarily administering the
Government in the absence of Sir Henry
Irving) that he had received instructions
from the Secretary of State to caution ex-
presSly persons who might take out licen-
ces or concessions within any portion of
the territory in dispute between Her Ma
jesty's Government and the Venezuelan
Republic, that such licences must be &C
copied subject to the possibility that when
the boundary was settled the landitO which