COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 



'369 



traces of the metal at Coromandel were heard of as early as 1852. Mining i-. now 

 extensively carried on throughout Otago and along the west coast ; at Te Aroha, 

 where a system of working hydraulic power has been successfully used, the masses of 

 rock being broken by the force of water; at the Grey River; at .the Thames. Wairau, 

 Lyall, Collingwood, and other places to which detailed reference has elsewhere been 

 made in the topographical description of the colony. Both alluvial and quartz mining 

 are very extensively carried on: the yield for 1889 was 203,211 ounces, valued at 

 ,808,549. Of this by far the largest quantity comes from the west coast. In New 

 South Wales the out- 

 put of gold has se- 

 riously decreased 

 since 1872, the differ- 

 ence between the 

 value for that year 

 and the return for 

 1 88 1 being upwards 

 of twelve hundred 

 thousand pounds. 

 The decrease has 

 not been regular 

 every year, however, 

 and the renewed im- 

 petus given to quartz- 

 mining about the 

 year last named made 

 the returns higher 

 than for the two 

 years previously, 

 though still below 

 the average for the 

 past fifteen years. 

 In 1890, seventy-five 

 crushing-mach in es 

 were at work, and 

 one hundred and 

 fifty-three steam en- 

 gines; 6,285 persons 



were engaged on these quartz workings, as against 6,304 in alluvia! fields. The total 

 yield from 1851 to 1890 is given as 10,219,815 ounces. 



Wherever a gold-field possessed elements of permanence and stability, the habitations 

 erected on its site soon lost their temporary and fragile character. The tent and the 

 slab-hut were replaced by shops and dwelling-houses of brick or weather-board ; and these 

 gave way in time to larger and more substantial structures. The irregular encampment 

 was superseded by a well-built town ; and in a very few years this expanded into a 



HYDRAULIC MINING. IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



