ANALYSES OF ARTESIAN WATERS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 265 
Unfortunately, the exact figures on the cost of cyaniding in the 
Queensland works could not be ascertained, but the writer is probably 
not far wrong by putting tbe average cost at from 7s. 6d. to 10s. 
per ton. 
Thanks to the courtesy of the respective managements, I am able 
to submit the following figures, showing the total output of gold of 
the three principal public metallurgical works of the colony: — 
The Charters Towers Pyrites Company (chlorination), 20,122 oz. 
standard gold. 
The Australian Gold Kecovery Company, Charters Towers 
(McArthur-Porrest process), 11,533 oz. standard gold. 
The Queensland Smelting Company, Limited, Aldershot, 36,870 oz. 
fine gold. 
7. — ANALYSES OF THE ARTESIAN WATERS OF NEW SOUTH 
WALES, AND THEIR VALUE FOR IRRIGATION AND 
OTHER PURPOSES. 
By JOHN G. H. MING A YE, F.C.S., M. A. Analyst to the Department of 
Mines , NS. W. 
(No. 2.) 
In a previous paper read before the * Royal Society of New South 
Wales, treating on some of the well, spring, mineral, and artesian 
waters, some fifty- three analyses were given, and a large amount of 
information re value for irrigation, &c. Since this paper was published, 
analyses have been made of a number ofc‘ waters obtained from the 
artesian boTes in the western district, and, by permission of the 
Honourable the Minister for Mines and Agriculture, L have much 
pleasure in placing the results obtained before this Society. 
The paper comprises some twenty-one analyses, and in every case 
where possible a complete analysis has been furnished. The results 
arc expressed in grains per imperial gallon ; also calculated into parts 
per 1,000 for comparison with other analyses published in England, 
America, India, and elsewhere. 
The value of a water for irrigation purposes depends largely on 
the nutrient matters in solution, and the absence of large quantities of 
injurious salts. The ingredients valuable for this purpose are the 
nitrogen, potash, phosphoric acid, and lime. The presence of large 
amounts of alkaline salts, especially carbonate of soda, are very 
detrimental to plant life, and act on the soil and injure all useful 
vegetation by their corrosive action, chiefly upon the root-crowns and 
upper roots of plants. The neutral saits — 1 ,&. 9 chloride of sodium 
(common salt), sulphate of soda (Glauber’s salt), sulphate of magnesia 
(Epsom’s salt), and others — are injurious in a lesser degree, and only 
when they occur iu large quantities can relief be obtained by washing 
them out of the soil by under drainage, &e. It will be noticed on 
comparing the analyses of these waters that the total solid matter, 
excepting in five of the samples, is small, the main constituents present 
being carbonate of soda, chloride of sodium, carbonate of potash, with 
lesser amounts of carbonates of lime, carbonate of magnesia, alumina, 
* Jour. Roy. Soc. N.S. Wales, vol. xxvi., 1892, p. 73. 
