PROGRESS OF MINING AND GEOLOGY IN QUEENSLAND. 371 
for the falling off from the alluvial yield of its northern neighbour ; 
neither has this field retained the prestige which it received and 
appeared to deserve in its earlier years. 
The alluvial tinfield at Stantliorpe shared the fate of alluvial 
goldfields, and after the first few years suffered a considerable 
shrinkage in its production of tin. So that from the year 1874 there 
was a considerable falling off in our mineral output, and the same 
total result was not again obtained until 1887. The yield of gold 
showed an increase in 1S75, but not sufficient to counteract the falling 
off in the production of tin, and from that time forward gold and tin 
fell off, although the production of the latter was supported by new 
discoveries at Granite Creek, in the Palmer Gold Field, and later on 
the "Walsh, Tate, and other rivers in the Northern portion of the colony. 
The total result of operations during this fourth quinquennium of 
the colony was of the value of £7,620,57(5, of which the goldfields 
contributed £6,166,509, being an increase of 60 per cent, over the 
previous similar period. Copper yielded £506,234, being less than 
two-thirds of the previous production, this loss resulting almost wholly 
during the last two years of the period, when one of those unaccount- 
able depressions in the price of copper took place which are felt most 
severely in this the most distant producing field from the great 
markets of the world. Tin had receded 29 per cent., and represented 
a cash value of £767,269. Coal yielded £110,995, or an increase of 
40 per cent. ; and other minerals £75,569, a very large increase over the 
production of the previous period. The increase in the last-mentioned 
item was greatly due to the opening of the Ipswich to Brisbane railway, 
facilitating the quarrying of stone and carriage to Brisbane both for 
road metal and higher engineering and architectural purposes. 
Stream tin had been discovered at Tinaroo and on the Barron 
Fiver towards the close of this quinquennial period. But the lode tin 
of Herberton does not appear to have been discovered for some little 
time afterwards* From the commencement of the period ’80 to ’84, 
however, tin from the alluvium and the streams was worked in the 
Wild, Dry, Tate, Walsh, and Star rivers ; and in July, 1880, application 
was made for a piece of land on the Wild liiver for working lode tin, 
and this is within, and was the origin of, the township of Herberton. 
It appears to be with the stream tin as with alluvial gold — Nature 
provides this species of liberality to give ‘sustenance and encourage- 
ment to the miner as a set-off to the difficulties of pioneering ; it is 
easily procured but soon exhausted, yet, if properly economised and 
utilised, leads the way to the more enduring form of reef or lode 
mining, and this has been accomplished at Herberton, the principal 
centre of mining for the useful as distinguished from the precious 
metals now in the colony, for the promises of permanency held out by 
such a discovery have every appearance of being amply fulfilled both 
as to lodes of tin and other valuable minerals. 
It is interesting to note the indifference with which the useful 
metals are spoken of in reports from the North, as — “ Copper, antimony, 
lead, and tin all exist in a large area of these fields, but for along time 
to come they will be regarded as depreciating rather than improving 
the importance of the district.” These minerals have, however, .con- 
tributed to the importance of those fields, and form an important item 
in their assets. 
