62 
jWnes and Mineral Statistics. 
TIN. 
The only portion of our stanniferous districts from which any 
satisfactory report for the past year has yet been obtained is 
Vegetable Creek {vide Mr. Gowers repoi’t annexed). That 
large quantities of stream tin have been raised at Cope’s Creek, 
Tingali, is well known, but whether the subjoined statement 
embraces all the tin ore that has been raised is more than doubtful. 
During the year 1874, the quantity and value of the tin ore won 
in the Maryland District is said to be : — Maryland, 2,182 tons ; 
value, £10*7,000. Mole Tableland, 24G tons ; value, £14,022. 
Total, 2,428 tons; value, £121,022. There is no record of the 
tin ore raised in the southern part of this Colony during the 
year 1874, except that the Pullebop Company, near Wagga 
Wagga, raised 1,200 lbs., value £40. The bulk of the tin from 
Maryland and some other fields in the north is sent into Queens- 
land, and that raised in the south iiito A^ictoria. A return of 
the quantities taken across the Border has been kindly furnished 
by the Customs Department, and is included iu the subjoined table. 
Tlie progress made in waslung stream tin is most satisfactory, 
and tlicre appears amongst the tin-miners a strong desire to avail 
themselves of every means of reducing the cost of washing. In 
many places the tin is washed in sluices, but in others the earth 
containing the tin has to be 2)uddled. It is questionable whether 
the use of an iron puddling machine, having an opening in the 
bottom, through which the puddled dirt might be made to fall 
direct into the sluice, or into the feeder of the cylindrical sieve, 
without shovelling, would not be found economical. The great 
objection to the iron machine will probably be the original cost, 
but it is thought the saving of labour will more than compensate 
for the extra outlay. 
Until a comparatively recent date the o])erations of our tin- 
miners were restricted to the working of the beds and banks of 
existing watercourses, and of other deposits near the surface ; 
but of late, beds of ancient streams, GO or 80 feet below the 
surface, containing rich deposits of tin ore, have been discovered, 
and are being worked. The mode of working these deposits does 
not in any respect differ materially from the working of the deeper 
auriferous leads. Tlxe discovery of these deeper deposits imparts 
to our tin fields an apjmarance of permanence that promises 
remunerative employment to a very large number of miners for 
many years to come, and will probably lead to the erection of a 
greater number of smelting works. 
Mr. AVilkinson (the Geological Surveyor of this department) 
iu his valuable Eeport upon the tin-bearing country iu the 
district of Inverell, addressed to the Surveyor General, in 1872, 
directed attention to the older leads in the following words : — 
“ The discovery of the older tertiary alluvial leads is doubt- 
