✨ Gold Mining Report
sons; and the exports of gold amounted to 2,156,660 ounces, valued at £8,626,940. This will give a weekly average of about seven and a-half pennyweights for each miner, and a yearly monetary average of £79. This calculation is confirmed by the report of the Secretary of the Mining Department of Victoria, appended to a recently published Despatch from His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, which states that—
"divided amongst the total number of miners, the earnings would be for 1859, £72 per man per year; for 1860, £79; and for the first six months of 1861, at the rate of £69."
In Otago, during the twelve months ending July 31st, 1862, the number of the mining population fluctuated very considerably. During the first months there were comparatively few persons on the ground. According to the census of December the number of miners then on the gold-fields was 10,826, and 3000 more were supposed to be on the road to the diggings and in the outlying gullies. Since then, from causes already explained, a considerable decrease has occurred, and in July not more than 5000 miners were at work throughout the Province. Assuming that in the first and last quarters of the period referred to—from August to October, 1861, and from May to July, 1862, inclusive—the average adult mining population was 6000; and that in the intervening six months—from November, 1861, to April, 1862, inclusive—the average was 10,000, we thus obtain a mean average of 8,000 persons. If the amount of gold exported is divided amongst this number, it will show £209 per year, or more than an ounce per week per man.
To the gross sum of £21,281 12s. must be added Export Duty on 458,448 ounces at 2s. 6d. per ounce, amounting to £57,306, making a total of £78,587 12s.
Present Condition of the Gold-fields.—The Tuapeka Gold-field (comprising the three districts of Gabriel’s, Waitahuna, with the Woolshed and Waipori) continues to yield a steady return, but it is now passing through a transitional stage, such as the celebrated gold-fields of Ballarat, Mount Alexander, and Bendigo have all undergone in turn. To the gold field always offers irresistible attractions; and Tuapeka is therefore at the present date almost deserted. When the fever of the rush to Dunstan and the Nokomai has abated, the old ground will be re-visited by thousands, whom experience has made acquainted with its auriferous resources, which are still unexhausted, and only partially developed; for the few isolated gullies that have hitherto been opened bear no greater relative proportion to the entire area of the Tuapeka gold-field than the fingers bear to the whole body.
In the first-named district, operations are principally conducted at Gabriel’s, Monroe’s, and Wetherstone’s Gullies, and along the banks of the Tuapeka River. The spurs of the ranges have in many
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Otago Provincial Gazette 1862, No 217
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
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Report on Gold Fields of Otago
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🌾 Primary Industries & Resources29 September 1862
Gold Fields, Otago, Mining Population, Gold Exports, Tuapeka, Gabriel’s Gully, Waitahuna, Woolshed, Waipori, Dunstan, Nokomai, Ballarat, Mount Alexander, Bendigo, Gold Mining, Miner Earnings