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 the foresight of the manager, Thomas Watson, in stacking the tailings from the early crushings. At all the other mines the tailings were allowed to pass direct into the streams, the cyanide process of treatment not then being known; but Mr. Watson evidently had some vision of the future, for all the tailings of this company’s battery were carefully saved. Subsequently they were all reground, and the additional gold recovery in this way practically kept the mine going during the long interval of prospecting. The search was mainly conducted from the No. 4 (battery) level. At a point about 800 ft. from the portal a vertical shaft was put down to a depth of 200 ft., and from the bottom a drive was extended north for 540 ft., when a body of stone was met with. This stone was very broken, but after following it for 150 ft. solid stone came in, 5 ft. wide. The quartz only averaged, however, from 5 dwt. to 6 dwt. gold per ton. From the 200 ft. level the shoot was then followed down a further 150 ft. by an inclined shaft, from the foot of which another level was put out north in which two shoots of quartz were located, but they were too poor for working. An intermediate level was then opened out from 50 ft. down in the inclined shaft, and there stone was found that was payable. A little later a winze was sunk on one of the two shoots found in the drive from the bottom of the inclined shaft, and was carried down to 115 ft. on quartz averaging 7 ft. in width. At first the stone was very low-grade, but it gradually improved in value as sunk on. For a year or so after this the company battled along, mining and crushing the stone that had been developed, and continuing the regrinding of the tailings, when in 1895 Mr. David Ziman bought the mine, together with the adjoining Energetic Claim, on behalf of the Consolidated Goldfields of New Zealand. This company at once started to develop the claims vigorously, and in a short time an inclined shaft was sunk from the No. 4 level in the Wealth of Nations to a depth of 624 ft. and a number of levels were opened from it. The Energetic shaft was also enlarged and sunk deeper, and subsequently most of the development of the joint mines was carried out from it.

Energetic Mine.—The plans of the upper portion of this mine, like those of the old Wealth of Nations, are not now available, but it is known that reef was found outcropping on the surface near Murray Creek, and was followed down by means of two adits and a shaft to about 300 ft., where, as in the case of the adjoining mine, it became broken up and finally cut out. The discovery of the outcrop was made in 1870, shortly after Smith made his find, and by March, 1872, the company had erected a battery of ten-stamps (afterwards increased to twenty-five), and started crushing. As the stone was of good width and value, the company enjoyed a prosperous run until the shoot was lost in the early “eighties,” some 59,080 tons of quartz being crushed for a yield of 30,811 oz. gold, valued at £119,322 7s. 8d., out of which dividends amounting to £21,900 were paid. In 1887 the mine was sold to Mr. R. J. Tonks, of Greymouth, who let it on tribute to a party of working-miners, who worked it under the name of the Energy. This party started to take out stone that had been left in the upper levels as unpayable. A trial crushing of 260 tons was first taken out and crushed at the Venus battery with satisfactory results, whereon stoping was continued on the stone, and continued up till 1895, during which time the party crushed 4,766 tons for a return of 2,375 oz. gold, valued at £9,193 2s. 6d. The Consolidated Goldfields Company on taking over the property the following year resumed the sinking of the shaft, which it eventually carried down to No. 12 level, 2,300 ft. below the surface. Down to this level the mine produced a large tonnage of