Page:History of West Australia.djvu/295

 Rh

Mauritius to attach the cargo of the Forca de la Roquette, which the captain claimed as his property. Mr. Lord (the American consul), now journeyed to Perth and interviewed the Government regarding the claim for compensation, which he based upon the assumption that the islands were not within the waters of the colony. Work on the islands themselves proceeded vigorously. Mr. Roberts called for tenders to supply certain plant for working the guano deposits, on such portions of the islands as he might be permitted by the local Government, promising to pay the 10s. royally, pending the decision of the imperial authorities. Messrs. Poole, Picken, and Co. despatched several vessels to load for them. The Government obtained £1,372 in royalty, and private persons, who considered they had a right to a share of the deposits, exported to the value of £367. The Government submitted a measure to the Legislative Council which imposed heavy fines on trespassers on Crown lands. The Bill was submitted to the Secretary for the Colonies, and he, in 1877, gave it his approval. At the same time he considered the provisions relating to "ships illegally engaged in collecting guano" were "very severe." Earl Carnarvon communicated with the United States Government, who rejected the claims advanced by Mr. Lord and Mr. Roberts to the proprietorship of the islands. But the fuss aroused by these proceedings was beneficial to the colony, for by advertising the Lacapede Islands it gained substantially in revenue and export. The Government conceded to Poole, Picken, and Co. the exclusive right to remove guano for a definite period. The revenue for 1877 was £7,534, and the export of guano represented £6,060. The revenue from the same source in 1878 was £13,869, and the export rose to the large sum of £66,095. In February, 1877, there were ten vessels loading at the Lacapede Islands, and seven of them were wrecked during a hurricane. Six lives were lost, and ships and cargoes, valued at £20,000, were said to have been destroyed.

The conditions which affected copper mining in the preceding decade still existed, but the Legislative Council, recognising the value of the copper and lead fields, sought to promote their development by building to them the first Government railway in the colony. Copper deposits were intermittently worked, but with moderate success. Lead continued to supply the chief mining profits, and the Narra Tarra and Wheel of Fortune mines were particularly lucrative. In 1873 about 60 tons of copper ore were taken from a shaft near Roebourne, and lead deposits were discovered seven miles from that centre, which were considered as rich as any on the Murchison. In 1878 the Blue Book gives the number of lead mines in the Victoria district as twenty-five, of which thirteen were at work. Mr. Brown, the Government Geologist, appointed in 1870, in his report of 1872, mentions the depths attained in the following mines:—

The Blue Book returns of export gave:—

Under the land regulations seventy-eight mining leases and licenses, representing 10,876 acres, were held in the Victoria district in 1878. The hopes of Western Australians of obtaining a goldfield were not easily dismissed. Some large sums of money were spent in prospecting and testing. Early in 1869 the Darling Ranges were systematically scanned, and the Government extended the radius within which they offered £5,000 for the discovery of a payable goldfield, now fixing the limit at 300 miles from any declared port of the colony. Indications of gold were found at North Dandalup, and in October Jas. Christie and Henry Morton applied for the reward, explaining that they sank three holes 200 or 300 yards apart, in each of which they got gold. The reef, they attested, was sixty feet wide, and had been traced for half a mile. A public subscription to develop the property was opened, but was not liberally contributed to, and the Dandalup works were abandoned. Next, in January, 1870, came the report of a gold discovery at the Blackwood. It was believed that gold existed on the Murchison, and in the same month Mr. W.H. Knight left Geraldton and went east to Mount Tallering and discovered "an enormous quantity of highly crystalline quartz," and in many places "extensive" quartz reefs. Because the unfavourable appearance of the quartz, he did not think gold would be obtained there. About twenty-five miles east of Mount Tallering he sank two shafts on water-worn quartz, and struck coal shale in both. [Several gold claims are now being worked twenty-five miles south-east of Mount Tallering.] In July, 1870, Mr. R.B. Pearson showed at Geraldton specimens of "stream gold" found on the Upper Irwin, eighty or ninety miles inland. The discoverer, an old digger, named Brelsford, believed he could make from 15s. to 20s. per day on the field. The locality was one of the dryest and hottest in the colony; there was no shelter, no water, not even a stick with which to make a fire. Mr. Piesse went out to the place in August, dug thirteen holes, and said he found gold in eight of them; in one hole forty two grains of gold were obtained from two dishes. The Rev. C.G. Nicolay and Mr. Simpson had previously asserted that the district was auriferous in character. Several persons went thither, but in November all had left, convinced that there was gold there, but not in payable quantities. In 1870, the Secretary for the Colonies intimated that the Government waived all rights to minerals on Crown lands.

In 1873 samples of surface quartz, gathered at Kelmscott, Newcastle, and near Baylup, were assayed at the Sydney Mint, and said to contain gold. The Rockingham Bay Mining Company, formed in this year, struck gold on the Serpentine. Mr. Brown recommended prospecting in various parts of the colony. In 1873 a sum of money was voted by the Legislative Council, and the Government introduced sixteen Ballarat miners to prospect. Prospecting by private persons was carried on near Albany, and quartz discovered at Kendenup, forty miles away, was sent to Melbourne, and reported to give 1 oz. 4 dwts. 4 grs. of gold to the ton. The Standard Gold Mining Company, with a capital of £3,000, was formed to work the property, and purchased a quartz-crushing plant, but its efforts to obtain payable gold were fruitless. With the parliamentary vote a quartz-crushing battery was erected at Fremantle and began work on 16th October, 1874. It, too, took the colony no nearer to a payable goldfield. Discoveries of gold were announced from such widely separated parts as Preston, Blackwood, and Roebourne during 1874-5. In 1877 Roebourne quartz was said to average over 5 ozs. of gold to the ton, but, notwithstanding momentary enthusiasm, colonists were still disappointed.

Boring for coal on the Darling Ranges was prosecuted in