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 said, of course, of all mines, even gold-producing ones, so great is the uncertainty of mining. But, after all, that is only a relative term. Actual discoveries, and the probabilities based on the known, do make future successes in many cases reasonably certain, although their actual measure is not ascertainable before hand. Of the mines on the eastern belt of lodes, the Monte Christo, Temperance, most of the Black Hill series, Sulieman Pasha, Britannia United, Last Chance, Llanberris, Speedwell, North Woah Hawp, Woah Hawp Canton, Woah Hawp Hong Kong, Prince Regent, Pearse's, and several unnamed co-operative ventures have reached gold. Of the public companies on that belt, the Sulieman Pasha, Llanberris, and North Woah Hawp are paying dividends, and others are approaching, through what miners call dead work, to that happy condition. Large dividends have been secured by co-operative parties, but they do not disclose actual results. On the western belt of lodes, the Band and Albion Consols, Star of the East, Band and Barton, Koh-i-noor, Serjeant's, Band of Hope, and Sir Henry Loch have been or are producing mines, and the first two are large producers and pay dividends. All of them, indeed, save the Loch, have paid dividends, and all may fairly be expected to do so again. All mines have their barren stages of dead work, as well after as before reaching gold, and the more or less near future will probably see at least a score of dividend-paying mines added to the present list of fortunate ventures.

The current mining revival is not local merely. There is a "boom" over the whole colony, and in all kinds of stock, the aggregate appreciation in which has been estimated by a writer in the Melbourne Argus at some ten millions sterling, including stocks in the silver mines of South Australia. As has been remarked, this greater interest in mining matters is largely due to the reduction of bank interest on deposits from six to four per cent, for yearly, and to three and two per cent, for half-yearly and quarterly terms, thus throwing heavy sums upon the stock and share market for investment. Imported capital, in the shape of public loans and private investments, has also swelled the amount of available money, and its relative cheapness gives