to return over £300,000 per annum £30,000 a month in 1898). The output from June 1898 to May 1899 was 166,078 ounces from 204,502 tons, and the dividend for the six months ending May 1899, £175,000. A thousand miners find steady employment, and a town flourishes at the foot of the Mount. It was a hill of gold, and apparently only needs quarrying. The accepted theory is that it was a geyser, or thermal spring, of the Tertiary period; though the bed of mundic which is now being worked is said, by practical men who know Kalgoorlie, to bear many points of resemblance to the great decomposed formations of Western Australia, which may yet turn out to have their overlooked parallels in many parts of the world. Charters Towers, the premier field of the colony, was prospected in 1872. Stubley, a blacksmith, one of its pioneers, became member for his district; returned, after losing one fortune, to look for another, and died a pauper by the wayside. There are 20,000 inhabitants at Charters Towers; £13,000 weekly is distributed in wages to the miners, and fourteen millions sterling have been won since 1872. The figures for Gympie give eight millions since 1867. The once famous Palmer goldfield, during the first four and a half years of its working, gave the phenomenal yield of 839,000 ounces of gold. The field has since been almost deserted, but there are still many rich reefs which only require capital for their development. The Hodgkinson has been half tested, and deserted. "Had it stayed undiscovered until now," says Mr Jack, the Government geologist, "there would have been no half-hearted working of the mines. The agents of capitalists are running all over the world looking for mines such as have been abandoned on the Hodgkinson by the score." The treasures of Chillagoe, in copper, silver, lead, lime,
