represented the value exported that year, but six vessels were wrecked in a hurricane; now however as an officer in charge is located there, it may be presumed that the trade will be regularly prosecuted. Vide Appendix E.
Lead Mining is one of the most promising industries of the Colony, but is at present only carried on in the Champion Bay District; its commencement has been noticed in the history of the Colony, and the early progress of it as well as of copper mining, will be found in Appendix F. The proposal for a line of railway from the centre of the Mines district at Northampton to the port at Champion Bay gave fresh impulse to this industry, of which the following returns from the two principal mines will show the present state; there are many other lodes worked, and many still untouched equal to them in value; the want of capital in money and labour alone limits the quantity produced.
The actual shipments from the Narra Tarra mine have been 862 tons, within the twelve months ending December, 1877; but the yield has been much larger, and might be still increased, if greater facilities for exportation were afforded, as it has now a sufficient plant of machinery.
The produce of the Wheel Ellen is about equal to that of the Narra Tarra; but 3,000 tons could be easily raised within the year, if it could be exported. This mine was first opened in 1872, and has in six years produced 4,300 tons of ore, with an average number of twenty-one miners. The lode, which bears about 35° East of North, has been laid open for about 300 fathoms in length, and the deepest point reached is 14 fathoms, so that only surface machinery on a small scale has been required. Of the ores of lead, Galena is the
