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sum of £24,168 was paid in dividends. These figures include a crushing of 304 tons from the Alexandra, which yielded 168 oz. gold. The Alexandra was absorbed by the Fiery Cross Company at a very early stage in the history of the field.
Hopeful Mine.—This mine was next in northerly succession to the Fiery Cross. Auriferous stone seems to have been found in it in 1872 by Ryan brothers. The quartz discovered formed part of what was later and more widely known as the Welcome shoot. This shoot soon passed out on its northerly pitch into the Welcome Company’s ground, but during the time (about ten years) the Hopeful Company worked that portion of it lying in its own claim the operations were very successful, some 12,798 tons of stone having been crushed for a yield of 20,954 oz. gold, valued at £121,542 12s., out of which £55,000 was paid in dividends.
Welcome Mine.—The Welcome Company was registered in 1873, the year following the registration of the Hopeful Company, and it started to work the same shoot as the latter. The shoot, eventually passed wholly into the Welcome ground, and was followed down by that company to a depth of about 1,000 ft. below the outcrop. Down to No. 6 level the mine was worked from adits, but from that level, at its northern end, a vertical underground shaft was sunk from which three more levels were opened. On No. 9 level very little stone was found, the shoot at that horizon having been shattered by faulting. The last solid stone was got in an intermediate level about 50 ft. above No. 9. By about 1888 the known ore in the mine was exhausted, and negotiations were being made for an amalgamation with the Homeward Bound Company, which held the next claim to the north. This merger was evidently not brought about at the time, and after doing some desultory prospecting the Welcome Company suspended operations and the claim lay idle for several years. In 1892 the Welcome, Homeward Bound, and Eureka Companies amalgamated under the title of the Welcome United, for the purpose of trying to connect the Eureka inclined tunnel with the No. 9 Welcome level, and sinking a shaft from that level to a depth of 250 ft., at which depth it was proposed to put out a level in the hope of relocating the Welcome shoot on the Homeward Bound boundary. The Eureka incline was unwatered, and the level at its foot cleaned up and retimbered. A crosscut was then run out under the No. 9 Welcome level, and from this a “monkey” shaft was sunk to 240 ft., at which depth a drive was extended 540 ft. northerly without finding any reef. Simultaneously with the pushing-on of this prospecting from the Eureka incline the company also reopened the old No. 5 adit and extended it for several hundred feet, thus locating what was known as the Welcome North Block. Only a comparatively small amount of stone was won from this block, which proved to be narrow and considerably broken. The block was traced down to about the horizon of No. 9 level, or perhaps a little below it. By the end of 1904 the company found itself unable to carry on any longer. The mine was then let on tribute to O’Leary and party for three years, but the tribute was abandoned within a year. The company then resumed prospecting for a brief period, and in 1905 McKenzie and party took the property on tribute. During the following two or three years much prospecting was carried out near the surface, with a view to picking up there the cap of the Welcome North Block, but, although several promising reef-tracks were found, no solid reef was located. About 1908 a new company was formed to take over the areas, with the intention of reopening the Boatman’s low-level tunnel and prospecting from it for the block mentioned, but no work appears to have been done, and in
