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Though the profit per ton only is shown on the Consolidated mines, it must be clear that, since only " London expenses " and " writing-off" have to come off, the actual amount available for dividends can hardly be less than 12s. It would furnish a better basis of comparison if working-expenses and profits were given in all cases instead of dividends, since dividends are arbitrary, depending not solely on net profits of working, but on the decision of the directors, based on prudential or other reasons and on the amount of capital on which the dividend has to be paid. The Waihi Mine, it will be observed, which is in the same grade of ore as the highest-paying group of the Band Mines, pays a less dividend by 7s. 2d. than that group. The difference may be largely, if not wholly, accounted for by the facts that the gold in the Waihi is mixed not only with silver, but with other matter, which makes it necessary to put the entire stuff through the cyanide process. Out of 112,012 tons treated in 1901, 95,829 tons were dry-crushed. Timber and coal are expensive, having to be brought from long distances. There are two other points which have been alleged as grounds of difference between the Band and the American and Australasian mines—one, that the width of ore-bodies is very great in the latter, ranging from 400 ft. to 20 ft., whereas the average width of the Band reefs is only 4 ft. The second is that the latter mines are worked at less depth—the Band mines ranging from 500 ft. to 2,500 ft. in the shafts. Neither of these objections apply to the Progress and Consolidated mines. In these the shafts go 1,000 ft. and 1,250 ft., and in the Progress the normal width is 5 ft. with occasional bulges to 30 ft., while the Consolidated mines do not average 5 ft., in one mine being only 26 in. The irregular nature of the reefs in these mines and their broken character, so characteristic of the country, make the working of them unusually expensive. On the other hand, timber is obtained close to the Eeefton mines. In the case of the Progress Mine it costs 10'81d. per ton milled. As all timber for the Band mines is imported from abroad, it must stand those mines at a much higher figure. The magnitude and importance of the difference in cost of labour—viz., native labour on the Band 2s. per day, and white labour in New Zealand, miners 9s. 6d., truckers Bs., shaft and winze sinking 10s. per shift—is shown by the following extract from the progress report of 1901. The wages in the Progress Mine work out as follows: Mining, 9s. 4-333 d. per ton milled; transportation, 3983 d. per ton milled; milling and concentration, Is. 6-649 d. per ton milled; chlorination, 4-774 d. per ton milled; assay, T3o3d. per ton milled: total, lis. 9042 d. per ton milled: leaving only 4s. 9Tl5d. for timber, fuel, explosives, maintenance, and all other outgoings whatever. Is it possible that over-capitalisation and the difference in value of work done by the individual native and the individual white labourer are responsible for the difference of result ? There may be other factors as to which the Times' extracts from the Band Mines Engineer's report are silent. But it is fair to assume that the most important features are given, and certainly the grades of ore and the rates of wages must be almost crucial. There is a reference in the Band Engineer's report to trades-unions which suggests the idea that the employment of white labour will inevitably induce the formation of unions. From other remarks it appears that the writers of the report do not so much dread the regulation by the unions of rates of pay as their interference with the actual work of the labourers, with the management and control, and with the employment and dismissal of men, and the constant intervention of the officers of the union between the employer and the employed. It is important, therefore, to note that the Progress and other Eeefton mines are worked under trades-union rules, and that they have been so worked for some years without any serious trouble. It is, of course, necessary to remember that under present conditions Bs., and even 10s., a day would be insufficient wages for a white man on the Band. The engineers of the Band in their report put the cost of housing and living of a white man, his wife and three children, at £24 10s. a month. But that is purely a temporary difficulty. The admirable administration of all departments by Lord Milner in the Transvaal and Sir Hamilton Goold Adams in the Orange Colony is already becoming felt. The railway conferences, held not only as to rates with Natal, Delagoa Bay, and the Cape, but as to construction of new lines in the two new colonies, must lead to a very large reduction of expense of transport. The sum of £5,000,000 is at once to be spent on grain railways and coal railways, connecting the Band with the rich agricultural districts of the Orange Colony, and the coal and mineral districts of the Transvaal and Natal. The resources of the almost boundless areas of fine cultivable lands in the two colonies will rapidly be developed under the settlement laws. Johannesburg, unlike our mining districts, has within easy distance lands of the richest quality which are being settled in small areas of 20 acres to 40 acres, with a view to supply all those market necessaries in the way of fruit and vegetables and fodder necessary to a larger city. Access by electric trams to wide and unlimited residential areas in proximity to the city will soon be effected, and with taxation based only on necessities of providing for the cost of government, as against the heavy protective taxation of the Australasian Colonies, it is conceivable that in a few years the white labourer will find himself in a position of the greatest ease and comfort on such wages as are now paid in these colonies. It is manifest that the working of South African mines with black labour cannot be a matter settled for the future. All present arrangements must be temporary In view of the constantly increasing facilities for labour to transport itself to the best market, it may be fairly held that the above review of the question is one which deserves the attention of both capital and labour.