The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1891.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 34, 10 February 1891, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1891.

For ths causa that laois ssßlstance, For the wrong that needs reslßtonce, lor the future In the distance, And the good that we can do.

Tasmania is at present in a state of unwonted excitement. Its inhabitants have not, as a rule, anything very startling to break the dreary monotony of life. They enjoy a beautiful climate and a peaceful existence in their own little island; but when they get an attack of Bohemianistn, and want to see what the great world is doing, they cross the Straits, and take a. glimpse of life in bustling, boastful Melbourne. The Tasmanians have been so long accustomed to be overshadowed by the greatness of their pompous Victorian neighbour that they have quietly accepted the situation as something quite in the natural order of events. It has been so customary to take for granted that Tasmania offers no adequate sphere for the energies of her native-born youth, that Melbourne has hitherto been the goal of ambition for every Tasmanian fledgling. There the young man has been taught to look for fame and fortune rather than to spend his energies in his native land. The Tasmanians, it is said, are getting "sick of playing the poodle to Victoria." However this may be, it seemed probable, till quite recently, that they might get sick and go on again, for the resources of their own colony were apparently so limited that crowds of enterprising youths would naturally drift out of it. The discovery of silver fields on the west coast of the island has changed the current of events, and young men are already beginning to dream of fortunes to be made in their own country, while the influx of speculators, brokers, and miners from Australia, is giving an impetus to the trade of the little island colony. The silver boom has set in just at the right time to relieve Tasmania from a depression caused by a recent decline in mining interests. For the last year or two the prospects of the colony, both with regard to its gold and tin mines, have been somewhat overcast. The amount of gold obtained fell from upwards of 42,000 oz to 29,24402 in the year, and the output of tin shrank by 713 tons in the same time; even the Biscboff district, which the Tasmanians boast of as the finest tin-producjrijg; country on this side of the line, showing 259 ton§lc t SjS than i,ri the year before. The coal-mihihg industry until recently seemed the only one in the colony which was steadily this largely owing to the Victorian market for Tasmanian coal, one mine alone having sentover 8,000 tons in the course of tbe year. We are indebted to a correspondent of one of the Australian journals for some interesting particulars respecting the locality and prospects of the newlydiscovered silver fields, which are situated in what the Tasmanians call the "wild West" of their island. The town of Strahan, at the mouth of the King River, is regarded by some authorities as the future seaport of tbe silver fields, while others consider Remine, at Trial Bay, to have the better claim. Dae north and about twenty miles distant from Strahan, is Mount Zeehan, and about seven miles north-east of that is Mount Dundas. Two other promising silver districts, Mount Agnew and Mount Heemskirk, are within a few miles distance, the whole four lying within the circumference of a comparatively small circle. A steamer runs from Hobart to Strahan, but though the distance from the latter place to the silver fields is not great, the country is described as the roughest and most inaccessible that tbe doughtiest pioneer would care to tackle. The roads are mere tracks, with gradients too steep for anything but a pack-track, in places necessitating numerous deviations from the route. In tbe vicinity of Mount Zeehan, swamps are frequent in anything like wet weather, and the development of that mine is likely to be retarded by the costly appliances required for draining, added to the difficulty of carriage of machinery. To Mount Dundas all supplies had to be carried till recently on men's backs, but it is said the water supply there is good, with plenty of serviceable timber, while the place will not be hampered with the drainage difficulties which impede the development of Mount Zeehan.

The glowing reports which have been furnished from the Mount Dundas district have been sufficiently exciting even for the most credulous and . wonder-loving crowd. Assays were eagerly watched for, and results that threatened to put the hitherto unrivalled Broken Hill in the shade began to come forward in response to the keen anticipation. Twenty pounds of silver-lead oie yielded to one assay at the rate of 95 of silver and 55*30 of lead to the ton. Other reports told the eager public that us much as 130 oz, 250 oz, 137 oz, 185 oz, and— probably to give what the Japanese gentleman in the comic opera would call "an air ot verisimilitude" to an otherwise bald and unconvincing re cital —Bozand 21 oz to the ton ! Then the boom began!

Reduced to their proper dimensions, the prospects of the newly-discovered silver fields, while not likely, to realise the sanguine visions of excited speculators, are yet sufficiently encouraging to

the Tasmanian Government to lead them to believe, in the words of the Agent-General, that "it might be reasonable to hope that in the near future silver will become a permanent staple of Tasmanian export." The Inspector of Mines points out with regard to Mount Dundas that time and work alone can decide whether the claims taken up contain any payable lodes or not, " and until some work has been done to prove them, their be very much a matter of speculation." He reports with regard to the older field of Mount Zeehan, the lodes are " well-defined, numerous, strong, and {ich, and have every indication of being permanent in depth." The Tasmanian Geological Surveyor believes that the discoveries already made are but a small fraction of the total mineral wealth of the island. If this forecast proves correct, the little colony has before it a season of unexampled prosperity. There is already an excited squabble between Launceston and Hobart as to the line of route to be followed by the railway that is to open up the West Coast. In the meantime prospector and pioneer are pushing their way through the wilderness; storekeeper, shanty-keeper and adventurer are afield, and the Northern newspapers say that there are 2,000 working miners earning upwards of £2 per week each, and entitled to votes, as against 600 in all the other mining electorates put together. It is predicted that the next step will be to assert their strength and secure aid in the development of the resources of the West Coast by means of good roads and railways. We notice that sixteen residents of Invercargill left in the Te Anau yesterday for the Tasmanian silver mines. But it is in Victoria that an interest is displayed in the matter, rivalling that felt by the Tasmanians themselves. Melbourne men shrewdly say, "Tasmanian mining prospects are good—for Victoria." Every steamer from Melbourne has on board the speculator whose goal is the Hobart Mining Exchange, and the digger whose face is set towards Mount Zeehan. To Victorians are chiefly due the formation of syndicates, the floating of companies and the quoting of shares, and their spirit of enterprise will no doubt largely assist the Tasmanians in developing an industry which they sanguinely hope will inaugurate a new era of prosperity in the colony.