The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1896.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 19, 23 January 1896, Page 4

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

THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1896.

Fer til? causa that l.asks assistants, For tho wrr-ng that needs resistance, I'c-r the Mara ia tha fiistaaco. Aiid tha Gc'od tint' wo can do.

The most marked feature in Mr Cadman's speech at the Thames last night, was the good, plain common-se^e which pervaded it. There was no

attempt at misrepresentation, no ex. aggeration, no special pleading. Even

when dealing with the prospects of the mining industry, Mr Cadman was singularly moderate in his tone, and although the temptation to present a roseate picture of the future of the Thames mines to an audience all. interested in mining would have been too much for most men, the Minister manfully, withstood it. He appealed to the common sense of his listeners, not to their speculative instinct, which we are afraid has been played on a little too much of late. The speech is the first Ministerial utterance that has been made in the Thames district for a long time, and it is further of importance in being made by the Minister who has especial charge of the industry in which the district is principally interested and on which its prosperity de-

pends. Some may have anticipated that under the circumstances Mr Cadman would give utterance to some fresh intention on the part of the Government. In Ministerial speeches it is customary to look (or hints of future policy measures. But on this occasion Mr Cadman confined himself to taking a broad and impartial view of the political situation and the condition of the countr/.

In the first piace Mr Cadman did not lay claim to being a member of an immaculate Ministry, nor did he launch into panegyrics of the legislation of the sessions they have been in office. He only asked his audience to believe that he and his colleagues had striven to work in the interests of all classes of the colony. Referring to the measures which had been passed for the benefit ol the industrial portion of the community—measures which have not found favour in some quarters —the Minister very pointedly asked whether it was expected that all tbe legislation was to be in the interest of the landed classes. At the same time he made it clear that be is no friend to a policy that in a country like this, for the most part dependent for its prosperity on the development of its soil, would devote undue attention to the development of other nonagricultural industries and give unfair privileges to the working classes over the capitalists. He understands that though the worker is to be protected and encouraged, the man who supplies the money for the work must not be frightened away. And his audience knew this, too, better perhaps than most audiences. The Thames people do not require to be taught the value of the capitalist. They know very well thai the hope of the whole goldmiiiing districts is in the men with money who are ready to risk it in opening up the country. As Mr Cadman pointed out last night, it was the recognition of this all-important fact which led him to insert those clauses in his last Mining Act providing for the taking up of larger areas. It was certainly not to foster monopolies that these arrangements were made, though the Thames Miners' Union feared it would have that effect. It was to encourage capital, without which our mining industry can never go ahead.

1 It is noticeable that the question of borrowing is little by little coming to be more openly alluded to in political addresses, and to all appearances it wiil occupy a prominent position at • the next general election. We have - no more love for the subject than we have for the thing itself, and would . gladiy not mention it at all ; but since the reality may have to be faced sooner or later, it is surely better that we should accustom ourselves to its features, Mr Cadman spoke plainly on the matter last night, and we think i I that plain speaking is the best. He 1 told his audience that the country would have to decide whether there should be any further borrowing or not. The country people, he believed, would be in favour of an additional loan, and the townspeople would be opposed to it. There is no great difficulty lor any impartial person to look straight at the matter from both points |of view. The dwellers in town are \ already sufficiently oppressed with ' the burden of national, municipal, and —we are afraid in manycases —private debt.' On the other i hand, thanks to the expenditure of large sums in the citie?, they aro moderately well provided with the com'orts and advantages of highlycivilised surroundings. They do not feel the immediate need for the expenditure of more money, which would not be spent in the cities but in the j country, and they dread the increase of i taxation which they would have to bear.

The country people view the matter from another point. They may equaliy abhor the idea of the colony going further into debt, but they labour under a thousand disdavantages arising from the undeveloped state of the .country, and nothing but an additional loan can jheio them. To those who recognise j the complete ultimate dependence of | the city on tbe prosperity of the country —a fact few of us bear sufficiently in mind—the claim of the j country people deserves more consideration than if it were a mere selfish dej mand. The benefits they seek are I benefits in which we all participate [sooner or later, It has often been said i that in these colonies we went about I nation-building in the wrong way. We | bave paid too much attention to the | cities and too little to the country districts. Now we are beginning, it is jto be hoped, to see our mistake, and Ito realise better the true relations that ! should exist between country and town, j With a clear appreciation of those I relations we shall learn to take a more ijuet view of the demands of (country districts which are without 'roads or other facilities for conveying their products to a market, and, in this question of a future loan, to understand that it is our duty not r.o be guided by selfish and narrow views. The capacity of the colony for bearing a slight addition to its debt at this time, and the easy terms on which the money could be raised, were dwelt on by Mr Cadman, but he advocated no borrowing policy. As he said— and in saying so he reflected the mind of the Government —it was for the people of the colony to decide the question,

Of course, to the Thames people and to Aucklanders the most interesting part of Mr Cadman's speech was that in which he dealt with the mining industry. At a time when there is a depression in the stock and sharemarket, people will turn to the speech of the Minister for Mines for consols.* lion and hope. Mr Cadman is too practical a man to nave ranch to say about mining speculation. Ue might

have easily conjured up a vision of future riches that would have made our speculators' hearts glad for a season. But he was not talking to scrip holders who live on the rise and fall of the market, but to mining men who wish to see the actual mining wealth of the Thames developed. And the advice he gave them was excellent. He told them they must do more prospecting. The Thames is no Tom Tiddler's ground. You cannot have the gold for the picking up there. It is mysteriously bid away, and one may be treading over El Dorado itself without knowing it. Everything goes to prove that the gold is there more or less distributed over the whole peninsula, but no one can tell in what particular far-off corner the undiscovered mines lie that may make its shareholders " rich beyond the dreams of avarice." Only by the most diligent search are we likely to stumble on them. It is not by investing money in every small piece of ground that shows colours or is only " believed to have gold " that the Thames will go ahead. Gamblers on the Exchange may make a lew pounds in that way. But, as Mr Cadman says, . the business, of the Thames people is to prospect and prospect till they find something of undoubted value.