THE NEW ZEALAND GOLD FIELDS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1436, 17 September 1861, Page 4

THE NEW ZEALAND GOLD FIELDS.

The discovery of gold in the province of Otago, though at the southern extremity of the middle Island of New Zealand, may indirectly have some favourable effect on the military troubles that afflict the Northern Island, It \yi]l confirm the value oi the colony generally as a British possession and as afield for emigration, and will help to cheek any unfuyourable depreciation of the -«Wy to which the notove »nr may haye given rise. •* T ~tv Zealand iw a whole, the European and the Taking i\v. - tujtivly equal i» numbers, the forMaori population are • -•<, J n the Northern iner being Blightly in the ma] on uj. '-mWely COIV Island, where the natives are almost ex&u. centiated, they are the stiongest. If colonisation can be continued at its late rate the Europeans would every year advance in numbers, and obtain such an obvious supremacy as to impress the Maori mind with the folly of resistance, and to furnish an overwhelming force to repress any such resistance. If it had been possible to have kept free from conflict with the native movement a few years longer, that movement would have been checked and overawed by the overshadowing influence of European colonisation. But, unfortunately, the Governor was forced by circumstances into a position from which he could not retreat, and the explosion has taken place prematurely. It is more desirable than ever that settlement should progress, yet buch an advance has at the same time become less possible. The want of land, which has hitherto impeded the radiation of settlement, is a greater than ever ; for the natives will stick with mci easing tenacity to their pos sessions, and the difficulty of finding fresh land to offer to emigrants for farms is thereby enhanced. And, even if farms were more plentiful than they aie, emigrants j would not be much tempted to take them up under | piesent circumstances. None but those to whom the i risks of border warfare offer a pleasant excitement would , like to begin the task of clearing in a country open on , every side°to the risks of ambush and stealthy attack. The fate of the Taranaki settlers— shot, or expatriated, or I forced to serve in the militia, and to witness the plunder and the devastation of their homesteads— is quite enough to deter new comers from beginning to settle in any of the exposed portions of the Northern Island : and in case of a general war it is hard to say what portion would not be exposed So far from fresh settlers taking root, theie is too evident a disposition aniMig pome already there to escape, even at a gieat sacrifice Pio--perties that have cost much time and labour to create are offered at a heavy depreciation. This is haidly to be wondeied at after Geneial Camerons very distinct announcement, that in case of a war with Waikato it will be impossible to piotect the outlying farms, and that settlers must lay their account with heavy losses. Under such circumstances colonization in the Northern Island has come to a dead stop, and the noa-inihtaiy European population will diminish rather than increase But in the Middle Island fortunately theie is no such obstruction There the native difficulty does not exist. There is nothing to stand in the way of any amount of colonisation for which an adequate commercial basis can be found, and its rapid advance m population, if such can be achieved, will react favourably on the fortunes of the Noithern Island Yet, though territorially disconnected with the war, theprovmces of the Southemlslandhave more orie&> suffered in reputation from the war. Emigrants think of New Zealand as a whole, and do not make meie geographical discriminations. And, even if they are well posted up as to localities, they feel that the war will involve the Southern settlers in extra taxation and in political complications, even though their territory ib separated by a stiait from the theatre of hostilities. And vague uncertainties on this point act as a discouragement to emigration. The discovery of payable gold-fields will go far to neutralise this drawback, and will tend to lestoifl the attractions of the colony, and stimulate immigration A payable gold-field has been disclosed for some time in the province of Nelson, at the northern end of the Middle Island ; and the same source of wealth is now opened up at the southern extremity of the same island The probability is, therefore, that the entire range of mountains that form the backbone of the island is more or less auriferous throughout its whole length, and that both on the eastern and western slopes gold-fields will be opened up Each province in that island will then be able to offer similar attiactions , and, in each of them, the fanner, the squatter, the miner, and the tradesman will find moie or less scope— a variety of occupation which in itself is desiiable, as pieserving a politicil balance, and preventing the growth of any exclusively dominant class interest Ejtcept as offering an inducement to immigration at -a''juiicture when an incitase of population is very desirable, it may perhaps be doubted whether New Zealand is to be congratulated on the discovery of gold-fields The two chief colonies on the main land h*\e now had ten years' experience of the golden epoch, and, if called upon to sum up their gains and losses, the resultant advantages would be mainly expiessed in the fact that they have been " precipitated" into more populous and important settlements than before, and that by the increase of population * basis has been laid for a future prosperity. The actual increase of wealth, over and above what would have resulted from the normal progress of colonisation, is comparatively small, and is certainly disproportionate to the ideas that might be suggested by reading statistics of the tons of gold that have been raised and exported. Jfeither to the individual miner, nor to the community, is gold-gathering such a very profitable occupation as to the jjnjnitiated it may seem Owing to the random and wasteful jne thod of digging, which is common, and to the enhancement of prices, which the diversion of labour to gold mining produces, the cost of production approaches ,very nearly to the selling price. If men can gain more by gold-digging than by any other puuuit that is open to them, then, of course, the community gains by the diversion of labour to that pursuit. Bui there are hundreds and thousands of peisons in New South I Wales and Victoria who are the poorer for their visits to the gold-fields, who have earned less for themselves and added less to the wealth of the community, than if they had worked as hard at their ordinary occupation The temptation which drew them to the gold-fields was a deceitful one. Having woiked off the fever, they aie now "suffering a recovery" at their leisure, somewhat richer in experience, but poorer in pocket, and in some cases permanently weaker in constitution. Gold certainly affords a new export, and a standing outlet for any surplus labour that may exist ; but it starves other pursuits, and especially all branches of manufacturing industry in which the local producer has to contend with imports. The cloth- weaving trade in New South Wales furnishes an illustration of this. But for the golden prosperity we should probably, by this time, have numbered many mills. But Mr. Hargraves dealt a death blow, for a decade at least, to that interest. When he landed fiom California he shut up the cloth mills. Now, after the lapse of ten years, and as labour is retuining to a more settled price, manufacturing industry is beginning to reappear. New Zealand ia, in many respects, very well adapted for manufactures. It has coal and iron, and waterpower, and accessible harbours, and, under such circumstances, without any protective laws, manufactures might get a footing. But rich gold-fields will prevent, or at any rate postpone, any such development. It is not given to the colony to have all the coveted forms of prosperity contemporaneously — nor is it at liberty to choose. Gold, once disclosed, cannot be hidden up again, and every golden colony must fulfil its destiny. — Sydney Morning Herald.

Hollo way's Pills. — Stomach, liver, and cutaneous disorders. — The piercing winds, ■with warm sunny days, are trying to health, and subject comfort and appearance to a seveie test. The warmth drawing the blood to the surface only to bo repelled by the eastern blasts, disturbs the balance of the circulation, and leaves the digestion, or the skin, in a deranged, if not iv a diseased, condition. Holloway's Pilfi prevent or correct either result. In impaired digestion, and in all ailments of the liver, they invariably cure without stringent regulations for amu^ement or diet. By resorting early to these purifying Pills, Ihe dyspeptic and nallow aro speedily restored to their natural and healthy state. They raise the drooping spirits, and confer renewed animal energy