THE GOVERNMENT AND THE GOLD FIELDS.

Evening Post, Volume XLVIII, Issue 24, 28 July 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE GOLD FIELDS.

» TO THB EDITOE. Sik — Wo find that our Government has had the generosity to offer peven and sixpence per week to capable miners who will thoroughly prospect the country that is not in reach of private enterprise, in hope that this will solve the labour difficulty, which no doubt prospecting would accomplish if properly carried out, like it used to be before Government stepped in and by over oiHcalism tried to strangle the industry by iniquitous regulations. That they have not totally done so, shows the soundness of the industry. If similar laws were applied to any other industry known to man it would be strangled within twelve months. Wo find that every member of Parliament receives not less than five pounds per week all the year round for sitting in the House for three months in the rear talking nonsense and making laws that . compel miners and others wishing themselves well to emigrate to other lands that are less governed and have more equitable laws suitable to its people. Just fancy that members of Parliament have five pounds per week all the year round, are generous enough to offer seven-and-six per week to the pioneers of the colonies to prospect the trackless wilderness of the West Coast of New Zealand. It would be a grand thing for miners and others if they had no Government beyond what governed the mining industry,-- like what we had before the Canterbury Provincial Government sent to rulo the miners on the West Coast. I am &c. Thomas H. Jones (One of the old prospecting pioneers of the West Coast.) Greymouth, July 2lst, 1894.