THE Evening Star. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2025, 1 November 1869, Page 2

THE Evening Star. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1869.

It is now about four years since the Provincial Government had laid before it a general Goldfields report. Since that time many changes have taken place. A large population had then left Otago for the West Coast., and there had been a sudden decrease In the production of gold. But the Province had not altogether realised its loss, and it was hoped that as soon as the miners had discovered that they had emigrated to a place not so desirable as the one they had left, they would return to Otago. In that respect we have been deceived. Many of them suffered great hardships, many of them succeeded well and grew rich, many have settled down there, and many have left; but very few have found their way back. Yet the reports of the mining surveyors of that date shew that there were vast auriferous areas unworked, only waiting for labor to yield their treasure. The mining population has not increased since that day, fresh ground has been discovered, and there is still room for the employment of thousands who may earn good wages if they give themselves to the work. Latterly the Provincial Government has not evinced the interest in mining development that marked their pro-

ceedings some years ago. This change of mode of procedure may have arisen from several causes. There has been a change of men, and with them, in all probability, a change of ideas as to the true interests of the Province. For some years the impetus given to mining industry, by the influx of population from Victoria, turned public attention in that direction. But the government has passed into the hands of those who have other notions of tho development of a country, i and who can see in farms and pastuiage more enduring elements of pi osperity. V 7 ere any to doubt it, they would point to the flitting array of diggers, rushing here and there after some new goldfield, ever seeking, seldom finding the “ pile ” that glitters before their eyes, a midnight and a waking dream. Yet this would be but a poor argument if by that illustration it were intended to prove the uncertain character of gold-producing industry. Gold seeking has many phases. That metal which is found in the river or on tho earth’s surface is but an index pointing to rich and more concentrated deposits not far off. Whence tho fragments come is not known, but the process of denudation has liberated them from their rocky bed, and could that rock be found, it would provide riches and-work for many years to come. It is not the unfolding of one source o t wealth alone that conduces to the prosperity of a country. In order to accumulation of wealth, variety of industry must be encouraged. On this point thete are very vague and ill-defined notions abroad. The general theory is to settle people on the lands, to make them farmers or graziers in fact, or failing that to make them manufacturers of some sort or other. Were there no other way of retaining or obtaining population, this would bo a most desirable arrangement, but those thus engaged form but a minority of the human race, and it is very fortunate for them that it is so. Population busily employed in other ways is a means of wealth to them, and the more readily the reward of labor can be gathered, the greater the market for the produce of the soil. This it is that makes mining so desirable, but in order to reap full advantage from that branch of industry, the gold containing rock must be attacked. That which has been done hitherto, has merely been scratching up the gold that has been liberated from disintegrated rocks. The air, water, and other agencies have been, at work for ages, and what men have done in all the alluvial goldfields has been to gather up the fragments set free by natural agents. In Auckland, through the pecularifcy of structure of the country, the enclosing rock has been reached. Mining companies there arc anticipating nature and seizing her treasures before she has scattered them abroad. But we must not suppose that because vast quantities of gold have been picked up in river beds and in lacustrine or glacial formations, the gold riches of Otago are exhausted. Capital may be safely and profitably invested in quartz mining here, if due care in selecting and prudence in working are observed. Quartz mining is equally certain to gather together settled populations as agriculture or manufactures, and, once established, will yield sure and steady retnrns. But this is not all. Gold is only one of the mineral deposits that abound in Otago. The most valuable of the three prize essays on “ the settlement of the gold mining population in ew Zealand ” is not that to which the first prize was awarded ; but the less pretentious one with the motto Carpe diem. The writer points to the vast riches that lie beneath the surface of New Zealand. He asks : “ Where, then, are we to look “ for an employment that will be at- “ tractive to the miner, yet of a more •“ permanent and settled character than “ gold washing; one that will still re- “ tain a dash of his dai’ing speculation ; “ while at the same time it will collect “ the men into small towns, containing u consequently, a larger proportion of x ‘ women, and will thus gradually tend “ to induce them to marry and “ settle down V He answers this question by suggesting ‘‘regular vein “ or metal mining,” and shows that from the geological character of the country “ metaliferous lodes are ex ten- “ sively distributed in the Colony.” Without tediously following his reasoning, we may state that he says, “ a large u district, probably nearly two-thirds “ of the [South] Island, and extending “ from Nelson to Stewart’s Island,” answers in every respect to the description given of the first and most important of mining pursuits. Of minerals found in Otago he enumerates cobalt, chromium, copper, lead, tungsten, titanium, antimony, arsenic, silver, gold, mercury, and, we may add 1 , coal and iron. Provincial governments are supposed to be peculiarly fitted for the furtherance of immigration, and the development of local works. They cannot do better that take means to encourage the judicious investment of capital in one or other form of settled

industry, lying undeveloped at our feet. To manufacture to a profit, requires cheap labor and an extended market* To draw the raw material from its hiding place is the safer and surer way to wealth, Carpa dkm " accurate and reliable reports ot dis- “ covories were published by the Go--11 vernment, and it were to render “ assistance by making roads, there “ would be no want of private capital for working any promising lode.’ The reason why the Government should undertake this work is, in addition to the means at its command for accurate survey, that the confidence may bo placed in its reports which private information fails to convey.