The Evening Star SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2036, 13 November 1869, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1869.

Notwithstanding the depression in trade during the last three months, it is satisfactory to find that the Customs’ revenue has increased in comparison •with the corresponding quarter of last year. It is gratifying too to find that the increase has been mainly in the North Island. For some years past there was a marked falling off there. Each succeeding return showed increasing depression. As the war with the Natives spread, the revenue declined until it was felt throughout the Middle Island that the North was becoming a weight too heavy to be borne. In each of the larger ports of the Middle Island, with the exception of Greymouth, which shows an Increase, there has been more or

less falling off in the customs’ duties collected, while in most of the ports of import in the North Island the amounts have been larger. Auckland stands at the head of the list now, and proves the benefit that has arisen from the extension of gold mining. This is the more advantageous as the decrease in other points is so slight that it cannot be concluded the addition to its revenue has been caused solely by the trans ference thither of population drawn from other parts of the Colony. The difference in the amount of revenue received in Dunedin might easily be accounted for on accidental grounds, as it is only L 1,400 on the quarter, and about a* similar decrease appears in Lyttelton and Christchurch, which, however, is more significant of depression, as their total revenue reaches only something more than one-third of that amount. But the revenue of Auckland, compared with the corresponding quarter of last year, is as 55 to 39, which leads to the reasonable expectation that not only has the population largely increased, but the material prosperity of the Province has much increased also. There are many who do not sec those benefits from immigration that really and naturally result from it. It is not to be supposed that it is merely mining that gives employment to the people. That it provides capital and wages for an extra population is very certain. Every new industry that absorbs labor does this. The advantage of the development of goldmining is, that its products are immediately available, and that on the whole their value is more steady than that of any other commodity. In quartz mining, where a payinging claim has been opened, the return is quicker than in most other classes of investment. Three or four months may be necessary for procuring and fitting up the necessary plant, after which, where crushing is judiciously and economically carried on, the returns are regular and certain. Hut this is only a trifling portion of the benefit to a district. The establishment of a mining community necessitates accommodation for them ; and as quartz mining is not a mere ephemeral pursuit, but one which may be considered permanent, the township formed will not be a mere encampment, but like Clunes, in Victoria, and other similarly constituted places, it will have a superior class of dwellings, and all the comforts that the Colony can command. Tradesmen of all classes are required to supply the mining population with necessaries, artizaus to build houses, make or repair machinery ; and division of labor speedily takes place. Immigration gives employment everywhere, and no greater mistake can bo made than to check it The improved position of Auckland extends its influence far beyond the borders of the Province. Sheep that were almost unsaleable at Wanganui are now in demand for the Auckland market at high prices, and corn, which is grown so sparingly in the North, is purchased in the Middle Island. Equally beneficial results may be looked to in this Province through the development of quartz mining, and we hope to see it rapidly extended without inducing that unhealthy excitement that has accompanied it in the North. Notwithstanding the depressed state of the market there, the basis on which the mania was built, the gold-bearing quartz, remains, and will prove a permanent good to the Province long after the remembrance of the wild speculation its discovery induced has passed away.