SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

Evening Star, Issue 7339, 11 October 1887, Page 2

SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

AUCKLAND, October 11

Mr Pond (Government analyst) and Mr ; Whitaker (of the Bank of New Zealand) are busily engaged upon an analysis of the Waitoa stuff which they are making for the Waitoa Prospectors' Association of Auckland. They do not expect to finish before the end of the week. Mr Pond is convipced from what he saw" during his recent yinit, and from the further fact that at yarjous times during the last three years he has made ' analyses pf from different parts of thp 1 Waikato, that alluvial gold is to be met with over the entire country from Waitoa to Alexandra. The question to be solved is ! whether it exists in payable quantities, and the latest ascertained facts and experiments do not tend to raise one's hopes. Mr Pond has tested samples of stuff sent him from Tamahere, Ngaruawahia, and Alexandra, and in each of them he found distinct tracss of gold, the Alexandra sample being about the richest. Some of the stuff is so thickly impregnated with mica that the glittering appearance presented by thee worthless specks is doubtless responsible for some of the many ruoored discoveries that have been made public during the past few weeks. The ' Star' says that so far there is nothing to justify a rush to Waitoa, but a great deal to discourage "sanguine expectations.and to induce extreme caution bo as not to invest money on the bare chance of the field turning but we ll> Writing on the political situation, the *SVar? rays fhat fa neV Ministry have many points of vyeakncsß jn their com'posit'.on. They are radically weak in the j>royinpiaf distribution. Tne preponderance giyen to the Qtagq represeplatives' may haye motives of policy to ' support it; but it palpably relies upon the complaisance pf Auckland. Otago and Southland oombined are entitled under the readjusted representation to twenty-four members, and of that number thirteen are Oppositionists, and of these three have been awarded portfolios. • Auckland returns forty members; seventeen ctf them tire'"supporters'of the party ip power, and we have been allotted one portfolio. Otago has nearly half the membership of the Cabinet. It may be very patriotic aad self-sacrificing on the part of oiir representatives to stand aside arid let the Southerners take the Jion's share of the loaves and fishes; but we cannpt see anything else to commend in the proceeding. Mr Moss and Mr Peacpck are quite as capable of administering departments as any one of the three Otago members, and Mr Peacock's personal and party claims are really as strong, or stronger, On whsl! principle, then, was the marked preponderance which has been granted J to Otago been airived at! It is idle | to say that Provincialism is dead, and that no weight is given to it in constructing Cabinets. That is untrue. In this . Cabinet, as in all others, there Is very palpable attempt to, conciliate provincial feeling, and apparently it ha~s been thougnj; that . Otago was more reliable In, opposition than Auckland, and hence its prejudices must be Conciliated. There is one other excuse for the adjustment. Naturally, Canterbury goes minusi and it was,nece?sary to give the portfolio which should have gone to that provincial district to Otago because of community . of interests, and>to try and keep the balance '. fair bptwopp, tb e tWS islands proportionate ' to representation. 4?our' members to the J South .Island and three to the North Island is not'perhaps unreasonable,'but' all the • same Otago's division of its membership ' pretty equally between the Government and ,• the Oppositionists seems to work very well. \ tt had a preponderance'in the fast Ministry, and it has 'managed to secure the saine in ! this."" ' ■<•'.■' - ■■> ! * "