MR LARNACH’S DEPARTURE.

Evening Star, Issue 7750, 23 October 1888, Page 2

MR LARNACH’S DEPARTURE.

The following fuller report of Professor Black’s speech at Saturday’s banquet to Mr Larnach was crowded out of our yesterday’s issue;—

Professor Black, in responding to the toast of “The Mining Interests,” remarked that a great deal had been said about depression, but he had no doubt that, as far as mining was concerned, an era of prosperity was before them. They had now various kinds of dredges in course of construction that would enable them to deal with 100 tons of stuff an hour, in place of the present twenty or thirty tons per day, and many parts of the country were full of gold. On Waipori Flat alone he knew there must be at least two millions’ worth of gold waiting the means of lifting, while they had also a hundred miles of gold-bearing sea beaches that they would soon be beginning to work. At the Macetown and other reefs the miners could obtain from lOdwt to 3oz of gold to the ton, but the difficulty in the way of getting it lay in this : the diggers went to the top of the reefs and bored down, lifting the stone up to the top and then taking it down again to the outside level and crushing it; instead of tunnelling into the reef from the outside level and drawing out the gold-bearing stone on the level of the crushing machinery. This would enable them to get the gold at a cost for crushing of 3dwt to 4dwt to the ton, instead of, as at present, 15dwt to ISdwt to the ton. Now was the day of syndicates, and he hoped that powerful syndicates would be formed to develop the enormous mineral resources of Otago. —(Hear, hear.) He would like to say a few words about the poor miners. He did not think many men understood the miners. People thought that miners were dreaming and dreaming of gold always, but such was not the case. The spirit that actuated the miner was not the thirst for gold—he hunted for it purely for the sake of hunting, and not for the sordid love of gold itself. Then, again, there was an impression abroad that the miner was a great man for “sprees.” Well, he held that an occasional outbreak was one of the necessities of a digger’s life. His time was passed in a monotonous fashion, similar to that of a wheel eternally running in a rut, and it was essential to his existence that he should occasionally get out of that rut.—(Applause.) With reference to Mr Larnach’s doings on the goldfields, hecopld tell them that he Ijiad seen Mi* Larnach plunging his charger into the quicksands of rivers where not one man of h;s escort dare follow him; he had seen him plunge into the roaring flood of a river when those on the bank stood gazing on him expecting to see him go down momentarily—and suddenly there was a cry “ Larnach’s downgood ,God 1” But no ; Larnach appeared again, and reached shore in safety.—(Loud applause.) Oh! he had seen Mr Larnach mixing with the diggers in the way they appreciated—he had seen him drinking whisky with the miners; he had seen him dancing yirith them; he had seen him singing with them till “ daylight did appear J” (Loud laughter and applause.) (Sis social proclivities were enormous, and his success among the miners was'therefore not to be wondered at. Larnach is a name to conjure with among the miners one had only to say “ Larnaoh’s coming,” and the miners would pour in from the ranges and gullies from ■ thirty miles distant,' and when he left they would accompany him in crowds for forty or fifty miles on bis journey to the next place.—(Applause.)—They used to say “ Before Larnach came we never had a member of Government or of Parliament to take an interest in us.” Money could not buy a member to go where Mr Larnach used to go, and |he good that he did among the mining‘element was incalculable. Before bis obtaining office it was a common saying on the West Coast diggings that they formed no part of the country, and that they would not help it if troubles in the shape of a foreign war arose; but now if Russia threatened, the diggers would leave their gullies and reefs to rush to the protection of the towns.—(Applause.) Re believed that if any real danger _ ever threatened, the country would have in its miners a reserve force ’of the finest men in the world, able and willing to undergo the greatest hardships in the interests of their adopted country.—(Loud applause.) Referring to other mineral resources of the colony, the speaker mentioned the kauri gum industry, which they would no doubt be much surprised .to hear amounted to bne-third of the Value of the gold returns of fhe colony. Then tjhere were silver, manganese (not five men' in New Zealand knew that manganese was here in abundance), and sheelite, ' As With manganese, so with sheelite—not three men in New Zealand knew that sheelite was to be got here. Some months ago tenders were invited for the supply of sheelite, and the response from the colony was simply nil. Reference had M|n made to Mr Larnaoh’s ‘ Handboob*~-Vell, he might say that by his' instructions Mr Lamdch’s book had been sent Rome fo the War Office as containing a vast amount of valuable information,—(Applause.) He had lately been to Melbourne and to he did not see the joke ; however, be had been to those places, and while there he had called on many people interested in mining, and be saw Mr Larnach’s book everywhere. That ‘Handbook’ would do more for mining in New Zealand than they could possibly imagine, because it turned the eyes of strangers to the great mineral resources of the colony, Jn Mr Latnach’s departnrefrom New Zealand the miners were losing their best friend—he might say their only friend. He would remind hiajbearers

that the greatness of a country rested on the first few of its distinguished men, and when they left the country was in a bad state. In losing Mr Larnach they were losing one of their most distinguished men, but he hoped sincerely that it would not be for ever.— (Loud applause.)