REWANUI NOTES.

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 November 1918, Page 8

REWANUI NOTES.

J'• • ; ? . $ . ■ ■ . 10ur Own .Oorregpdndßnt.] ;■ ' LOCAL. Things , are very quiet up here. Through rough weather, and the state of the bar, ,shipping Juts left us krie ;for nearly the. whole week, only two shifts, being worked in the mines. Constant complaints, I know, have been made lately, in fact for a long time back, about .the condition of the • houses that belong to the Department; but from what I can hear it is the scarcity' of ’ carpenters that is the sole trouble.- Anyhow, why not go in for buying the houses right out ana be : our own landlords. LAST FRIDAY, When we heard that peace was declared last Friday, of course the whistles blew hard, and all hands were told to knock off, if they wished. I thi?;k our evening train must have been blowing the whistle all the way ■ up, thinking we did not know, but however the mine whistle started in competition, and between the two the ' noise was deafening. DEVELOPMENT. I believe tenders will be called for, from qualified miners, during the present week for the contract to be let at the middle brake, for the driving of a new tunnel for- development purposes. Some of my country readers have been making inquiries as to the nature of the country to be pierced, and as it is a fairly big job it is only right tenderers should know. The strata to be gone through is chiefly sandstone, with layers of blue shale at intervals, and coal measures of various thickness, two of about 25 feet, and two or three from three to five feet in thickness. I believe two up-to-date boring machines from the Otira, besides our own machines, will he available. As regards ventilation, from the preparations that I see are being made, it will be up-to-date, with extra large air pipes. Anyhow, full particulars will be advertised, THE GOLD YIELD. By recent press reports I see the inhabitants ol Reef ton, and specially those connected with mining, are so- : lidly considering two > questions of vi- ] tal importance to their chief industry, s vi/.., the question of the price of gold/ < and what steps shall be taken to make - the industry pay its way. To the first question the answer is, that it is im- * possible to raise the price of gold as i it is standard value in all civilised j countries. The ether question can be solved by ( the intervention of the Government, by assisting in various ways to help in the production of this precious metal. 1 This question has been gone into and thoroughly, thrashed out in various i parts of the world, and there is one, ■ and only one solution to the question — < “Government Hqlp.” Now how are ( we going to get this help? Me must ‘ amalgamate our ideas to begin with ; i we must make our system uniform; 1 we must get rid of old-fashioned ideas j cpmiecied' ydth the industry. The governments of other gold-producing j countries ?'have given assistance, notably Victoria and Vest Australia. Victoria thinks nothing year after year ' of placing on its estimates J/iou,UUO for the encouragement of this particu- } lar industry, and it is worth it. • The West Coast is practically con- ] fined to the production of two miner- , als—coal and gold. One is paying its ; way, and the other sometimes does and i sometimes does nof, ' i

It does not matter what the system of help is, whether it is by Government prospecting, scientifically, and analysing, which.in thi§ writer’s opinion is the ideal way, or subsidising the different ventures that have had Government sanction to continue operations, to bringing dividends up to normal. Anyhow the thing is wrapped up in a nutshell, for the industry must not be held up. This is the one and only commodity that cannot and must not be inflated, or depressed in value, whatever happens. Supposing the vaults and banks opened their doors and let their thousands of tons of this precious metal loose, where would labour and industry be? Supposing India’s hundreds of tons, which it has been hoarding for centuries, were let loose, where would labour and industry be No we cannot allow the price of gold to be raised or lowered. In a future note I will have something more to say on this subject, THE LABOUR PARTY. The Labour Party in New Zealand, though in sentiment and in the main honest in its intentions, is for the moment under a cloud. Labour in the meantime will have leisure to worn towards a national ideal, and if it takes the wise course, and the winning course, it will agitate for electoral reforms, coupled with measures appertaining to the needs of the party. And bringing these things right into : the firing line. Labour, apart from ; party, would win every time, or at least get a good hearing. Labour’s i platform has always been better than its achievement, and the great pro- , Idem before the party now, is the best mode of strengthening its fighting force. New Zealand is not tired of 1 Labour ideals, thoughts, or desires, , but it is getting pretty tired of the goslow policy adopted by statesmen to .

wards the aims of Labour. There is a mordant humour about the spectacle of a. huge majority in the House, of Representatives, after denouncing * the minority—which was Labour chiefly—and calling; it all sorts of' names,- suddenly to discover

itself to.be an object of contempt, and yearning } for amalgamation —in the near future—in some way with the minority it had plastei'ed With derision. > And there is-no. party reason why this humourous interlude should not take place. If the, circumstances of the hour were different this writer would implore all hands to keep on like, this, for there is great value in anything which helps the public to realise what a stupendous old fraud Party Government really is. But as playing the frowsy game of party, amid the events of to-day, is only an easy method of playing the fool, this Writer is persuaded that Labour would serve New Zealand best if the inducement to ■ watch a tragic fayce unfold- itself was taken less seriously than the drowning cries of the alleged coalition asking for help. Labour can take no suggestion, no promise, nor proposal from this combine which has retarded Labour’s ideas in the past, and whicn is totally opposed to Labour’s visions of the future.