LURE OF GOLD.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume VLI, Issue 3303, 6 March 1935, Page 5

LURE OF GOLD.

INFLUENCE ON COLONISATION OF NEW ZEALAND.

A MOST POWERFUL FACTOR.

What New Zealand owes to goldmining was shown vividly in a lecture which Mr E. W. Green, A. 0. S. M., delivered before the technological section of the Wellington Philosophical Society. He pointed out that goldmining had had a most important bearing on the opening up of the colony, especially the South Island, and had introduced secondary industries to the country.

In 1857, when alluvial gold was discovered at Collingwood, said Mr Green, the population of New Zealand was 50,000 Europeans; by 1861, when gold was discovered in Otago, it had increased to 99,000. In the next three years there was an approximate increase of 42,000. By that time mining was in full swing in Otago, and in the next two periods of three years each similar great increases occurred, goldmining being then carried on throughout the South Island and at Thames. By 1873 the population was 298,000.

New Zealand produced more silver than gold, 28i million ounces of silver being mined to 24J million ounces of gold between 1853 and 1932. However, the value of the silver had amounted to only three and a quarter million pounds, compared with 96 million pounds worth of gold. Most of the silver came from the Thames and Waihi. About half the gold had come from alluvial workings and half from reef workings. The number of men employed had increased from 3600 in 1932 to 6000 in 1933, but that was a small number compared with the many thousands that must have been occupied in mining in its earlier days, although the men engaged now were employed in a more permanent manner.

A large part of Mr Green’s lecture was devoted to an outline of the technical methods of mining. The largest mine pumping plant in Australia or New Zealand, he remarked, was at Waihi, where seven tons of water were brought to the surface to every ton of quartz. At one time the quantity of water was even greater. Hundreds of tons of fresh air were circulated throughout the workings every day.

Mr Green pointed out that the Waihi field had produced the greatest mine in New Zealand, although it was the last of the original fields to be opened up (in 1882). The Waihi mine had now produced £18,000,000. The lecturer emphasised that a healthy and prosperous mining industry was one of the most powerful factors in producing prosperity, encouraging industry and opening up and settling any country. When gold mining was booming in New Zealand vigorous prospecting was carrying explorers into remote parts of the country, and large numbers of people were being attracted to the land by the rich returns. The frozen meat and dairy industries were not even dreamt of at that time.