PROMOTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF GOLD MINING.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 17, Issue 17, 31 May 1895, Page 8

PROMOTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF GOLD MINING.

The following circular, bearing trie above heading, is self-explanatory. It ia dated, Hokitika, May 10th, and has been handed to us by a Gore gentleman, with a request that it be published :— At the present time the colony- is suffering from very great depression in all branches of industry and commerce. 1 All our staple product!?, excepting gold, command such low prices in the market as to make the production practically : unremunerative, whilßt the falling 1 values throughout the world give no hopes of any improvement in the near ■ future. This has caused, amongst other things, a very serious congestion of the labor market. Nearly every district in the colony has to tell the same ' mournful tale of men oat of employment vainly seeking for work, the ' claims upon private charily daily beco.ming greater than can be borne, ' whilst the various charitable institutions are compelled to make increasing : demands upon the public purse to assist those who otherwise would suffer from the direst destitution. The Government have made and are making 1 strenuous efforts in certain directions to stem the tide of poverty and diatresp, I but it must be painfully manifest that these efforts are quite inadequate, and > unless something of a different and more lasting character is devised, a II very large number «f our fellowcountrymen will be plunged into the ' deepest distress. Under these circumstances, we aßk you to direct your attention to the development of Gold-mining. Gold is a 1 commodity that everyone wishes to buy, and which always maintains its 1 value. Every man who takes an ounce 1 of gold out of the earth produces that which stimulates every other industry. ; In all respects excepting one the goldminer is a consumer. He produces the gold, but he buys from the farmer, the miller, the manufacturer, the artisan, and the merchant. Every gold-miner j who is remuneratively employed be- , comes at once a customer, either [ directly or indirectly, of every branch l of industry and commerce. What we ; want in New Zealand is the settlement , of a large consuming populatios, and, as it is known to all, there is no , consumer more directly profitable t"> [ his fellow colonists than the gold. , miner, I The object of the League is to mdi,- , cate localities and means by which , the gold-mining population can be } enormously increased. It does not propose to confine its attention to any ' particular locality, but to assist in placing more men on every goldfield in . the colony, when it can be shown that | such goldfield can remuneratively employ them. We are convinced that the only way to lift the colony out of its present depression is to put as many , men as possible in a Tjosition to win gold, and with this object we ask all into whose hands this paper shall come to work with us in promoting that which shall, with your assistance, help to raise our country to a state of prosperity. In future papers we will place our views more explicitly before you, and will, from time to time, furnish details where united effort will effect that which is in the interests of us all. James Park, Chairman. D. J. Evans, Hon. Secretary.