THE NELSON EXAMINER. Saturday, September 7, 1861.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XX, 7 September 1861, Page 2

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Saturday, September 7, 1861.

JoutDali become more necetsarjr at men become more equal and individualism more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to tuppoie that they lerre only to tecure liberty: tney maintain civilization.

Da TocaoaviLLC. Of Democracy in America, toI. t., 330.

The intelligence which reaches us from various quarters is of a nature to remove all doubt respecting the existence of gold in large quantities and over a very considerable area of this, the middle island of New Zealand. In spite of a very common opinion to the contrary, gold is found more generally diffused over the surface of the globe than almost any other of the metals ; although rarely to be recognized without the aid of chemical analysis, and still more rarely in such quantities as to repay the labour of procuring it. In many countries men* were always to be found who spent their lives in searching after it ; who, allured by the hope of becoming suddenly rich by some lucky discovery, left all other occupations, and brooded over the possibility of thus acquiring immense wealth, until in some cases the mind gave way, and in many others became so perverted, and the character so reckless and altogether changed, that the employment was looked upon as degrading ; and as rendering the individnal who followed it peculiarly liable to become subject to diabolic influences. It is only within the last quarter of a century that it has been discovered to be so widely diffused as almost to become identified with certain geological formations, and the laws which regulate its deposit sufficiently known to redeem it from the odium which formerly attached to the search: after this " root of all evil." It has now become one of the recognized branches of human industry ; and we believe is destined to work changes in the world as great as those which followed upon the discovery of America ; and the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru. We see many indications of this belief in the writings of those who are by their previous studies best qualified to form an opinion; and some symptoms also of the changes which they foretold would follow. Our present business, however, is not with the effects likely to be produced upon society in general, but with the consequences which must follow in those communities where gold is discovered in quantities sufficient to make it an important branch of industry, and with the measures which should be taken to avoid the evils which it sometimes occasions, and to obtain the greatest amount of benefit from its possession. Among these communities we must now be reckoned. Instead of being confined to a single spot, as was at first imagined, we are now continually bearing of gold in fresh localities, and what was the scientific deduction of the Geologist is fast becoming an ascertained fact. A few weeks ago a rich gold-field was discovered at Otago in the same range of mountains as that which has given its new name to Golden 13ay, although 300 miles distant ; a similar discovery had previously been made at Wangapeka, about sixty miles from the Collingwood gold-field ; and now a district which appears to be of even a richer description is taking off numbers of our population to a point on the West Coast lying on the opposite side of the range, not much more than fifteen miles in a direct line from, the Wangapeka; although no practicable route has been as yet discovered between them.

In a country of a more accessible nature, and more conveniently situated a» respects

those great human hives of population which send out their swarming multitudes year after year to people the waste places of the earth, we should have already experienced effects tenfold greater than any we have yet seen here ; and we feel a strong conviction that such results are still to be looked for, however they may be retarded either by the circumstances of our insulated position, or the mistakes of our internal policy. The scenes of lawless violence, and the social disorganization which followed the discovery of gold in California, and the murderous- outrages which even now prevail in Australia among men of our own blood and lineage disgracing themselves and their country by conduct infinitely worse than that which gave us a pretext for introducing European civilization and morality into China by means of bayonets and Armstrong" guns are not likely to be paralleled here in New Zealand. The nature of the country and the character of the gold deposit, so far as is known at present, alike forbid the fear. The first hinders the congregating together of large masses ; the second, from the equable manner in which the precious metal is distributed, whilst it gives larger average returns than elsewhere, also divides the produce more fairly among the workers, and thus deprives the occupation of its most objectionable tendency ; the tendency to foster the spirit of gambling, where success depends neither on industry nor skill, but upon chance.

We return to this subject because our present Auckland Ministers, true to their separatist and ultra-provincial tendencies, and in defiance of that will of the majority which, they on other occasions uphold and defer to, except when it touches their own interests, have re-transferred the management | of the gold-fields to our local Government. A large proportion of the actual residents in the Aorere, whose interests were chiefly concerned, opposed the transfer, and no voice was raised in its favour ; but these circumstances were not allowed to stand in its way. Seeing, then, that the management of these matters has again been placed in the hands which formerly held it, let us hope that no local antipathies or personal dislikes will be suffered to obscure their judgments or influence their actions. Let us, as the merchants say, close the old account, and open a new page in the ledger ; and ask how that mineral wealth which 'Nelson, beyond all other provinces of New Zealand, appears to possess within her limits, may be made best to increase her population and her wealth, and prevent her from losing her present position and falling hopelessly in the rear, distanced by those sister communities which have already passed or are fast approaching her in the race of improvement and material prosperity.