THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam out Faciam." DUNEDIN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 1152, 30 August 1865, Page 4

THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam out Faciam." DUNEDIN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30.

The West Coast gold fields appear likely to attract considerable attention during the spring, notwithstanding the difficulties of access to them and the discomforts that are inevitable in a country, the natural features of which are wild and inhospitable. Already, numbers of miners from Australia have arrived, determined to try their fortunes there, and the accounts from the various gold fields of Otago indicate a desire on the part of many of the popula-

lation to migrate thither also. It i 3 one of the consequences of Provincial Government that the transfer of population from one portion of the Colony to another, cannot be made without affecting the Provincial Revenues; but yet, the development of the gold fields of West Canterbury must be looked upon as a Colonial gain. New ports have been opened; new townships have been established ; new centres of industry have been formed; the country is undergoing a more thorough explo ration —treasures have been brought to light that might otherwise have remained hidden ; and population has been attracted from other shores. It is far from improbable, too, that the mercantile relations of Dunedin may be extended with the newly opened district, to such an extent that ultimately the City may be a gainer rather than a loser, by its having been settled. Regarding then the rush to the West Coast from a Colonial rather than a Provincial point of view, there can be no question that the discovery is of the highest

importance. It has proved that the Middle Island is capable of sustaining a large population. The fame of its wealth will spread in proportion to the numbers who succeed in realising fortunes, and immigrants will be drawn to the Colony who might otherwise have peopled other lands. While acknowledging, therefore, to the full all the preseDt and prospective benefits, derivable from the opening up of these new Gold Fields, the surprise is not lessened that so many miners can be found ready to leave the rich and settled auriferous districls of Otago. Were they exhausted—bad they been worked for many years and ceased to yield a fair return for the labor employed—were they of such limited extent as to lead to the belief that they were unable to sustain the numbers laboring upon them —was it a mere pittance that was earned by the man without capital, and waa employment so precarious that wages were reduced so low as to afford a bare subsistence to the laborer—:tbc rush to the Canterbury gold fields could easily be understood. But not one of these suppositions is the case. So far from being exhausted, the accounts tiiat come in from every quarter tell of fresh disoveries. Not only are there alluvial diggings of.immense area untouched, but deep leads and quartz reefs have been added to the forms under which gold deposits have been found. Under all the known circumstances in which gold is obtainable, it may be found in Otago. In some places the spade and the longtom alone are requisite, washdirt being procured near the surface, one or two feet thick. An instance of this description was given in a correspondent's ktter on Tuesday, in which he states that a population of about five hundred at Macrae's Flat are obtaining from 500 to 800 ounces of gold per week. In other places immense works have been constructed for the purpose of facilitating sluicing operations. The courses of streams have been diverfed—dams have been constructed— breakwaters have been formed ; and months of labor have been bestowed on merely preparatory works. Yet the results prove the projectors to be justified in their outlay. Gold is obtained in sufficient quantities to reimburse them, and to give them handsome wages in addition. And wherever capital has been invested in machinery, the new appliances when skilfully constructed, and efficiently worked, are found to pay. To say that there have been no failures, would be absurd, but it may, with perfect truth, be affirmed that in no gold region yet discovered have fewer claims proved unproductive, in which capital has been sunk, than in Otago.

There is also another advantage connected with mining in Otago, which must, to a certain extent, be absent in new gold fields. It is one of the characteristics of new rushes, that although men may work in parties, each labors for himself as a digger—that is, no man, as a rule, works for hire. It is only when large claims are granted, and capital becomes invested in plant and machinery, that men are employed at wages, and although there may be a consciousness of independence when a man works for himself, such a social phase is not without its inconveniences. If he fails in his efforts to discover gold, as must necessarily prove the case with many, he has nothing to fall back upon. He may endeavour to become one of a new working party, but the poorest miner must furnish his own outfit, and be able to sustain himself until gold is found, or niuchOjjpisery must result. Many who found theftr way to the West Coast on its first discovery, had to endure privations of which they think and speak with horror. The pictures drawn by correspondents represented hundreds of disappointed miners utterly unable to find work, and reduced to extreme destitution. The progress of discovery, and the increased demand for labor consequent upon townships being formed and the improvements iv course of being made have absorbed those idlers against their will. But in Ota};o labor is absolutely scarce and wa^es are high on the Gold Fields. Should any man be unlucky as a miner he is not likely to be reduced to want, for there are numbers of parties working extended claims who will be glad of his aid. In order to render the reports from the Gold Fields as widely useful as possible, for some time back the Gold Fields department has required the Wardens to give returns of the current rate of wages and the demand for labor in their various districts, and these afford ample proof of the paying character of the Gold Fields of the Province. From seven out of nine districts the reports last received proved that the lowest rate of woges paid for mining was equal to about an ounce of gold per man per week—and that the highest was considerably more—the lowest rate quoted being L 3 10s or 12s, and the highest £5 per week. It is impossible to have better evidence of the value of auriferous workings than this. Humor may multiply results and magnify the reputed richness of a gold field, bnt no mining party would pay wages without anticipating a profit upon the labor employed, and that claim must be a good one that will afford to pay for hired labor, at the rate of an ounce of gold per man per week.

But there is another weighty consideration not yet alluded to, and that is the price of necessaries. This is a very important element in a calculation of the comparative advantages of different fields of labor. There needs no argument to prove that in consequence of the difficulty

|of access to the West Coast, and its complete dependency upon other places for supplies, provisions and articles of clothing must be dear, compared with the prices at which they are to be obtained in the more accessible districts in Otago. This difference, therefore, will have to be deducted from any additional wages a man might obtain ; and from the quantity of gold exported, compared with the estimated population, there seems no reason to suppose a miner would be better off on the West Coast, apart from its inevitable discomfort, than on the gold fields of this Province. While rejoicing, therefore, at the opening up of wealthy districts in the Middle Island, on account of tlie benefit that must iiecesEarily accrue to the Colony—with the evidence on* all hands of the undiminished richness of the gold fields of Otago, and the scarcity of labor upon them—we cannot avoid the conclusion that an equally profitable field for enterprise is to be found in this Province as on the Canterbury gold fields.