The Ohinemuri Gazette. AND UPPER THAMES WARDEN SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1899. PROSPECTING.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume VIII, Issue 586, 15 April 1899, Page 2

The Ohinemuri Gazette. AND UPPER THAMES WARDEN

SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1899. PROSPECTING.

I witt a round unvarmsA'd tale deliver. —Othello. Act 1. Scene 3.

It is almost in a mood of despair that we write of the apathy of Paeroa. In very few matters is there union, and the endeavours of one or two of one coterie, to bring forth some benefit, are invariably mot by counter endeavours of another coterie to burst it up. Meetings are continually being called by well-meaning people to advocate and agitate for various matters that might benefit the district, but in nearly all caaes somebody who doesn't like somebody elses hints and noJs and becks that sometlung is wrong or is going to be wrong. The Jockey Club, the A. and H. Society (both, by the way, despite calumny, successes), the Dairy Factory movement, the Public Battery movement, the Fire Brigade, Churches, Lodges, the Public Reading Room, the Drainage Scheme, |iave each iiad and have their detractors and snoerors.

And so it is with fear and trembling jvwe mention tho idea of a Paeroa Prospecting Association. In mere name guch on association really exists to-day, ■jjut it is virtually dead. It was born j^out nine years ago, and the provi-gj-ms of the regulations under the j^ning'Aet in regard to Government to Prospecting were duly adopted. jn a town like this it seems absurd t j X£ »t little or no interest is taken in \pocting the surrounding country. aye *n *ne very centre of the y £est goldfield iv the colony. Stick {.jj^point of a compass in the spot jj^^ed Paeroa on the map of the "peninsula—extend it to Waihi and describe a circle, and therein you hare the field which is producing over a half-million sovereigns' per annum! Yet with our disunion, our apathy, and our general cussedness, Paeroa is doing nothing to further its own interests.

Weil, yes, there ie a little leaven among us yet, that may perchance leaven the -whole lump. There is a sort of a ground swell among a few to reorganise the old Prospecting Association, and with Government and County assistance to endeavour to compel the neighbouring hills to unveil tho riches that, like the charms of sorno eastern beauty, they now so grudgingly cover. We hope, shortly, to hear of a preliminary meeting to this end, which will be duly reported. In the meantime 1 let our readers think hard of the tremendous importance attachable to the local advance of the industry by which we live.