The Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 851, 21 March 1868, Page 11

The Otago Witness.

DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, MARCH 21.

The Mining Conference, now being held in Dunedin, promises to be of great use in suggesting such alterations in the Mining Regulations, as the present development of Mining in Otago requires. In all Gold Mining Countries, progress is marked by three distinct stages. - The first is one of excitement, arising from the large quantities of gold picked up from the surface, almost without effort, and with the aid of the rudest appliances. At this period men of all classes are drawn together in confused masses, and individually, or in Bmall parties, prosecute their labors. The surface diggings at one spot exhausted, unincumbered with more than the smallest possible quantity of luggage and tools, 1 they quickly remove to another ;

and thus Goldfields are rapidly prospected* and digging townships spring up and disappear. It needs no argument to shew that the regulations necessary for defining the rights of such a nomadic population are of the simplest kind. Nearly all the requirements are— to define the limits of the various claims, to state the conditions on which they shall be held, and to lay down rules as to abandonment or forfeiture. These, clearly laid down, suffice for the moment

The next stage is when the advantage of extended co-operation is found advantageous. Combined labor is more effective in developing mining wealth than the desultory efforts of a few unsystematic men, many of whom are but imperfectly acquainted with the work. Larger claims, under such circumstances, are required, and property of a more enduring and improved kind is employed. Those extended areas would not have been allowed in the first instance, no matter how really advantageous to the country, as a whole, the improved system would have been found to be. But it is natural, where all meet for the first time on equal terms, without auy priority of right or property invested, that ground supposed to be rich should be divided amongst the new comers in such proportions as will give each a fair chance of making a livelihood. When they have got what they could out of it, and have left it for other districts, it must then, in its impoverished state, be again apportioned, in such quantities and under such conditions, as to afford security to the miners working it for the extra labor and capital required to make it pay. This second Btage of mining introduces more complicated relations amongst the miners, in the partnerships they form, and in the regulations as to claims. But even in the early part of this second stage, mining appliances are commonly few, and the property invested small. As the payable character of the ground develops itself, permanent arrangements are made, more perfect machinery for separating and saving gold is employed, and corresponding alterations in the mining regulations are invariably found necessary. The simple rules that proved sufficient in the first stage, are not applicable, or if applicable, require such additions as will meet the altered conditions of mining. But this stage also passes, and a third is developed, that renders a complete revision necessary.

As a matter of course the nature of the country has much to do with the rapidity through which the various stages are passed, and +he same rules ■will haidly tie found applicable to all parts of the country. In Victoria, very different regulations existed as to the extent and nature of claims on different CJoldfields. The rules applicable to Ballarat would not have been found to work at Sandhurst, while those at Sandhurst would have been inapplicable to Beechworth. Thus the principle of local self-govern-ment, as far as it cau be applied, commends itself as one of the most useful institutions on the Goldfields.

In Otago, in addition to the variety of claims, — river claims, terrace workings, quartz reefing, sluicing claims, and surfacing, — property in water races has sprung up, with all its definitions of rights and quantities, to complicate the solution of the difficulties with which it is surrounded. Perhaps no works are of more utility to the miner than the long and expensive racss, which have enabled him to work ground to a profit which would otherw'se have been idle. But to avoid disputes, or to resolve them satisfactorily, well-defined regulations are necessary, as well in relation to' those who use the water as to those who supply it. The Mining Conference has all these complicated questions to consider, to combine them with plans for the promotion of settling the people, and to suggest such alterations as experience and the growing interests of the inining population require. It would be premature to comment upon labors as yet uncompleted. The Conference has arduous duties delegated to it, and on the manner in which they are fulfilled depends, in a great degree, the satisfactory development of mining in tho future.