Mining.

Otago Witness, Issue 1383, 1 June 1878, Page 4

Mining.

THE FUTURE OF GOLD MINING IN OTAGO. TO THE BPITOB. Sir. — I have read with great interest the papers and letters on "The Future of Gold Mining in Otago." They are all good as far as they go, but in my opinion we might venture a little further. I think the anticipations of your Upper Waipori correspondent are not likely to be realised yet for a while. With few exceptions our quartz reefs are poor, but there are extensive drift beds which will have to lie idle for some time yet, before our legislators will be able to see th ir way clear to make more liberal mining laws. The writer of the first paper on this very important matter lays considerable blame on the traders or storekeepers for charging out of proportion for their goods, thereby impoverishing, the miners to such an extent that they have no means to undertake new enterprises — they "kill the hen that lays the golden eggs," as it were. I do not see how this is to be obviated. A business man would say it was " all fair trading, that it had always been so, and in his opinion always would be so." One way out of this difficulty would be cooperation. There is no doubt about cooperative stores being a great boon to the operative class, when properly conducted; and if the miners could be induced to settle in something like a permanent manner, I do not 836 why co-operative institutions should not prosper here as well aa in older countries. But the great difficulty lies in [getting the miners to settle down and follow their occupation with the same amount of industry that the artisans or agriculturists do. In my opinion, the reason that the miners do not settle down is because they have no inducements to do so. The law relating to gold mining is too illiberal, and the miners to a great extent have themselves to blame for it. Anything in the shape of extended privileges that have been introduced by the Government have invariably been received in an unfavourable manner by a large section of those on the goldfields. The business men are not clear of blame in this matter, they have favoured a system of crowding together on small areas or claims, thinking of immediate gain from a large (but unremunerated) population. Far better would it have been for them to have assisted men of progress and stability in procuring for the miners sufficient areas of ground to induce them' to make permanent homes. Some might say that 10 acres is sufficient for any man or party of men to hold. My answer is, that the 10- acre pystem has not induced the miner to settle permanently. Every year shows a diminution of the mining population, and consequently a decrease in the gold returns. This is not on account of scarcity of ground ; there are immense areas of alluvial ground, that will yield steady returns if the innumerable streams that are running to waste were brought on them ; and our quartz lodes, though poor, can be made to pay by the cheap motive power that can be procured in the shape of water-power. There is a peculiarity about our quartz reefs that makes it necessary that far larger areaß should be granted: that is, the large blocks of poor mullock that intersect the blocks of payable stone. Great objections will be offered by the " dog in the manger" section of the miners against anything in the shape of larger areas. They will raise their usual cry of Monopoly. I have no doubt, but that the same difficulties had to be overcome in California, before they could pass laws giving inducement to capital and labour to utilise the locked up immense drift leads by the sluicing process. Whole districts, rich in gold, were deserted for ten or fifteen years — not a miner in them the latter part of the time — that are now under the extended area system, paying handsome returns, and will do so for an indefinite number of years by the sluicing process, as by that process few men are wanted, and ground will pay that could not be looked at, as it were, by any other method of working. If our goldfield laws were counterparts of those in vogue in California, instead of those of Australia, a place that we have so little in common with in the mining line, the mining industry in this country would be in a far more flourishing condition than it now is. ' In California a man, or party of men, can hold up to 300 acres ; the area, I believe, is ruled by actual outlay of labour and capital expended or estimated to be expended. Any man, or party of men, holding such claims, must spend a certain ' amount in either labour or capital every year (nominal, I believe) on such claims. Tf it is not so expended, the claim becomes forfeited, and that, too, without the ! chance of expensive lawsuits that we are liable to in this country if any other party wishes to try the ground. In this country, if you lay out nothing, comparatively speaking, yotx can hold ten acres, and if you worked for three or four years at some water race, sledge channel, rock tunnel, or tailrace, or laid out £10,000 on any of the above undertakings, you could only hold ten acres. In this country, you are bound to employ a certain number of men, no matter whether you can do so or not. This part of the law I look upon as very injurious to the mining industry, and if it had been carried out in its integrity, a great many leases that are now at work and paying very well would have to be abandoned, or allowed to pasa into the hands of others, who would, to make them pay, have to adopt the same system as the original holders or the party they took it from, and as a consequence they

would be liable to lose their jumped or j acquired claims or leases the same way. 1 My 20 years' experience in mining, shows me that there is no occasion to interfere in any way with the lease or claim-holders respecting the number of men they should employ ; miners have rather a weakness for employing men than otherwise in their claims ; and I have no hesitation in saying that ninety-nine out of every hundred claims would be worked to the greatest advantage so far as the number of men employed goes. Few men are wanted in running sluices, and by that process ground can be made remunerative that would not pay for the truck or wheelbarrow grease by the driving or stripping method. It therefore, in my opinion, amounts to thia— that for the welfare of all who reap any benefit from the gold-fields, that the part of the lease that states so many men must be employed should not be enforced., Hitherto it has not, but it always hangs over the heads of those who are not employing the prescribed number of men, 1 although at the same time working their' ground to the best advantage. Some' might say that the water-right owners should not take up such large areas — that they should be satisfied with two or four acres. Any one holding such opinions, I would ask to take a wider view of the matter. Let them consider that if they had the means to fetch in or construct a £1000 water-race, would they do so for two or four acres ? would they construct a long tail-race, sludge channel, or a thousand feet of rook tunnel (the same as is required in many places in the Wakatip district) for two or, four acres 1 I think the answer would be' in the negative. I think I might go' further, and say that for the future, very few undertakings of any magnitude will, be gone into for ten acres at £1 per acre. f With your leave, I will consider the subject further in a future communica-I tion. — I am, &c, MoShane. Lake Wakatip, May Bth, 1878.