Golden Prospects. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Volume 01, Issue 2123, 1 November 1894, Page 11

Golden Prospects. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — Failing eettlemeDt of tha land to relieve the coogested fctate of the cities and make lighter the burdens of the unemployed, is there no other direction towards which we may turn for relief ? I think I am able to answer th ! s, in part at anyrate, in one word— tbe f.oldfields. Orer the Ofago goldfields at ai yrate there are many places where the men who are now half their time out of work might cai-.ke, if nob a comfortable living, at least snfficieut to exisb upoa "fossicking," as the gold diggers term it. Fossicking ought to be resorted to duriug the summer months, atd I believe it, would pay the Government to employ a few experienced miners to prospect the goldflelds wita the view to finding alluvial patches over which the fossicker might eke out a hunible living. With a garden patch, a common for his cow, and a small miniDg claim, the fossicker would be infinitely happier than idling about street corners while his children were miserable and hungry in a dirty hovel. There are many place?, abandoned years ago, after tttkipg the rough of tbe gold, which would yet yield enough gold to keep many families in comfort. Fossicking requires no great amount of training, and the m»n who might be a hopeless failure as a village settler could, in some cases at lea3t, earn a living on the goldßelds. If a systematic prospect were made, and groups of diggers placed on the patches proved to be payable, under the guidance and direction of an experienced. mine.r, iqa^ewjjlaysLtim.etliey would,

learn tbe mysteries of gold-saving. That the "HeatheuOh>nee"*houh!be»llowed a monopoly of the abandoned gold workings is a travesty on the European, who could, in many places, make at least a living. A few of the most likely plact s should be set apart first, and some of the mesfc suitable men f ent out equipped wirh tenta at'd tools, to be piid for out of the gold saved. 1 f e« 1 confident that such an experimeut, carefully cirried out, would lead to a large number of families eventually settling on the goldfields. The experiment could be best carried cut in summtr time, as then the families could live in tents, and if they were succfss'ul, they could build more comfortable abodes before the winter sefcjn. The success of similar experiments in Victoria point s to the probability of equal success in this colony if the proper means are taken to give a fair chance of success. — I am, &c, F.J.