AN INTERVIEW WITH THE MINISTER OF MINES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2761, 13 February 1907, Page 9

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE MINISTER OF MINES.

POSSIBILITIES OF IRRIGATION IN CENTRAL OTAGO. THB FUTURE OF MINING. Tho Hon. James M'Gowan, Minister of Mines, who arrived in Dunedin on Satui dayevening, after a week's tour of the goldfields, has favoured a Times reporter with an interview on the very important questions of the future of mining and the prospects of irrigation in Central Otago. WATER BOARDS RECOMMENDED. Asked whether there was any likelihood of the adoption in the near future of a comprehensive scheme for power and irrigation in Central Otago, and whether he thought trie Government would be. prepared to do anything in the meantime, Mr M'Gowan said: — " Irrigation is a matter that will require careful consideration. Possibly the best plan, where Government races are available, would be to form local water or irrigation boards having trustees appointed to distribute the water after obtaining it from the Government either by purchase or otherwise. Local knowledge would be essential to a fair distribution. The Government could not take the responsibility. There are districts that can profitably U6e the finer tailings water from the mining places, but it would be hopeless at present to expect the Government to bring in water for irrigation purposes when there ie not sufficient water for mining. I think it better for the settlers to work along as quietly as they can until the demand for water for mining purposes grows somewhat easier and when the surplus supply would be devoted to irrigation. Mining is the first consideration. The water races where mining is carried on will sometimes maintain a large population, in fact a town, whereas tho same water supplied to the settlers would not support nearly so many. ELECTRICAL ENERGY. With regard to the question of electrical power, such rapid strides are being made in the uses to which electrical energy can be applied that, though the people may be in a hurry, there is wisdom in acting cautiously. The method of transmission has also undergone, and is undergoing, great improvement. Every few years has seen a change, and we have not arrived at the ultimate improved position, so far as electricity is concerned, by any means." BORING FOR WELLS. Could not the settler do a good deal in the way of self-help — by constructing -wells, for instance? " In many instances it would undoubtedly (pay settlers, in addition to appealing to the Government and waiting until they are in dire need of water, to bore for wells. It would not be a costly arrangement for a settler, or for two or more settlers where the place wae suitable for joining their forces, to put down a bore. There must be in some of the gravels a considerable quantity of water, and though, owing to the looseness of the gravel, it will never come up to the surface in the way an artesian bore would do in Canterbury, if they sink down and put a pump on I have no doubt they -will do well in many places." MINING TO HAVE PRECEDENCE. " It would bo almost too much to expect prosperous mining and prosperous farming in the same district. Generally speaking, the mining land is not the land most adaptable for farming purposes. After the miner has extracted his portion of the wealth from the earth in the form of metal comes tho turn of the farmer, who, with irrigation, will realise new forms of wealth. It is unfortunate that the settlement of tho land is going ahead at a rate- that is outstripping the opportunities for irrigation. One of the first things the Go\ernraent ought to do is to endeavour to find out the number and ownership of all the old wafer rights that exiet throughout Otago. Where these righto have been diverted from the original purposes for which they were granted they should be forfeited." THE COST OF IRRIGATION. Irrigation on anything like an adequate scale would involve a very considerable outlay? " Just so. The storage of water in such dam 3as would have to be con^t rutted would frequently invoh? a greater expense than the small settler-farmer can go to, and thus could only obtain efficiency by Government outlay, to be paid back over a pencd of years." THE FUTURE OF MINING What about the futuro of tho mining industry in Central Otago? "We need not expect a groat deal from the original method of recovering (fold by the ordinary alluvial washing. The dredgo ar^as must necessarily grow !e=.=. The prospect of keeping up the output of Sold in these districts depends more on hydraulic sluicing and elevating from the deeper levels that cannot be washed out in the ordinary way. As legards quartz nulling 1 , the only thing to do is to go in for systematic protpecting. Fioni the nature of tho country, and from the information I have received, I believe that energetio prospecting would be U\Uy warranted. But the unfortunate position is that the Government is expected to do these thing?. There are fortunes to lx> | won by those who successfully open up good reefs. Of course prospecting has its many failures as well as its successes. | WHAT LOCAL BODIES CAN DO. j " 1 am the more astonished at the con stant appeals to tho Government for assistance to prospectors inasmuch a,* the law J has provided a means by which tho local body can aid in furthering the mining industry by euch moans themselves. The Mining Act of 1905 provides, intor aha, that, 'Subject to prescribed regulations, any local authority, may from time to time apply

such portions of its funds as it t.hinkte -fit in assisting the development of the mining industry in all or any of the following ways: — (a) In offering and paying rewards for the discovery of new mining fields in respect of gold, or any other metals or mineials or any precious stomps; (b) in prospecting for gold or any other metals or minerals, or any precious stones ; (c) in or towards the erection, establishment, maintenance, and* extension of schools of mines.' Then, ' with respect to every reward for the discovery of a new mining field where payable in whole or in part by the Minister or by any local authority, tho following special provisions shall apply : — (a) The reward shall in no case be payable unless the claim therefore is made within five years after the date of the discovery, nor until the genuineness of the dis-eovei-j has been tested by actual workings ; (b) the amount of the reward shall be computed on the basis of the number of miners benefited engaged in mining operations on the new field at the expiration of twelve months after the date of the discovery thereof, and the total amount of the reward shall in no case exceed £500.' Mining is a curious occupation. Intelligently pursued in a good district it is a rapid way to tho making of large sums of money, and the experience gained during the last 40 yeare in New Zealand has equipped the colony with a great number of men who are skilled both in the discovery of reefs and in the extraction of gold." GENERAL PROSPERITY. Before terminating the interview tho Minister expressed the pleasure with which on his travels through Central Otago he had noticed the abundant evidences on every hand of prosperity, and this notwithstanding the drought. He thought tho district much more prosperous than on th 9 occasion of hLs last trip through it.