Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. TUESDAY, APRIL, 27, 1909 THE QUESTION OF TAILINGS

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4403, 27 April 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

TUESDAY, APRIL, 27, 1909 THE QUESTION OF TAILINGS

This above all—to thine own self be true, And \t must follow as the night the day Thou const not then be false to any man Shakespeare,

The problem as to how the tailings of the mining companies at present in possession of the sludge channel privileges are going to be disposed of, is one which is likely to be to the fore for some little time to come That the agriculturalists affected should be at once secured against an extension of the privileges to fresh companies, as wo pointed out in a recent article, surely requires no emphasising, though it is one of the points emphasised by the River Silting Committee, in its wise and able manifesto. And in the meantime the Committee, who recognise the reriousness of the question involved, and admit the difficulty attending its solution are making careful investigations inlo the actual and alleged cost of removing the tailings from the batteries instead of depositing them in the river ; also, they are collecting statistics regarding the interests involved, and gathering information which may throw light upon the question-

One strong point made by the Committee is that agriculture is, in its very nature, a permanent industry, one which is of enduring benefit to the community, that the farmer reaps that he may sow again, derives wealth from his land in order that he may reenrich the soil for the raising of the next harvest; and that he is in himself a permanent upholder of the general prosperity of the nation, in having secured for himself a “ local habitation ” and deriving }iis wealth from sources which aye practically inexhaustible Whereas mining is an industry supporting an evanescent and gregarious population, creative of centres which disappear when the gold i$ exhausted, the miners themselves often engaging in their hazardous work with the object of saving up and abandoning it for agriculture, while the profits from mining are extensively drawn by the shareholders resident in other lands, and hence doing nothing to mafce any adequate return to the Pominion for their gains. W® are in agreement with the vievy that the- difficulty regarding the removal qf thp tailings is not likely to prove an insuperable one This is an age when material difficulty gives place (to scientific determination, and, as we pointed opt ip a former article on this subject, the wealthy companies are more likely to be able to obviate the difficulty than are the farmers to remove it. The question raised, boweyer, as to whether a huge deposit of tailings upon dry land will not create a gppqt nuisance, in the form of atmospheric plouding with noxious dust is, we think, opp which may open up another difficulty, aJso the question as to the washing a,own. agpip in rainy seasons of the failings so deposited, into the river. This question as to the creation of a fresh nuisance appears to U 3 the only really grave aspect of the problem, and our readers will look with interest for the next manifesto of the Committee ; hoping for! information op a point so im-1 portant. It must ever be b°rne in mind that in granting the qse of a public utility the government has no power to grant to any one body such a privilege as virtually to grant the right of partially consuming that utility. If a certain use of a waterway means that that waterway is gradually diminished in its utility for 1 lie general public, then the G vernment is j bound to reconsider the granting of the privilege tq mafte supfj a uee of it. But, if, as the mining authorities assert, the present method of treating ore resulted in its being reduced to so fine a powder as that it would not settle in the rivers, the whole trouble would be at an end. This, however, appears an assertion which would require very conclusive proof. I?o doubt the River Silting

Committee will make it their business to deal especially with the possibility or otherwise of satisfactorily proving this statement. In any case, our whole prosperity as a Dominion is so bound up with our agriculture, and agriculture as an industry is now in itself, admittedly, of such collosal importance, that though we should be very sorry to see its interests come into serious collision with those of any other industry, yet at the same time we could not in fairness approve of its being penalised by having to submit to the destruction of its lands and waterways in the interests of a neighbour industry.