SILVER MINES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1691, 28 January 1888, Page 2

SILVER MINES.

The Australian colonies have evidently passed the golden age, aud entered upon the silver one. Hitherto silver was too contemptible to trouble about, but when the gold has been pretty well worked out they are ready to turn to work the silver. The boom which has just taken place in silver mines is most remarkable, inasmuch as that it does not appear to be confined to one coloay. Our own Mount Eangitoto seems to hold out some hopes of good results, as if in sympathy with the Broken Hill mines. We are, however, afraid that the Eangitoto boom will not come to anything great, and the chief interest even of New Zealand will centre for a time in the brightening mineral prospects of the other colonies. There can be no doubt but that the success of the mines in the other colonies would do us more good in this colony than many dream of. These mines would employ a large number of jien, who would have to be fed and clothed; the population of the other colonies would increase, and the demand for the necessaries of life would increase also. We are at present supplying many of the wants of the other colonies, and under the altered circumstances referred to they would want a good deal more. This they would natually get from us, and thus we would share in their prosperity. Let us therefore hope that these mines will prove as rich in silver as other mines have proved rich in gold in former years, for their success i« one of the things to which we have to look for the removal of the depression.