The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1901.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 11620, 2 December 1901, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1901.

Last session Parliament voted £2OOO towards! the cost of extending the GreymouthHokitika Railway southward to the township of Ross. Ross is simply a goldmining centre, and the industry, which at one time was in a very flourishing condition, has of late years grown fine by degrees and beautifully less. It may be that a revival will take place, for the whole of the country from. Hokitika right down to the Otago boundary, and even further south, is auriferous, in the sense that gold is contained in all the alluvial deposits, though generally in such minute quantities as not to be worth the attention of the miner. Here and there rich patches have been discovered, sometimes in the beach sands, and sometimes in the terraces and ranges which approach the sea pretty closely. Some years ago stream tin in very small quantities was discovered in more than one of the southern rivers, and silver, also in unremunerative quantities, has been extracted from lodes at Mount Rangitoto. ■ More than twenty years ago the locality was rushed by speculators who took up leases and exploited l silver companies, which, however, came to grief. So far as we are aware, Mount Rangitoto

is entirely deserted at the present day, and there seems to be no hope-of a revival. In other parts of the West Coast, south of Boss, various mineral discoveries have been made from time to time. At one point there is lithographic stone, which many years ago was prospected with some success. Slabs Of commercial value, though not of the finest quality, were obtained by the then Provincial Government, and were used effectively in the Land Office at Hokitika. Of late years nothing has been done to develop the industry, but we are very far' from pronouncing the stone to be practically valueless. We believe that there is plenty of it at the point of discovery, and we do not think that the State would be extravagant if it spent some money in opening ug the seams and testing the value of the stone in comparison with that obtained in other parts of the world. The quarries of Solenhofen in Bavaria furnish the best stones, but others of inferior quality are obtained in France and Italy. Speaking generally, lithographic stone may be said to be comparatively scarce, and the opening of quarries on the West Coast of this island would result in the establishment of a paying industry, provided the material were of excellent quality and in sufficient quantity. The matter cannot be tested except by considerable excavations, which would penetrate through the oxitside and " weathered,"or partially disintegrated portions of the stone: Other: possibly remunerative industries on the West Coast are the mining of copper and the quarrying of marble. Both have been found far to the southward, and the supplies of marble would be inexhaustible. In one i locality the marble cliffs stand up to an enormous height in close proximity to the sea. The question of quality is still undecided, because, as in the case of the lithographic stone, no proper tests have been applied. The outside of the marble is more or less disintegrated by the action of the atmosphere through countless ages, and it is said that the deterioration may penetrate to a considerable depth. Yet, about twenty years ago blocks of the West Coast marble were carried to Wellington, and some of the stone was dressed and polished. A few articles made from the marble were exhibited in .the lobby of the House of Representatives either in 1882 or 1883, and attracted a good deal of attention. v There was a large medallion of Queen Victoria (if we remember rightly) that was capitally executed, the texture of the stone having apparently lent itself admirably to the work. There were no flaws observable, and the marble had taken a high polish. The value of marble increases •enormously in proportion to the size of the flawless blocks obtainable. How the West Coast marble would stand that test is, of course, more than we can say. Lastly, in summing up the industrial possibilities of the West Coast south of Hokitika,, we must not forget to mention the land, both agricultural and pastoral. Most of it is utterly valueless for agricultural purposes, and the climate is too moist for such crops as grow in Canterbury. There are here and there a few struggling settlers, but they spend their -lives in struggling, and the conflict generally goes against them. The area under crop in Westland, but especially Westland south of the Hokitika, is infinitesimally small, and is likely to continue so. There are some cattle, on the southern river beds, where they thrive on tussock grass and certain native shrubs which have excellent fattening qualities. The beef raised under those conditions, including the absence of disturbance which generally prevails, is frequently above the usual standard in other parts of the colony, but the market is confined to the small mining population, and access to the centres, such as they are, are difficult.. We have given the southern part of Westland a character quite as good as it.deserves. Some ing, the sad remnant of a glorious past, is still carried on. The country is chiefly one of hope, which has now been deferred long enough to make the heart of all but a born west coaster sick. It. is into this land of hope deferred that the Premier has induced Parliament to take a railway for twenty miles or -more, according to the route to be adopted. If the line runs inland it will be an enormously expensive j one, and will, if we know anything of the subject, open up no country available for profitab!e settlement. If. the coast route is chosen, as it probably will be, the cost of construction will be much less, but the prospects will be little or no better. We say without the smallest hesita- , tion, and with a fair knowledge of the subject, that there is nothing in the pre- • sent conditions under which southern t Westland exists to warrant the Government in spen'ding a farthing on the construction of a railway from Hokitika to Boss, including,, as the work must do, the erection of a bridge over one of the widest and wildest of the flood rivers of New Zealand. The railway will be a huge job, perpetrated for the purpose of giving the Premier a stronger hold upon the Westland constituency. That is the ba;e truth, and everybody who knows the country and what it produces, knows that our statement is strictly in accordance with, fact. It must be also that the railway from Hokitika to Boss will not tap those possible future sources of profit to which we have referred. There are no copper, tin, silver, lithographic stone, or marble, along those twenty miles of dreary wilderness, and the land is for the most part worthless. Even the Premier, in his anxiety to make himself safe in Westland, would not be mad enough to propose to take the railway further south than Boss. It will be time enough to talk about it when the industries which we have mentioned show signs of life, and population of a permanent character begins > to press into southern Westland. |