THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2129, 30 October 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1875.

The Trustees of the Waiotahi Highway District are determined that no effor-t stall be wanting on their part to secure the carrying out of what has been with them a pet project, namely the construction of a road through their district to the outer belt of the goldfield. In advocating this work successive boards have brought to bear upon it a concentrated energy worthy of imitation by other local bodies. Their importunity is really deserving of success; the pertinacity with which they have urged the construction of this piece of road upon the powers that be shows they (the Trustees) are at all events sincere in the conviction that it is invested with the importance they assign to it; and if the money could be had for asking, without injustice to other localities and'public necessities, we should rejoice to see their persistent efforts crowned with success. It is not often we see such a delightful unanimity amongst the members of any public body as that which characterises the utterances of the Waiotahi Board on this question;. for if tbeir existence as a local governing berly dependrd upon the carrying out of this -chetne of theirs, they could not b:- more in ac or. 'the Trustees have now commenced what is <*vid ntly interned to b« « strong siege upon the authorities for the means to carry out the selieme of noldfields roads extension, to which they have no doubt been stimulated by ex- rtions made to obtain money for pxpnirlitun- in another direction. A ifi'trt'sy report has been prepared by the Work.* (.omniittpp of the Koad Board and approved by the latter as a wi<ole. TKis report sets for I.h that in the Waiotahi district there are many mines on which repfs nave been found of equal value with those worked so profitably in the Queen of Beauty, City of London and Bright Smile claims; but which reefs have been abandoned owing to the want of facilities for getting the quartz to the crushing mills. This portion of the report is mere assertion; it is aot borne out by facts or by experience ; and unless something more tangible- can be shown than the figures advanced in the report, we very much question if they will carry the conviction to the minds of the Gorernment which the Waiotahi Trustees evidently wish to convey. Next we find a wholesale . condemnation of the tramway system as- being totally inadequate to, and unsuited for the requirements of this field. Judging by experience, we are inclined to agree with the Waiotahi people. Tramways on the Thames have been found to be an expensive luxury. Constructed at great cost, they answered the purpose for a short, time while the mines were producing rich quartz from surface workings; but when these rich leaders were worked out, and quartz had to be won by systematic mining-quartz of a poor quality only being obtainable the expenses of working and conveyance to the mills were proved to absorb the greater>art of the returns, leaving no margin for profit. The remedy suggested for this stato of things by tbe Waiotahi Board's report is good r»ads, so a3 to excite competition amongst the carters. If the report had shown some reliable data as to the. mines -in which these reefs equalling in richness tho3o of the Queen of Beauty and City of London, and of the samo size exist, a very much better case would have been made out. But.this seems to have been regarded as unnecessary; perhaps it is to bo taken for granted. The. state of mining in Caiif'.rnia is instanced to show that the haulage of quartz over priiuiUve roads is made re.

munerative. Not having at command any figures relating to quartz mining in that State we are unable to say whether the report is correct or otherwise; but from our reading on the subject wo are inclined to think that there ia little analogy between mining on the Thames and in the State of California. The: Waiotahi Board's report does not ignore figures altogether; that would have been an unpardonable error. But what are the figures, and how far can they be accepted as proof of the wisdom of tho step so warmly advocated by the Waiotahi Board ? They state that " the quantity of ore crushed and of gold obtained from mines within the water shed of the Waiotaki Creek, above the boundary line of the Borough of Thames, • and from mines on the line of Dixon's reef, in the immediate.vicinity of Punga Flat, during the years 1871, 1872, 1873 and 1874" wero as follows :—ore, 45,654 tons 13 cwt 36 lbs; gold obtained, 71,388 ounces 2 dwts 23 grains. These figures we do not dispute, but when the compilers of these data were about it why did they not go a little further and give us the names of the claims and their respective yield*. The work would have been much wore i complete, and the value of the figures incalculably greater. As to the proportion of gold from tailing* to be credited to fie Waiotahi Creek from the apocryphal 1000 ounces per month set down to this source, we opine that that would be about as important an item in the report as the 100 D ounces is reliable, which is not saying much. Estimates of this kird depend so much on the imagination of tho compiler that they are valueless when produced to support assertions. The report is backed up with sundry certificates from miners at present working claims in the Waiotahi. These certificates have a sameness about them which is significant of a great waste of t;me and labor in penning and printing them. They represent twenty-six miners supposed to be working the highly auriferous Waiotahi District. It is fair to assume that if so much valuable ground has been abandoned for lack of remuneration, those portions which the twenty-six miners are working are the pick of the whole; for no miner would voluntarily occupy the least attractive ground. This is a very weak point in the report, despite its elaborateness and atten ion to detail in other respects. We are forced to the conclusion, therefore, that this report of the Waiotahi Works Committee partakes too much of the character of a special plea to be accepted without some measure of distrust. We have no objection to offer to the Waiotahi Board obtaining its fair share of goldfields revenue to expend in its own district and we do not say that such money, if obtained, would be injudiciously spent; but, until a better case is made out than that set forth in the report, we cannot see that the Government would be justified in authorising any extra votes for the purpose so plausibly advocated. Roads are badly wanted in all directions, and if other local bodies worked with half the zeal displayed by the Waiotahi Board, much stronger reasons could be shown for undertaking large works. While we would rejoice to see a respectable sum of money voted for making goldfields roads, we should not like to know that one portion of the field was pushed ahead to the prejudice of less favored districts, or districts the representatives of which are less pertinacious in their demands. We would advise the Waiotahi Board to moderate their request, and. in dealing with matters of such general concern, eschew some port'on of their local feeling in order to obtain justier* for the district as a whole. If the goldfield is to advance it will be by a united effort, and not by one particular locality enforcing its demands to the exclusion of other interests of perhaps greater moment. When it is proved that a main road to the back country from the flat is a necessity, a united effort may secure its construction ; but till then the attempt to obtain such a rocd, especially to benefit one locality, will be viewed with suspicion and distrust.