A MINING COMEDY.

Observer, Volume XXVII, Issue 34, 11 May 1907, Page 2

A MINING COMEDY.

£10,000 Subsidy Going Begging.

THE destiny of the Thames goldfields, that cemetery of blighted

hopes and unreproductive calls, has been settled. The deeper levels are to be explored. The Hon. James McGowan, Minister for Mines, has spoken. And, having spoken, he has submitted such a generous offer in the way of subsidy on such surprisingly moderate conditions that the only wonder is that the Thames people and all the other avaricious speculators in the colony are not tumbling over ea^h other in their eagernesß to take advantage of it Of course, they may be shy and modest, after the manner of mining speculators all the world over* and do not wish to be considered greedy. If that is so, it probably explains why they have not rushed the Hon. James McGowan's offer.

Before the Hon. James opened his month and propounded his generous offer of Government aid, the proposal was to sink the Queen of Beauty shaft a further distance ot 300 feet. This was as much in the way of mining enterprise as the May Queen shareholders, who own the site of the shaft, felt equal to undertaking. But the scheme fell far short of the Hon. James McGowan's expectations. In his opinion, no scheme of deep level exploration was worthy of the name that did not provide for a shaft 2000 feet deep. The money at his disposal for this purpose had been set apart by the Government on the understanding that assistance to deep sinking meant sinking to that depth, and he did not feel justified in promising the assistance asked for without .reference to the Government.

Naturally, the general public, or that portion of them who are not raining speculators, will say that the Hon. James McGowan was quite right. Of course he was. What is the use of talking about deep levels prospecting unless the mining speculators sink that shaft to where the deep levels really are. As for the cost, it is a mere bagatelle. Competent engineers reckon that it would cost only £100 a foot to continue the sinking of the shaft. The Hon. James McGowan asks for a further depth of 1,300 feety as a condition to the Government subsidy, which would mean the expenditure of only £130,000. Bah ! It is nothing. Messrs Frank Whittaker and Joshua Jackson could collect it on the Auckland Stock Exchange in the course of a wet afternoon, while Pollen-street, on the Thames, would put up the amount three times over, if it were asked.

Then look at what the Government, are prepared to do by way of subsidy. Their generosity is enough to conjure millions out of the pockets of the mining speculators — if the millions are there. If the mining speculators, as the Hon. James McGowan chooses to call them, spend £130,000 in deepening the shaft, with probably another £50,000 on machinery and crosscuts, the Government are willing to give a subsidy of £10,000. Oh, there iB no question about the £10,000. It has been voted. But, naturally enough, the Government are not going to part with their dollars until the mining speculators have shelled out that £130,000, or £180,000, or whatever the ultimate cost of the " proper" deep level prospecting may be.

The only thing that surprises us is that the deputation did not close with the Hon James McGowan's offer right away. It is not every day that Auckland or the Thames gets a chance of a £10,000 Government subsidy, even at a cost of £130,000 or £180,000, as the case may be. And with money so plentiful too, and people so eager to speculate in mining stocks, and sharebrokers making fortunes on the Stock Exchange every day. However, the deputation jibbed. They didn't want to go down more than 300 feet. Probably they were afraid of what they might strike if they went any further. And now, terrible to relate, that £10,000 i 9 in doubt. The Government may not give it, after all. And all for the want of a paltry £180,000 flutter on the part of the Thames or the Auckland people. It is too bad.