ECHOES FROM MOUNT BENGER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 80, 21 August 1869, Page 3

ECHOES FROM MOUNT BENGER.

The nineteenth century is by some people termed the age of iron; but practical results have revealed that it might with still greater emphasis be called the age of gold. Twenty-two years ago the whole world, I may safely state, was wholly dependant on the auriferous resources of the mountains of Siberia, the rivers of Africa, and the mines of Mexico and Brazil for its supplies of the precious metal ; but the auriferous contributions of these countries have ebbed into insignificance in comparison with the vast

metalliferous products of California, Australia, and New Zealand. There are times when it strikes the thoughtful with astonishment that the mineral resources of such distant regions should have been nearly simultaneously developed ; but it is still more astonishing that they were not developed earliei*, as the pioneers of civilization — or, more properly speaking, the adventurers of the sixteenth century — set forth avowedly in search of new countries, rich in the precious metals. It is a historical fact worthy of notice that gold waa the magaet which drew from the old world the discoverers of the new, and gold is the alluring principle which has peopled, and is at the present timo still peopling, the remote parts of the earth. But I may here remark that there is a wide and marked difference between the resolute spirits who followed in the wake of Columbus and the gold seekers of the present generation. The former were guided, as every one acquainted with history will readily admit, by a spirit of ignorant avarice and sluggish rapacity ; the latter have succeeded in throwing open the treasure-houses of nature, by virtue of more elevated knowledge and practical industry. It is a fact recorded in history that the golden spoils drawn by compulsion by Pizarro from Atahuelpa, the hapless Inca of Peru, amounted to nearly one million • sterling ; but in this, our time and generation, the amount of gold exported from" the Province of Otacjo since 1862, shows an average production of something over two millions per annum. This, I believe, is approximately near the quantity manifested from Ofcago, taking it from published official returns. I think I am justified in adding at least ten per cent, more for gold clandestinely carried out of the Province, which will always be the case so long as an export duty operates as a motive for concealment. The facts I have enumerated in reference to the auriferous resources of Otago, is amply sufficient to enable the future historian thereof to arrive at just conclusions inimical to our present Bystein of legislation, which has been throughout a series of years a tissue of jobbery and misrule, driving both capital and population from our shores. "Wherefore? My fond public may answer the question ; but I may, however, remark that our wise legislators .know not how to avail themselves of the wealth, the existence of which I have indicated, nor do they seem to care to undergo honest exertion in prosecution of the- necessary remedy. If a liberal land system had been introduced in Ofcago some five or six years ago, and facilities afforded for developing the vast resources of our goldfields, Otago would not be at the present moment in a state of chronic retrogression.

Sgiathajtach.