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Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1215, 20 January 1886, Page 2

There can be very little doubt that in times past the mining industry suffered very much from want of interest on the part of the Government, and we feel sure that nothing will tend to make the present Government popular in the goldfields districts so much as the fortuitous circumstance which led to the inclusion in the Cabinet of a Minister of Mines. Mr Larnaeh'a tenure of office thus far has been a most satisfactory one. Miners have been awakened from the even tenor of their ways by the Ministerial tour of the mining districts; Professor Black has been sent among them to stir them up to an appreciation of the value of science ; and what with these and a few grants promised for sludge channels, water-races, and prospecting, new life seems to have been infused into the mining industry. There are those still, however, who cannot be persuaded that any good is to come out of it all ; for them the sublime injunction of Longfellow — " Act, act in the living present," has no particular charm. The Minister of Mines reports on the state of goldmining throughout the Colony ; he directs attention to the various methods adopted in different districts; and then Professor Black follows, explaining how the gold has been deposited, describes the configuration of the country where gold is likely to be obtained in payable quantities, and teaches prospectors how to determine its presence when found. In our own district experience has taught us a great deal. We have seen ground worked over and abandoned as worked out ; then we b.Bve seen more approved appliances at work, putting through the gold-bearing cement until we again came to the conclusion that it was " played out," and even after that the Chinese have followed and secured some very good " pockets." We have, then, again folded our arms and mourned the decadence of mining in Tuapeka ; but the greatest wonders of all our experience appeared when the Tailings Company's works were commenced in Gabriels Gully, and the dredges began to raise their golden treasure from the bed of the Molyneux River. Now we are again suffering from the same nightmare which haunts us as of old, crying out that the diggings are cleaned out, and that Tuapeka, Waitahuna, and many other districts are soon to be turned over by the ploughshare. Let us look around us. Surely the principle of the Tailings Company's work could be applied on the Wetherstones Flat and at Waitahuna Gully. We are told seriously by practical miners of long standing that such will be done, and that it is only a matter of time and capital. Let ns be up and doing. If a time is wanted, there cannot be a more suitable period than the present, when the Colony is groaning under the depression ; if capital, co-operation will give that. "In former times," says Mr Henry Tapp, who is reported in the " Eastern Morning News," of ' 30th November, " only about 60 per cent, of the gold could be obtained, but the new machinery will enable the full yield to be obtained to within a small percentage." Money does not bear the fabulous interest of former times ; a reasonable return on capital is all that can be expected \ and with the positive knowledge that in times past 40 per cent, of the gold was not secured, and the probability that four or five times as much stuff can now be put through as formerly, there is a certainty of profit accruing from an exhaustive overhaul of many of the older diggings. Not only would the advantage fall to the lot of those supply, ing the capital, but capitalists, whether millionaires or co-operative associations, cannot reap an abundant harvest from mining, nor secure much good for themselves without largely benefiting the whole community.