The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 345, 8 September 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1868.

That the Thames fever on the West Coast is assuming a virulent form, was proved beyond doubt yesterday by the crammed decks of the John Peun, and that a very serious drain of population from this and other districts on the Coast has commenced, is a matter beyond all doubt. Hokitika appears likely to be the most severe sufferer, for the Penu brought somewhere about a hundred from there, and it is said that fifty more were coming up in the hope of catching the Penn or getting on from Nelson to the Manakau if they failed to do so. Property in Hokitika has gone down in value fully fifty per cent, and altogether the capital of Westland is in anything but a flourishing condition. The Buller district has contributed its quota to the new stampede, but not in anything like a dangerous degree, and it is fortunate for us that after a year's uncertainty there are now positively goldSelds on which miners can look forward with confidence to a year or two's profitable labour. Notwithstanding this fact there are many grave faces in Westport and numbers of business men looked lugubrious to au excessive degree, at seeing the last instalment of emigrants yesterday. That the rush will temporarily affect trade, no one with the slightest pretension to common sense can doubt, but that there are any reasons for the panic with which some people have been struck, is simply absurd. In the first place, though it seems pretty clear that a highly payable goldfield has been opened, its extent is confessedly limited, and even allowing that its are is extensive, there are thousands on i% now and thousands more likely to pour in. Large as it may be, it will soon be overpopulated, for the stream is not confined to New Zealand sources, but has commenced to flow from Australia, and there is no saying to what dimensions from that comparatively populous country it may swell. It must follow that a large number will be disappointed, and it luckily happens that we can offer a wide and profitable field for the labour thus thrown as it were on the market. Recent experience has proved that not a little of our golden resources have as yet remained untouched. Every week fresh gold is struck, every week the auriferous nature of miles of as yet untouched terraces is made manifest, as the prospector advances, and though in these cases the outlay of money and labour is great, in no instance does perseverance go unrewarded. All these facts will soon be known by the new comers and a second rush will surely before before long take place, from the north to the West Coast of this island, a large share of which the Buller may reasonably expect. In these remarks we are assiuning that the Thames district is the El Dorado that is represented, if it is otherwise, as we have reason to believe it is so much the worse for those who have gone there. Our goldfields are only just now showing their real value, we need not fear a lack of men to develope them, let the Thames be good or bad. The rush in any case must be attended with the best results in another respect. The very ground where now some ten or twelve thousand men are engaged in gold mining, was only a short time ago closed to Europeans, and even when native permission to occupy was given, only a very small belt of country was allowed to the early explorers. We now learn that some seventy miles have been thrown open, on reasonaWe conditions, and if the digger has that concession, it will go hard with him, if he does not take advantage of at least an equal area without formal permission having been accorded. The discovery of gold in the north is a great assistance towards the solution of the native difficulty. If the Government will only support, or even not oppose the miners in their pursuits, we venture to say that there will be no fear of a native war breaking out where they are congregated, or if it did, that no troops would be required to quell it. By degrees, the digger will in such a case, get a foothold in the whole island, and the Hau hau, notwithstanding, will search every nook that it is possible for the precious metal to be concealed in. Here is in fact a solution of the great question, that the. existing statesmen have been so greatly troubled a.bout,

and on this ground alone it is to be hoped that the diggings are all that they are said to he, and a great deal more. The land now locked up in the hands of a lot of savages and cannibals will be productive in every sense. It will yield both minerals and und produce, and the Maori will no longer have the power to hold, as a barren waste, some of the finest land in the known world. As a matter of course, i settlement will soon take place, and lif the native proprietors are, as they should be, dealt equitably with, the gold discovery will be the means of advancing the north island in one year more than a whole battalion of missionaries would in a century. If this favorable change is made in the north, it cannot help boneficially influencing all parts of the colony, and the West Coast, with its boundless mineral treasures, will quickly feel its good effects. Not only in Australia, but in the home countries will attention be attracted to New Zealand, and capital that is now not obtainable for the development of our mines, will be got with ease instead of difficulty. The immediate effects of the present rush will be first an addition to our scanty population, from the overflowing of the Thames, the opening up of a large extent of splendid country, and the eventual settlement of the native disturbances, which have for so many years troubled our rulers, and imposed frightfully heavy taxation on every inhabitant of New Zealand. So far from desiring the new field to be in the least degree restricted it is to our eventual and permanent interest that it should be ten times as great as the most exaggerated statements have yet represented it. The exodus that has now set in, is only the prelude to a returning wave of far larger and more important dimensions and the Buller has no reason to be envious or afraid of the newly risen glories of its northern sister.