THE NEW ZEALAND FEVER.

Wellington Independent, Volume 1671, Issue 1671, 1 October 1861, Page 4

THE NEW ZEALAND FEVER.

The migratory disposition of the miner tends to render settlement iv the upcountry districts about as unsatisfactory as the worst enemy to it could desire. The propensity to reverse the old saw that a " a rolling stone gathers no moss," has no greater admirer than the Victorian miner, who is above all classes of the community fonder of change, and moro acted upon by excitement. Experience, over again, has taught him how much wiser it would be not to be allured by every new " find " that reaches his ear; and yet in spite of the bitter straits to wbich he has been subjected in acquiring that experience he is, and we suppose, ever will be, as credulous of fabulous reports of new goldfields as though experience had not taught him to receivo them dubiously. The disappointments vexations and fatality, which attended the rushes to Port Curtis, Snowy River, aud other equally delusive gold fields are remembered but for a season, and in the lapse of time he forgets to regard them as the misfortune they really prove themselves to be. On the "better lUck next time " principle of whioh there is a good deal in the miner's disposition he finds comfort, and feels satisfied that although deoeived ouoe, twice, or perhaps twenty times, the twenty-first report may prove a bonaf.de one, aud therefore it is worth while to float with the stream of population/with others equally fatkious as faim* self, brings him at length to privation, misery, and all the misfortunes that claim

kindred with them. What does it matter ? it is all soon forgotten, and the next fever that sets in may be instrumental iv bringing repayment for all. Such is the hope that buoys up lhe miner, aud scuds him forth to distant gold fields, to starvation, sickness, and perhaps death,

No amount of moralising, apparently, has the slightest effect in producing a change in his habits, and all the terrible warnings against rashness, of which Victorian history holds forth no mean number, are thrown away. Gold is being obtaiued, the discovery has been made in a new country, and what argument is there against its proving equally as auriferous as the discoveries which have been made in Victoria. It would avail little wero we to show by statistics aud experience that there is more auriferous gouud undeveloped in Victoria, than comprises the whole of the province of New Zealand, in which gold has been recently discovered, and which is acting on tbis colony like a spell. Few who have deter- | mined on going to New Zealand would give much credeuce to our argument or be deterred from undertaking the journey on that account. It must be conceded that there is somethiug very attractive about 79 ozs of gold been obtained by one party for one day's work; but there are two sidos to every picture, and. it is surprising the miners, above any otber class, are not equally alive to this circumstance, as they have hod innumerable opportunities of seeing the fact demonstrated since their sojourn in Victoria. We must do the miners of Back Creek the justice to state that they are less affected by the fever than their confreres in other parts of the colony, although there are some wild spirits amongst them, who are as maddened by the wide spread excitement as those to whom we more particularly deem it to be our duty to tender a few words of advice and caution.

Setting aside the fact that for the last eight years there have been enough of prospecting done in New Zealand to open up twenty new gold-fields in Victoria, had the same number of men been employed and the same amount of money expended in this colony which has been, until the present, uselessly expended in New Zealand ; we would ask what proof have we that the Tuapeka gold-field will prove a permanent one. According to the most reliable sources of information it would appear that the new field is of very limited dimensions, and that at the best those who arrived there subsequent to the original discoverers, had to prospect new ground; for. that originally opened had beeu already occupied, If this was the case, when only some 800 or 1000 men were on the spot, let those persons who are bent on going to Tuapeka imagine what it will be when the country around it is swarming with people, or populated as doubtless it is by this time by 10,000 or 15,000 men. It should not be forgotten that our latest advices from the spot date as far back as the 9lh instant, a period of two weeks, aud to the miners we need scarcely call to the remembrance how great a change that period will produce in the prospects of a uew goldfield. There is certainly nothing about the Tuapeka gold-field to warrant auy one in expecting a richer yield of gold there than at Port Curtis, Snowy River, or Vancouver's Island. The renorts in the first instance from each of

these goldfields were, if auything more favorable than those we are now in receipt of from Now Zealand. Hundreds — thousands visited them, with what result is generally known to require description. But a few weeks in one instance, and three months iv the others satisfied the public mind here, that Victoria had little to fear in the way of depopulation from those fields. Their delusiveness, however, has not seemingly had the effect generally expected, for, notwithstanding, the bitter fruit they produced there is the same eager desire to visit Tuapeka as ever was manifested for either Port Curtis, Snowy River, or Vancouver's Island, where gold was discovered, but where the fields lacked their chief desirability — namely, permauence.

There is another feature in this new gold field which should not be lost sight of — the sinking is of that shallow description which is uot calculated to support a large population, and in the event of deeper ground not being found than at present developed, square miles of it will be worked out before those who are going thither hove reached the spot. It may be that deeper ground will ultimately be found, but we aro to judge of the new field by its present features, aud should not speculate on future contingencies, which may or may not be of a favorable character. At all events, whether the Tuapeka gold-field is destined to prove a success or not, judging by tho aspect it is presumed to have preseuled on the 9th instant, we see no reason for the excitement it has created, nor little prospect of its proving superior, if equal, to those delusive rushes to which this part of the world is periodically subjected, aud which have proved in times past so disastrous to the great majority of those who visited them. — North Western Chronicle.