The Evening Star. THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 1871.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 494, 10 August 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 1871.

" For the cause th.it lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future In the distance, And the good that we can do."

Ik the European Mail a very sensible suggestion is made, that all Australasian sound, substantial, dividend-pay-ing claims should have a register in London ; and it is stated that it would tend to induce a steady flow of capital towards the mines of Victoria and New Zealand. The wisdom of such a proposal is so obvious that the wonder as that the idea has not been generally entertained and acted on by the directors of Gold Mining Companies. It is true that the introduction to English notice of such a claim as the Caledonian would not increase the magnificient returns of gold, nor enhance dividends, and the introduction to the mines of foreign capital might tend to check those violent fluctuations in the price of shares, that are so dear to Bhare-jobbers. But the presentation of the position of mines with such returns as those now characterising the Thames goldfield, could not fail to be of benefit to shareholders and the general development of the goldfield. We are not for a moment to Buppose that the shares in a claim, for example, like the Caledonian, are properly valued at £170 or so, when about that amount per share has been paid in dividends during the past six months ; and where there is the utmost confidence generally entertained that the future of it will be like the past, if not better still. It is not to be supposed that the selling price of such shares would be what it is if the matter was fai.rly before the eyes of capitalists. And when it is equally confidently believed that there are plenty of claims undeveloped on the Thames that are equally rich in buried gold, with the Caledonian, it cannot be that the price of shares in claims containing the possibilities and the probabilities of like" returns would rule at the prices now affixed to them if their value were similarly presented to capitalists. There can scarcely be a doubt that if the true position and prospects of our gold interests were known as they should be in circles where capital is waiting for investment, results of the highest value to our province and our colony would arise. But if there is any place where even more than in England the position of our goldfield should be presented in tangible form to the public mind, it is in the United States, and especially in California. The residents there are capable of understanding and appreciating <xold returns, and have not that fmspicious shrinking from tho pursuits of gold-seeking that sterns to.possess the steady-going and conservative people of England. In California, .as we understand, equally with England, vast

amounts of money, partly from the Eastern States, are seeking for investment,; ,and it is impossible to think that if the true state of our goldfieldj arid the returns of its several claims, were there fully known we should be long without an importation of American capital and enterprise. Of all forms of the Anglo-Saxon people, the American is exactly the typo wanted at present in New Zealand. For the pluck and enterprise of that pushing, clear-headed people, New Zealand, and especially our provincial goldfield, presents a sphere unequalled in the world, and we do not hesitate to affirm that if American enterprise could only be diverted hither, a development would be given to our boundless hills of hidden treasure, such as they will not otherwise receive for many years to come. The laying on of Mr. Webb's boats will, doubtless, tend to this, and the return of several leading and most intelligent American citizens, after spying out the land, will hot be without fruit. But there cannot be a doubt that a more definite effort should be made to present in a tangible for.m to our American cousins, the prospects presented in a goldfield, containing, admittedly, the richest claim on the face of the earth, aud containing—no one knows how many' —other claim? which are not so famed yet as the Caledonian, only because there has not been spent on their development a similar amount of capital aud determined persevering effort. It is sincerely to be be desired that our goldfield should be so presented to the American mind, and whether it be in the form suggested in the European Mail, or otherwise, attention should be drawn to undeveloped wealth possessed by us in our golden hills, the parallel to which is not found on earth.