HOW TO DEVELOP OUR QUARTZ

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 18, 16 March 1870, Page 5

HOW TO DEVELOP OUR QUARTZ

REEFS. —(No. II.) A reference to our article in last week’s issue shows that we advocated the formation of mining companies as a wise provision to secure'the systematic working !of claims and the obtainanco of more certain returns. We cannot of course re-tread the ground got>e over, as our arguments wore so briefly condensed that wo should haVe to repeat them in full again; but we undertook to show that by the adoption of such a system the shareholder would find his property eventually increased in value. At present the majority of the owners of quartz claims are merely nibbling at them, and dealing with their protection certificates as so much scrip. They are, in our opinion, quite entitled to do so, and sell or keep what interest they like in their respective claims ; but we hold that they are not acting wisely in pursuing such a course. They.are frittering away, piecemeal, portions of their loaf, and securing thereby hardly any'tangible results. Tom agrees to sell, for the benefit of Dick and Harry, one sleeping interest in a claim. The stop-gap lasts for some time, but before long another slice must go. It is said fresh capital is introduced, and so far as Tom, Dick,'and Harry are concerned it is, but it is in nine cases out of ten of no permanent value to them, and, as far as the district is concerned, is a mere temporary circulation of money from which direct and lasting advantages are not reaped. The money that Tom receives keeps himself and Harry and Dick prospecting longer, and then they all join in a chorus that people won’t erect crushing machinery for them on “ spec.,” We object to these crude ideas ; and we wish to see sounder and more business-like views established. Those ideas that almost all the risk should be on one side, and the gain (if the claim turns up trumps) on the other, must be obliterated, and more rational views of reciprocity take their place—that is, if the present desultory, disjointed system is pursued : each claim-holder thinking his own claim the best. Thus it arises that there is a want of combination, from which all suffer; and instead of claims being in full working order, they are being tested by the short handed and short time system. The formation of companies and their amalgamation us far as regards machinery, cost of management, <kc., would, in our opinion, produce a more general state of prosperity, and bring true our words that the individual shareholders will in the end “ find their properties enhanced in value bv a more general reign of prosperity," v Had districts such as Ballarat, Bendigo, and other places, continued to be worked on the old system, and that which is in vogue amongst us now, their advancement and prosperity would have been slow indeed. Districts that pursued an individual line of action as distinguished from combination have never advanced much. It is only within the last year that, the effect of this better system has been strikingly brought under notice by its action upon some of the fading gold-fields of Victoria. The Ovens has been galvanized from a state of semi-torpor into vigorous life. So with Steigletz, Daylesford, and other places. Cannot we, then, establish some rule to I guide US by from these examples of a neighbouring colony ? Shall we have again to repeat the question to the larger number of oUr qilartz-reefers, “ Why stand ye idly by all day 1”' If such notable examples as those just given do not carry conviction with them, we despair of any argument of our own having any effect. The working claim-holder, however, is to some extent a curious compound of reflex ideas. He sees certain advantages to be obtained, for instance, from the line of action we have been urging upon him, but on the other 1 hand, he prefers to be his own lord and master. He sacrifices the former to obtain the latter. He, as it were, says, “It is all true enough ; the principles are quite correct—the end is obtainable; but I prefer owning ray own property and doing as I like with my own.” They prefer rather to study the jumpings of the heart than the reasoning of the brain: prefer a slower and more toilsome progress than a share in the results that arise from notoriety and influx of capital. They wish and they hope to attain both, and they necessarily bother those newspaper people” to accomplish that which can only be attained by combination and good management, backed by capital. The most glowing reports will not accomplish this aim. If they would turn their attention to forming' companies to work their valuable reefs, as shown before, they would produce an influx of capital ; and though they might work for wages, they would find attention being so largely attracted to their quarter that the shares they held would largely exceed in value the shares in the claims they now hold. They would also from personal employment be in a position to know whether it would be wise or not to dispose of their interest. It is this that makes many.a miner a shrewd investor, and soon an independent capitalist, as witness many instances in either of the places we have named. We have yet to deal with a third and last phase of the subject we are treating, and this we shall discuss in our next issue. In the meantime we may remark that working claims by two men instead of six, arid praying for the erection of machinery, will not develops our quartz-reefs.