Cromwell Argus. AND NORTHERN GOLDFIELDS GAZETTE. Cromwell : Tuesday, February 25, 1873.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 172, 25 February 1873, Page 4

Cromwell Argus. AND NORTHERN GOLDFIELDS GAZETTE. Cromwell : Tuesday, February 25, 1873.

Some few weeks ago, we urged the necessity of ths formation of Miners' Associations throughout the district; but up to the present time no single movement has been made in this direction. This is deeply to be regretted. Such carelessness is bound to have the effect of throwing a kind of damp over the exertions of those Associations already formed, or at any rate is by no means calculated to impart activity and vigour to their movements and enorts in the direction of the ends they seek to accomplish. To form these local subdivision Associations needs but a prompt, decided action on the part of perhaps only one or two. Lee some bolder than the rest stand out; call a meeting; use a little persua. sion if need be to secure an attendance • and the thing is done. Miners generally are willing enough that they should take their share in the good work to be effected by such bodies as we speak of: a leading mind or two is all that is inquired to ad & - vance their willingness to the stage of bearing fruit. Shortly, the question °as to the transfer of the Gold-Ueids from the management of toe Provincial to that of the General Government wiil have to be discussed by the miners of the Province • and we therefore hope to hear of the speedy initiation of movements in the direction we suggest. In connection with this subject of Mining Associations, the question arises in our mind,—ls political reform the only object they might take in hand ? Ought not social improvement and the furtherance of the mines;' material prosperity, apart from the securing of such by reform In political matters, to occupy a place in their programme! To obtain commonage, the abolition of the gold duty, cheap miners' rights, watersupply, and the hundred-awl-one other things that miners struggle for, are very laudable aims. But let anyone look round in a mining community, ami say whether there is nothing else, of quite as much in>. portance, that requires reform and remedy. Gold is going to waste in the tailings from our quartz-mills, and alluvial miners take the same plan to extract the precious metal that was in vogue twenty years ago,—that their forefathers used almost. Perhaps nothing has yet been discovered effectually to prevent the loss in the one case, or prove more efficacious in the other. Perhaps not; but if these associations were to go in for what is termed " mutual improvement," something might be discovered, or at least attempted. A library with a few scientific books, and works of travel, in' connection with a miners' association, might increase the knowledge of many of the members, and might be the means of introducing improvements in their modes, of working, Besides, there are such things.as " essays," and " papers," and " treatises," which might be prepared by the more in telligsnt for the enlightenment of their lessgifted brethren. But there is a social-a I domestic—aspect of the miners' position i which will stand a little looking into. How j is it that down-country—all over the world, if you will, —the " diggings'' are held to be the cradle of drunkenness and profligacy! This may be deemed rather a strong and overstated assertion ; but that such an opinion does maintain, to some extent, is a fact; and it is a fact, also, that grounds for it are not wholly wanting. And can these associations do nothing to work a reform in this direction. Can they not initiate a new condition cf thin.«s—stop so much grog-drinking, and card-playing, and fighting, and loafing about hotels on Sundays, and ."coming in for a burst"! To deal with this matter as it ought to be dealt with, a Gkahlbs KIKGSLEY might perhaps suuee. But Charles Xinosleysare not hare to do it; and for once, a gold fields journal will travel out of its usual path to read a lay sermon to its constituents. All these evils we have mentioned, —all to he snmmed-up in the one word "rowdyism, perhaps,—might they not be greatly hw" in check by one grand specific : Marriage How many fine, strong, intelligent men,w this district for instance, have their "holes in the earth" in back gullies, utterly cheerless and forsaken in their single cursednesa. As a gentleman who once wvote for these columns on " Winter Evening n " tertainments" grandiloquently put it .: " Through various of the Otagan digging* perhaps all—where, from the nature of *W avocations, or the forcß of untoward civd" 11 ' stances, men lead isolated lives, in ntimberle> instances unblest by the softening, refining' »' 1 most sanctifying influences of true woman's p

leiice, the poor fellows are apt gradually to undergb'tae prbcesß of deciyilisation. : This retrogressive tendency, if not timely arrested by remedial treasures, eventually cause* them to grow harsh ami gnarled, like solitary old trees on a rocky promontory, whose tempest-twisted trunks 'have become salinely indurated by the ceaseless'surges of the troubious ocean." This is very " fine" writing; but everyone will admit how true it is. Perhaps one reason that there has not been more marrying on the diggings has lain in the fact that most miners had a hazy, indistirtct notion that some day or other their "pile'" was to come, and that they were then and thenceforth to revel in easy contentment, lifelong freedom from toil, and matrimony it might be. But such ideas are losing* ground; the romance of goid-digsinjj i s ' wearing away ; big nuggets and heavy pockets are things that were or might have been,— not.things that are or are to be. 3 The mining class are fast becoming a set-tled-down community; and it is high time that all rowdyism and kindred evils of the past should have an end. And, as we said before, marriage is, if not the grand,' at any rate a powerful agent for their removal. Yes, single diggers all, get mar-' vied, and you will hear little move about the diggings being the forcing house of all evil. .Respectable wives will soon bring about a state of things that will dissipate such outside—and inside—ideas of your Aridity. Instead of making your way to 'public-houses or grog-shanties at night, other things will claim your attention and almost become part o*" your duty,—garden-' tilling, and house improving, and so forth ;. and, in place of the noisy nonsensical babble of drunkenness, you will find a sober quiet companionship, a s?nse of comfort and contentment, that will bring regret at having been so long without them. Instead, too, of rushing at Christmas and washing-up times to spend your money like fools and make beasts of yourselves, a better use for it will be provided,—to buy frocks and jackets; for your little ones, if there is nothing else, and possibly to get them better taught than you yourselves have been. And do you not think you will have greater occasion to aid in seeking political reform if you have a wife and children 1 Surely yon will. Instead of asking for a rep >al of sixpsnce an ounce on gold duty because "sixpence is always a drink, anyhow," you will think of the things that sixpence will buy,—a "first book" for the child at school} and the like. Again, a family'will"want more milk than can be easily got on the gold-fields; perhaps a cow of your own will be thought an advisable purchase'; and so you will agitate for a commonage' with a little more zest than now. But enough of this : you "may seek out the advantages of married life for yourself: they are not hard to discern. The question of course that will be asked is—What have Mining Associations to do with all this,' and how are they to bring it about? Well, iket'y, they can hardly do much in the matter, we suppose : it would hardly do to ask the Government to clap a tax upo'iT every Unmarried miner. But indirectly they may do a good deal. Social intercourse at an association meeting helps to |iiake more patent the want of it at home, and anything that will tend to stop the j kbit of frequenting public-houses will go j PUowards promoting a marrying tendency. : Iherefore, we think, if social as well as political reform were kept in view; if a little more of the " mutual improvement" pent, such as is included among.the Meets of associations so designated which ponrish in many down-country districts, Jew introduced in the'composition of ortr f W Associations,— a far healthier state f public morality on the diggings would wengendered. And there are none but rill admit the need of it.