DEVELOPMENT OF THE DISTRICT.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 227, 17 March 1874, Page 5

DEVELOPMENT OF THE DISTRICT.

(BrW. J.) : So far as our experience on the Gold-fields of the Australian and New Zealand Colonies teaches .us, there are two stages through which every gold-bearing district must pass, and a third which must be reached before it can lay claim to be a settled district. The first stage is that of being rushed for the first time, when hundreds and thousands of, in one sense, the most adventurous and enterprising class of miners, pass swiftly over the country, speedily gathering the rich finds which lie in easily accessible places. Gradually the rich and easily found deposits are worked out, and as gradually the crowds who first form the population of the district disappear to further and greener fields, only those beipg left who are tied to the spot by families, or who have invested their first and hardly-earned savings in costly water races, and must take their chance with the district; or who are unlucky enough to be unable to take themselves away to another place. The second stage in the history of the district is then reached. It is a period of depression, and a period of change. It does not last very long, however. There is always a number of people, fortunately, who have the most unbounded confidence in the ultimate prosperity of the district, and who stick to it through good report and through bad report. Their example, in a secret but still powerful manner, influences others, and new speculations are entered upon, timidly enough at first, which gradually reveal the fact that the wealth of the district is not confined to a few “beaches on the river, or to a claim here and a claim there. At the first of the rush large suras wej* realised—or nothing; now tfiat thp rush is over, it is discovered that no man need go altogether empty away. He cannot, working separately, hope to strike, perhaps, such large patches, but by judicious combination, and by a steady and industrious course of conduct, he may assure himself of a certain competence, *nd certainly assure himself that he shall hot want. Even if be should be unfortunate in his first attempts, he is always sure of commanding good wages as servant to others more fortunate than himself. The third stage in the history of the district then begins. Things assume a settled aspect, and a great proportion of the population who then happen to,, be in the district get, as it were, identified with it. To the third stage we have in this district arrived, and we propose to see whether some profitable reflections cannot be made therefrom.

Many advantages accrue to the people in a district when it has reached what we have described as the third stage of its history. All things have become settled, and they are in possession of schools, libraries, churches, and, in short, everything which xisually accompanies life in civilised communities. Miners know to a certainty many places to which they can direct their water and make sure of remunerative returns. Merchants and tradesmen can calculate with equal certainty how much business they can do, and how much profit they can make from year to year. Losses of course occur to individuals now and then, and changes take place; but, on the whole, the district reaches a point of prosperity beyond which apparently it cannot go. Now, a mining district (and if any district can lay claim to be a purely mining one at present, we think ours can) is one which cannot long stand still. It must either advance or retrograde. The very nature of the work makes it, as it were, a self-destroying one. New claims imist be found, and new appliances and new methods of working brought to bear upon them : or otherwise those who have been worked out must depart to newer and less settled localities. Here the evil becomes apparent which is incidental to a settled district. The majority of the people have got to the point of taking things as they come, and there has gradually been developed a feeling which is the reverse of enterprising. The construction of no new water races, or of very few, are undertaken, and no farther discoveries of auriferous ground are made, or even tried to be made. Consequently, after a period of settled but ordinary prosperity, a time comes when it is felt, as at the close of the first of the rush, that a move must be made by some to other places. Miners as a body are easily infected by this feeling. Every account, therefore, that comes from a new gold-field, such as the Gulf of Carpentaria or the Palmer River, takes away its quota of miners. They go away, forgetting that the same result will one day or other follow on every gold-field. Let us make a short review of the possible resources which are yet untouched in our district, and say whether it is wise to

allow this unenterprising feeling to be encouraged. The Bannockburn district alone contains ground which would employ hundreds more than it does at present, if water could onfyjbe brought to bear upon it. From the Kawarau Gorge to the Luggate, there are, - hundreds of terraces and gullies which would also employ a large population. There is' the Cromwell Flat, which, to our discredit be it said, has never yet been prospected ; and Contains nearly ten square miles, a good part of which there is every reason to believe is auriferous. Can any sensible person believe that all the gold-bearing quartz in Bendigo is confined within the limits of the Cromwell Quartz Company’s claim ? Can he be convinced that the Carrick reefs are exhausted, because one or two companies, after penetrating the hill to the depth of a hundred feet or so, are a little in difficulties ? Is it likely that quartz reefs carrying an ounce to the ton can be found within three or four miles on the surface of a hill, but only to the depth of one hundred feet I Putting the prospects of the miner to one side, we ask if the farming interest has yet had a chance of being developed 1 In the whole district there are not more than nine or ten hundred acres under cultivation at the present time. Is any one rash enough to say that 20,000 acres could not be found between Cromwell and the Lakes fit for cultivation 1 [Our space compels us to hold over the remaining portion of this article.]