The Dunstan Times SATURDAY, 7th APRIL, 1866

Dunstan Times, Issue 206, 7 April 1866, Page 2

The Dunstan Times

SATURDAY, 7th APRIL, 1866

‘Beneath the rule of men entirei/v jx:st, th< ten is MiQimv.u than the swoun!”

The new regulations for the issue Ul which, we give in another

Portion of our columns, contain s ome provisions which, although somewhat" more arbitrary than those hitherto in force, have the* redeeming virtue that they will make the best of the public estate, while the actual occupier of : a bate I area is definitely dealt with, and knows what is required of hira, and what he may expect f.om the Government. We have been repeatedly applied to by parties respecting the manner of procedure in taking up land, but have been able to do no more than refer them to the Warden for information. The present publication of the regulations will doubtless save a vast deal of trouble, and perhaps be the means of causing people ,to take up land who were deterred from so doing because they did not know how to set about it. The deposit on application of £lO, instead of £5 as heretofore, may perhaps press a liitle heavy upon some few selecbut he roups an advantage in the shape of protection from the speculator, -who will not so readily pay down £lO as he would £5, notwithstanding he does not purchase the laud outright. Five pounds is not much to risk for the chances of a good site, or that compensation might bo got should the land turn out auriferous. Extending the term of leases from three to seven years will produce a very largo revenue, and we must give the Government great credit for the display of so much forethought. The Provincial chest ought from these means to be in a very satisfactory state a few years henee, and have cash at (disposal for the making of roads, iso as to enable the leaseholders to jbring their produce to a market j The cultivator will, by not being loom polled to purchase at the end of'three years, have the use of his leupial for a longer period. The j rental of 2s. Gd. per acre is nn j more than Hank interest formonev.

and where a new beginner is cultivating a hunched acres or more the advantage is something considerable. Taking the regulations as a whole, they appear to bo very fair and equitable, and we hope to see them largely taken advantage of. There are hundreds of men, who, from climatic and other causes, cannot the whole year round find profitable employment in mining for gold, and who could with considerable benefit to themselves and to the country at large, very agreeably pass away a few months in tilling the soil. The only improvement we could suggest in the regulations is the speedy issue of a lease after its being applied for. "When once the application is lodged with the Warden, no time should bo lost in completing the survey, and forwarding the necessary instructions for the issue of the lease to town. We have frequently heard of par° ties, who, after paying their deposit money two or three months, when ! enquiring at the Gold.fields' Department in Dunedin about it, nave found to their astonishment that their application has never reached there. At the present season of the year the intending cultivator has no time to lose—every day is of considerable importance, if he wants a paying crop, and a certainty that his lease will be granted is absolutely indispensable, It would be the ruin of a selector after fencing in and ploughing up his ground, shifting his home and other expensive concomitants, to find that his lease would not he issued. Y\e should imagine that within the space of one montli from the date of application the selector should be satisfied that he could commence operations with safety. The. spread of agricultural pursuits in the neighborhood of the goldfields will be almost as bene-

ficial to the Province as the goldfields themselves. The experiences of Victoria indubitably prove that the mostprospetous towns arc those in the immediate vicinity of where there is a mim'n.<? and asrricnltural population. The one assists the other—it begets a variety of occupa-

tions, and causes the surrounding district to be resorted to as a field for labor, as failing one species of employment, those who are seeking the means of gaining a livelihood have a much better chance of finding it than where the wealth of the place is solely derived from one source Cultivating the land will indirectly develop our mineral wealth, It will reduce the price of living to the miner, besides cheapening the fodder eaten by his horse, thus enabling him to prospect ground, construct waterraces, and trace the existence of payable quaitz-reefs to a much greater extent than when the necessaries of life had to [be carted from a long distance, while he is further advantaged in that he has at disposal increased means of transport for material, at veiy reduced rates. The population will become a permanent one, the ininterests at stake will be of such value that we shall be relieved from those sudden exoduses of the people which prove so destructive to trade, and which are more often than otherwise, the reverse of lueative to those actually taking a part in the migration. The value of property will bo definitely fixed-—there will be no fluctuations between the two extremes, and there will be that security for the investment of capital which can only exist in settled districts. Because the population at present is but sparsingly scattered over the face of the country, it is not that the goldfields have become to a certain iextent unremunerative, but the natural result of what might be I expected from an excitable and restless population, who, having nothing to tie them to outplace, are carried away to other fields more from the fact of their being new discoveries and a puse love of adventure than miyrhing else. The yield of gold at the present time averages farmore than it did in the palmiest days—wages are higher, and labor more scarce although, perhaps, the ven richest spots have been worked out. .But this satisfactory result arises solely from the fact that tin employment of gold mining has reduced itself J jo one of a settled cha raster ; it has consequently bceonn j move thoroughly understood. Itn . provements and new appliances

have suggested themselves—me-1 ichanical means have been made tuj I perform what was formerly the work of men’s hands, and every advantage has been taken to assist or procure a substitute for manual labor. There can be no doubt but each year will find us more and more prosperous. The development of the mineral resources <>t the province can scarcely be said to he begun. The largo mining companies have hardly commenced work. Vexatious delays arising fiom unforscencauses, which somehow' or another always beset new undertakings, have temporarily

stayed long-looked-for profit, hut before the present winter is passed the anticipated profitable results of the large water race speculations will make themselves apparent,