The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13th 1867.

Dunstan Times, Issue 294, 13 December 1867, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13th 1867.

Beneath the T.ulecf J'cn tKlirilY JttT, the pen 13 mightier than the swokd.

Now that en&avaura arc b?i:ig mil by the Government to encourage settlement on tli3 West Coast of the Pro vince, it is at the same time highly necessary, that tho.ie already well known places, such as comprise the gold producing districts, should not be neglected. At the Teviot, the subject of permitting the miners, or more correctly speaking, such of the goldfields residents who are willing to occupy and cultivate the lands, to do so, lm been very energetically taken up. A large and influential meeting was held to consider the matter, which resulted i.> a deputation his Honor, tin Su-p-,vL:ii,::iim\ T!i3 deputation pointed out til uvp.i'i necessity of giving the pio.ili v.i interest in tha soil, or the C v,-.vp : , nc ,, t'i it muit hevitably fol- '■<"-■'■ '-i • r": ■ leaving of the population :":: otVr whsre the ac-

I quisition of a people, willing to apply themselves to a settled industry is appreciated, and where the enterprising working man, whose strong will and equally strong right arm, constitutes the greater part of his capital, would be welcomed, and not be deemed an interloper and trespasser, and his room considered far preferable to his company. Tlie Provincial Government appear to attach considerable importance to prospecting and the discovery of new goldfields, such, is no doubt very desirable, and in that matter, every inhabitant of the mining districts will join issue, but the difficulty presents itself, how is this desirable consummation to be brought about 1. In the present condition of the goldfields, there is no probability of increasing to any satisfactory extent the number of our population, for reasons that, all the ordinary available streams of water are taken up and occupied, and under the present system of working no greater number of miners could find employment, even were they ever so willing to do so, that great motive pow-er-water, so indispensible to the extraction of gold from the soil, beirg limited in supply. With few exceptions, the present population are all busily and profitably employed, consequently do not want to prospect, and there being no superfluous and unemployed labor, there exists but little chance of our mineral resources becoming developed faster, than as present discoveries become exhausted. More ground could certainly be opened and water brought to bear upon it from abundant sources of supply hitherto untapped, but this must be attended by a considerably increased outlay of capital and labor, when compared with works already constructed, and white the one is so scarce, and the other, such a dear commodity consequent upon the present high rates of the necessaries of life, the undertaking of great enterprises is scarcely possible ; therefore to increase the prosperity and pop ulation of the goldfields, which, we imagine—although that fact seems to bs ignored in Dnnedin—means the prosperity of the whole Province, some em- ! ploymint in addition to gold mining, must be found for the people. We j want a les3 ncmade population ; we : want men with wives and families to i come and settle amongst us and above ail, we want to encourage that class, which is now the principal support of the Victorian goldfields, men [ who have given up all ideas of an Arab ! like life, and who have made up their minds to settle themselves and their families quietly down, to take things as they come, and to make the best of opportunities as they occur. With a liberal Land law, and with liberal minded men at the head of affairs, all this might be brought about, M-e then should soon see population increase, new ground opened, great enterprises undertaken, and our ireeless desolate looking wastes devoted to other than the most primitive purposes of a sheep pasture. With a population occupying the land, the employment of the laborer would be less desultory, there would be a variety of tilings which he might turn his hand to, and as the costs of living would be so very much reduced many men tired of a town life, might be induced to try the country, while those adventurous spirits, who are always looking after something new, would, as they could live ever so much cheaper, engage in undertakings, the magnitude of which, from causes already named, they are utterly precluded. In that highly favored place, the neighbourhood of Dunedin, we see by advertisements in the newspapers, that some thirty one thousand acres ofland will be offered for sale at the low price of ten shillings per acre, while here on the goldfields, it is sparingly doled out at something like £ 2 per acre. The three years rent and survey fees and ths inordinate trouble of making application and getting the consent of this and that officer fully represents £\ per acre, the other V 1 be Leg for the purchase cf the fee simple at the end of a three years occupation. We ask our readers, what would be il.c position of Clvdo, ' hr f .yJr,-.\ < . : ; -

well, if the land surrounding those places could be purchased upon such favorable terms, as the land now offered within Hundreds round about Dunedin, or even if it were only leased with the right to purchase, would not the population be increased manifold, and industries, which we do not new possess spring up, and an impetus given to trade and mining, such as was scarcely witnessed in the palmy days of the Eunstrn. An old sayinw hr.s it, that wh?n things get to their worst they must mend, this ultimatum will shortly most assuredly be arrived at, the present enormous and unproductive expenditure for salaries, and public works round about Dunedin is draw i.ig the very life's blood out of thf milling districts, the residents in which, not only pay taxes in common with ill other denizens of the Province, but the work of their hands i 3 heavily taxed also.