The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1869.

Dunstan Times, Issue 367, 7 May 1869, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1869.

Beneath the Rule of Men entirely just the fen is mightier than theswoßD

How dull the times are ! There is no business doing ! Trade never was so bad! are exclamations which daily greet our ears from members of the community of traders. None seem prepared to suggest a remedy, nor is all this seeming dullness and prostration of trade attributable to any particular cause. Each appears satisfied to know that times are dull. That is the Alpha and Omega of their complaints, The habit of grumbling at every thing has become quite chronic. Nobody engaged in trade is content with things as they are : there is little confidence in the future, and many regrets for the past. Of good times we never hoar anything until they have ceased to be so; nor, during all our long years of experience on the goldfields, did we ever hear any member of the buying and selling community acknowledge that times were good. When storekeepers were, figuratively speaking, coining money, there existed the same dolorous wail about the badness of the times, and we may reasonably expect it will continue so

until people can see themselves growing rich even beyond their most sanguine desires. Good times afe never acknowledged to be such until they have ceased to exist, because it is only ascertained that they were good by a certain degree of comparison with the present. This calculation is, however, solely based upon profits from the interchange of commodities, which gradually become less and less as population settles itself down to permanent occupations. Then the minimum of supply and demand is reached, and it becomes incumbent upon those traders who have failed to secure themselves a footing, or upon whom the public refuse to bestow their favors, to seek fresh fields and pastures new. This habitual grumbling at the times must not, however, be considered as any indication of the real state of the country. It merely represents that business is considerably overdone, and that the number who make their living by supplying the producers of raw material with necessaries are considerably in excess of what is required. Looking over the estimates of population for 1867—and there has been no increase since—we find that the total for the goldfields is eleven thousand two hundred and fifty eight, divided as follows—European miners, four thousand four hundred and fourteen ; Chinese miners, one thousand two hundred and seventy; business people, one thousand nine hundred and twenty nine; women and children, three thousand six hundred and forty-five. Now, as the actual producers or workers only number five thousand six hundred and eighty-four, it is something wonderful that they are able to maintain (supposing even the three thousand sixhndred and forty-five women andchildred belonged to them) one thousand nine hundred and twenty nine male adults solely occupied, with very few exceptions, as purveyors of the necessaries of life. The goldfields’ hive must be positively overflowing with honey to support so many drones,

and w’e may venture to assert that there is no population in the civilized

world where one in six of the whole can find sustenance by merely administering to the wants of the others. And when we come to consider that all these purveyors of necessaries are for the most part in comfortable circumstances,, the earnings of the real worker or producer must be very large indeed. To rectify existing evils all that is necessary is that the balance of parties should be more equally adjusted. A migration from the ranks of the non-producers to those of the producers would soon remove any difficulty about the badness of the times. There is abundance of room for all and plenty to spare, and were each individual only fully employed in following some legitimate occupation, no community of people under the sun could possibly be more prosperous.

The escort returns show a yield of something like three-quarters of an ounce of gold per week for every miner employed, and there is every reason to believe that, could we arrive at a correct calculation, it would be found that the average is over an ounce. The individual gains of the miner were never larger than at the present time, nor was the business oi gold-mining ever in such a healthy prosperous con dition. Success being so universal, together with the fact that our goldfields admit of very considerable development—for we find that wherever the precious metal is systematically sought, it is seldom done so in vain—we are inclined to be of opinion that the business of mining for gold deserves more attention than is now given to it; in short, that it should be made more a business of. There is no other occupation extant where the gains are so certain and where labor is better rewarded. Gold mining in Otago may be prosecuted with even greater certainty of success than cop-per-mining in South A ustralia or tinmining in Cornwall, and it deservedly merits being included with the recognised staple employments of the people, and to which even scientific men might with advantage turn their attention. We must never lose sight of the fact that, unless we extend our

gold workings, the present condition of the up-country districts will admit of but little improvement. The panacea for all the ills, real or imaginary, of which we complain will not be found in the throwing open indiscriminately all the lands of the province, and starting everybody farming or cattle-breeding. It must be thoroughly understood that the market for those kinds of products can only be a local one, and the point of our production will be reaehed the moment that local wants are supplied. An export trade is quite out of the question, competition with growers and breeders nearer the sea-board being utterly impossible. Wo must there tore coniine ourselves to mining for gold, growing our own bread stuffs and horse-feed, and rearing as much live stock as we can consume. Goldmining is the prime mover of our industry. With an increase in the mining population the field for other employments will increase also ; therefore, to promote the prosperity of the country, the development of the goldfields is of primary importance. If we sit down and patiently wait for good times we shall never see them. They are as good now as ever, if we only know how to improve our opportunity. If things are dull, we only have ourselves to blame. The remedy is in our own hands.

Emigration promises to become a national question, and the unemployed population of England will ere long be poured wholesale into the Australian Colonies. We, here in Otago should bestir ourselves, take time by the forelock, and set about assiduously to the task of attracting some of the coming multitude. To the business man, this is a matter of great moment, administering to the necessities of the few seldom makes men rich, it is the indispensable necessities of the many upon which trade flourishes. There is no place in the world that presents such opportunities for the industrious immigrant as Otago, there is plenty of employment for him in some shape or another, the climate is in every way conducive to vigorous health; it has no enervating influences litre that, of

Australia, and equally with the old country will it sustain the Anglo Saxon race in its native energy. The advantages which we offer to population cannot he gainsayed jin no British dependency are wages higher than here, and any man possessed of adaptability, coupled with industry I connot fail in securing a comfortable living, with a competence in the future if he desires to settle upon the land, there is every opportunity for him to do so, and with a very moderate investment of capital, he can secure a comfortable living. With intelligence industry and thrift combined, one of the immigrants’ “ royal roads to fortune ” is certainly through Otago.