The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 1870.

Dunstan Times, Issue 414, 25 March 1870, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 1870.

Beneathtließulcof MenENTXREt.Y just the pex is JliGiiTiEE than thesword

The success which hasattendecl quartz mining in this district would lead one naturally to suppose that a more ge noral desire would exist on the part of the public to invest in mining speculations than is actually now the case. Each the Companies that possess machinery at Bendigo Gully are realising such handsome returns, that were they in Victoria, instead of here, quite a furore of excitement would be created. The reefs at the Garrick range promise equally as well if even not to eclipse those at Bendigo, and there is no reason to doubt but those at Butcher’s and Conroy’s will be likewise prolific in gold. The Mining Companies Companies Limited Liability Act affords perfect security to shareholders, yet strange to say, no companies have as yet registered themselves under it, and consequently there is an unwillingness on the part of the outside public to invest. Why this apparent prejudice against Joint Stuck Companies should exist it is difficult to say, and we can only attribute it to the collapse of so many water-race and sluicing companies some four years since. This has doubtless deterred many from investing money upon the goldfields, but, as one swallow does not make a summer or one black sheep contaminate a whole flock, previous failures, eanecially when we come to consider that they arose from a want of knowledge of a business, but newly embarked in, should not prevent people from again trying their fortune, or a ssisting in the search after the coveted metal. Nothing venture, nothing get, is a very old truism, and if we have to I wait slow progress, our quartz I

■ reefs would, comparatively speaking take to develop themselves, it will be a lifetime before we attain to the position which we Seek to occupy, and which, the prospects ?r we possess, should at once entitle us. Every trial crushing that has been made gives am pie and unmistakable evidence, that we may expect great results for the future, and we think that this opinion is pretty generally entertained, notwithstanding the placid indifference with which the subject is apparently treated We find that with local residents, there is increased confidence in the stability and prosperity of our goldfields’ townships, business peojde are everywhere improving their premises and extending their means of supplying their customers, nor is the personal comfort of the inhabitants neglected, as we find that active measures are being taken to supply these townships with water, the streets are kept ch an, and the footways and roadways properly formed and channelled. Property is gradually and surely rising in value, population is increasing, and labor, al though more plentiful still keeps at a high rate, thus unmistakably demonstrating the fact that our laboring population is a prosperous one, and there is no lack of employment. The quartz reefs of Victoria have established the mining industry of that colony upon a secure and satisfactory basis, they have called into existence large and prosperous towns in the interior, which otherwise would have had no being, they have furnished employment to thousands, which in the absence of the reefs would have been idle, and we find a large population not only occupied in the actual working of the reefs, but in the making and preparation of machinery and material used in so doing. As our alluvial workings become exhausted, we must have recourse to the reefs to make good the deficiency, and experience teaches us that there is the real matrix of the gold, and buried down fathoms deep we shall find the treasure, if we only penetrate to a sufficient depth to reach it. Quartz mining has certainly taken a long time to become sufficiently developed in Otago to be included amongst our most permanent and profitable industries, it was due to the Cromwell reefs to establish this fact, and this has been clone in a mam er beyond our most sanguine expectations. Having gone to the extent of our means, we now seek the assistance of capital from a distance, and having such good inducements to offer, it is a matter for wonder, that more capital is not forthcoming than is really the case, such prospects for investment would bring a plethora of money into the mining market in Australia, or at the Thames where quartz mining companies would spring up like mushrooms, in fact we should be embarrassed with the riches that would be thrust upon us, such opportunities never presented themselves in any gold producing country, that is now the case in Otago Our gold miningoperations are successful beyond all precedent, and there is little to doubt but that to be universally appreciated and insure confidence, their value only requires to be better known.