FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1871.

Dunstan Times, Issue 466, 14 April 1871, Page 2

FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1871.

The success which lias attended the operations of the Ida Valley Alining Company at Black’s No. 3, should stimulate exertions elsewhere in the search after deep leads. Teat that Company should have been so successful we are nut at all surprised at, as wliea the Ivst claim 01 the leal

ceased to be worked, the gold was staring them in the face. Why the work was stopped, it is difficult to

imagine, other than that the party through wanting experience and technical knowledge, were incompetent to mine in deep ground. Three ounces and a half to the load is a most handsome . return, and would drive Ballarat shareholders into ecstasies of delight at their good fortune, while the premium on shares would be run up to something fabulous. Here in Otago the finding of a rich deep lead .creates scarcely any excitement at all, and instead of twenty or thirty shafts ahead being put down, only some two or three leases have been applied for. No determined efforts at all are made to reach the bottom and so test the ground on the presumed course of the lead. Our correspondent attributes this reluctance to sink to the want of timber, but surely wlmn 'three ounces and a half of gold to the load of wash dirt can he obtained, there is at considerable margin left beyond the working expenses for the purchase of timber, especially when’we come|to take into consideration that the depth is not great, while the water can be kept under by means of a horse whim. With such prospects before them, we are inclined to believe that ifanything is wanting by the miners, is, enterprise. We have always been of opinion that gold is almost everywhere distributed throughout the district, and that it only wanted finding. The late discoveries at Black’s No. 3, still further confirm our opinion, that no portion of the Otago goldfields con tains gold in such a variety of forms as the Dunstan district. The great flat between Clyde and Alexandra is deserving of attention. That a rich lead of gold exists here is .beyond the possibility of a doubt. Somewhere near the township of Clyde is the ancient river bed, and its course from thence under the “ terraces ” to the Manuherikia junction, a little time and patience would soon discover. The tunnels driven in from the edge of the river between this and the Hospital showed that the ground dipped heavily in the direction indicated, while small runs of coarse gold, evidently all having one defined course, presented still stronger indications of the ex istence of a deep lead. In the early days of the Dunstan the most praiseworthy exertions were made to solve this problem. No less than three shafts were sunk and gold obtained in all, but they did not reach the bed rock. The tunnels however accomplished something while they obtained sufficient gold to defray a portion of their working expenses. The Victoria Company penetrated the flat back to a distance of five hundred feet from the river, and knocked off because they could not bottom a great clip at the very extremity of their workings. In this case there was heavy gold on the bed rock, yet the was abandoned. By means of a tunnel the mystery could readily be solved, and the whereabouts of the deep lead soon made known. Timber is considerably cheaper now, and could be lauded on the ground at less than one half its formei cost; labor is also cheaper, and what is more, miners experienced in tunnelling work can be obtained in any number. The citizens of Clyde have always spiritedly come forward to assist new enterprises when the prosperity, coupled with the development of the mineral resources of the district was concerned, and we feel assured that were they again ap pealed to, they would not be behindhand in rendering support to any party of miners desirous of prosecuting so laudable and almost surely remunerative an enterprise as prospecting the Dunstan Elat. Gold appears to be found in Otago in all variety of circumstances. The quartz reefs were only proved payable after repeated trials and failures, and the same will be the case with deep leads. Sanguine as wo may appear, we have always adhered to the belief that the Dunstan district is to beconfc the Ballarat of New Zealand.

Although we are strongly of opinion that the repeal of the duty upon gold is only a convenient ciy trotted out by politicians at election periods, still that does not remove the injustice of the imposition and the necessity for its total abolition. So unjust a tax was never before imposed upon labor in a civilized community, and it must only be from the fact that our miners arc exceedingly well to do that it is borne, but ns the last straw added to the load breaks the camel’s bacx, tho

taxes and fees charged upon the miners will cause them to rebel under their burthens, and indignantly cast them off. This is now very nearly the case, for what with fees, tines, licenses, taxes and gold duty, the miner’s load is heavy enough. Why the labor of one class of colonists should he specially taxed we are at a loss to discover. In the early days of the Victorian goldfields, there was doubtless sufficient cause for doing] so, but then the gold tax was then the extent of the imposition. It was left to the paltry provinces of New Zealand to make further imposts in the shape of registration and other fees so numerous that it would tire the patience and endurance of our readers to recapitulate them. Anyone who has any business with the Warden’s courts or offices is very soon made aware that a fee is demanded for movement he makes. The Clerk of the Court will not put his pen to paper or answer a question unless down comes the dust, and we only wonder that a miner dare approach a goldfields official without having first paid some fee or fine. Not satisfied with the gold duty, the Provincial Government charge for the most trifling business. Everything must he registered and paid for. All sorts of ingenious devices are resorted to for extracting the half crown and five shilling fees which have so accumulated that in reality instead of the gold tax amounting to half a crown per ounce upon his earnings, it actually amounts to five shillings. It may he all very line for gentlemen representing Dunedin and agricultural constituencies to argue that the Province cannot afford to do without the gold duty, but this is no argument for them to put their hands into the pocket of the miner and abstract his coin. A bushranger may as well say that he cannot do without sticking people up whenever he wants money. Because various sections of the community have been fattening upon and despoiling the miners for a course of years it does not stand to reason that they always to do so, any more than that don Keys shall carry loads and abstain from‘Kicking them off. The miner is now taxed beyond endurance, for no other end than the payment of a horde of useless officials, whose energies had better be turned to road making. The miner gets less of all the good things than any other class of colonists, while his.labor is directly and indirectly taxed to an extent unprecedented. The dura.of suchXjuifair legislation it is to be hoped are numbered. It the provinces cannot exist without the gold duty let them be abolished. Under any other form of government the miner cannot bo worse off. If members representing goldfields’ constituencies will only exert themselves, we feel assured that the days of the obnoxious gold duty are numbered.