The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1874.

Dunstan Times, Issue 646, 4 September 1874, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1874.

Beneath the Rule of Men entirely just the pen is mightier than theawoßD.

The “ Public Works and Immigration Scheme,” although an immense present good, and undoubtedly of lasting futui-e benefit to the Colony, has proved the reverse of a happy circumstance to the northern gold-mining districts of Otago, and the greater the distance from Dunedin the more in jury appears to have been done. The withdrawal of so large a portion ot the labor actually engaged in goldmining has been most disastrous, and what makes matters worse is that, the void made cannot bo readily filled up. Mining ior gold has for so long a time been engaged in as a recognised calling for civilised man, that, many hundreds have actually settled themselves down to this pursuit and to all appearances adopted it as the - real business of their lives, apparently satisfied with their gains and prospects over a long seriesofyears, and whether they obtained much or little, an uniform spirit of contentment seemed to prevail. Pcyond a “ rush ” of miners heie and there, attracted by new discoveries of gold, nothing serious has happened to mar this agreeable and harmonious state of existence, especially so while a large proportion of the population usually found their way back to their old haunts again, or their places were speedily supplied by others. The attractions of the .Railway works for men accustomed to the use of mining implements, has proved a serious cause for alarm, and it appears to us that unless there is a return of some of the old and skilled minera to their former occupations there is no saying where the evil mayend. Gold-mining as we now understand it, to be made a profitable pursuit, requires men specially accustom-

Ed to the work, besides the possession of a considerable! amount of technical knowledge, combined with a pretty large share of patience, fortitude, and determination of character to sustain them during long protracted seasons of delay, when engaged searching for the whereabouts of the precious metal, more especially when this, as is oftentimes the case, has resulted in total failure; not many men but those accustomed to gold-mining would care to renew the attempt. With these facts before us it must be pretty plainly apparent that this large withdrawal of skilled labor from the gold-fields is a far more serious matter than at first sight would appear and who can say, if the demand for men accustomed to the use of the pick and shovel should increase to any extent daring the coming summer, but that we shall only have been taught to appreciate the real value of the gold miner after we have lost him ; of course, those working paying claims will not leave them, but all mining claims are not payable, the majority yielding less than what is usually considered as wages. It is mostly to the poor men working poor claims that the development of the gold-fields can be fairly ; this class of miners spurr. d on by necessity make for the most part all the new discoveries, or they invent improved appliances and systems of work, that poor unremunerative claims are converted into highly profitable ones. No help whatever can be expected from the class of immigrants now being landed by ship loads upon our shores, nineteen out of every twenty of which would starve upon the gold-fields through incompetency to engage in the necessary description of work, while even at railway making or agricultural labor they are found to be almost equally as useless. These new arrivals may do to count heads in Mr Vogel’s calculations of the indebtedness of the population of New Zealand but, there their usefulness ends ; for rial purposes of colonisation they might just as well have remained in England. The gold-fields can hope for nothing from these late importations, our labor market must ho practically closed against them, because ox' their unfittedues? to perform the duties required in mining for gold. To set a clerk, shopman, tailor, or playactor to work in a sluicing claim would bo equally as effective towards accomplishing the object at issue, as setting the boatswain of a man-of-war to put this article in type. The omission of the Homo Agent to introduce mining labor into the Colony is a serious mistake, especially when mining is one of its chief staple industries, while it also possesses the very great advantage of not only acting as a lever to everything else, but affords a ve.ry wide spread .'amount of employment. The withdrawal of so many of the mining population from the gold-fields has been equally detrimental to all other branches of industry, by lessening the demand for local productions and manufactures even limited as their numbers may be. This, of course is not so much felt when the expenditure for Railway works is going on close at hand, but the further it is removed the greater is the amount of injury committed. There will of course be a re-action, but “ while the grass is growing, the horse is starving” We will leave the suggestion of a remedy for a future article, in the meantime we hope that other and active brains, interested in the welfare of the gold-fields will give the subject some careful consideration.