THE Evening Star. SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1869.
It is somewhat singular that all the information yet received respecting the Marewhenua Goldfied has been from private sources. Its discovery was proclaimed several weeks ago, and some sensation ■was created at Oamaru and in the neighbourhood in consequence. It Was represented that diggers were working there, that claims had been marked out, and that many were interested in obtaining that protection which alone could justify them in investing labor and capital sufficient to remunerate them. Admitting that caution ought to be observed by all Governments before taking steps to induce people to turn attention to new fields of labor, nothing can justify apathy. Caution is not indifference. It is quite con-
sistent with a spirit of enquiry, and is quite as necessary to success as enterprise. Weeks ago it was intimated that a Warden had been instructed to visit the new field, and to report upon it. To judge by the time that has elapsed between the information that instructions had been forwarded and their being attended to, one might imagine the distance to be tra-> ersed was nearly equal to a voyage half round the globe. Perhaps some allowance ought to be made for the necessary official ceremonies to be performed. The dispatch required in the world’s business is altogether a different thing from that necessary in conducting Government affairs. Outside the Government buildings all is hurry and bustle. In the interior we enjoy the calm sedateness of official life. In the sti’eet men move as if success depended upon effort: in the offices they move as if time waited for them and no effort was needed to ensure success. It is, therefore, impossble for non-officials to judge the length of time required for instructions to reach a Warden. Perhaps one might be in ei’or in any attempt at guessing. Some one might, for instance, cast up the time needed for the fact of a new goldfield being discovered being realised in a Ministerial brain; having taken root there, the time needed to consider the course of action to be taken ; next the time occupied in consulting colleagues ; then the time expended in discussing the subject at an Executive meeting. Add to this, the time occupied in recording the resolution arrived at; the time—indefinite—of transmitting it to the officer to whom is remitted the task of instructing the Warden; the time necessary to draft the letter of instructions; the time required to make a fair copy of the letter ; the time elapsed before obtaining the necessary signature, and for despatching it from the office. Outside the office there may be a little roundabout postal arrangement, but when in non-official hands it is sure to reach its destination without delay. Arrived and in the Warden’s hands, the instructions have to be acknowledged—perhaps objected to. It may be that other pressing engagements, magisterial or official, require attention—or the roads arc bad, or something else very easily explained interferes, and so the examination is deferred to a convenient season. It must be acknowledged by every unprejudiced person that we have suggested every possible reasonable excuse for the length of time that has elapsed since first the Provincial Government were made acquainted with the discovery of the Marewhenua goldfield. We are, in fact, in a humor to judge them very leniently, but after making the utmost allowance for all delays, and racking our brains to imagine some other possible impediment to their long-expected action in the matter, we cannot account for the remainder of the time occupied in the enquiry. But we have not yet received the official report. From an up-country paper, we leaim what it is to be. We are told that a payable goldfield has been discovered ; that it is of large area ; that the Warden intends to recommend the Government to proclaim it a goldfield ; that it is capable of providing work for a certain number of men for some years. Then why in the name of wonder should the Warden shut up his notes in his pocket, travel back to Naseby, and hoard up his information until he could sit himself down by his own fireside and transmit his report in due form 1 ? Was there no place near, Oamaru to wit, to supply pens, ink, and paper 1 Would not a report written on the spot have read as graphically as if elaborated in a man’s own chimney corner % Supposing that the anticipations of our Oamaru contemporary prove true, and a favorable account is given of the Marewhenua, the dawdling that has already occurred is inexcusable, as inducements are presented to population to leave the Province, by the discovery of rich fields of labor elsewhere. If, on the other hand, the report should prove unfavorable, the sooner unfounded hopes are dissipated the better, that the attention of the digging population may be concentrated on the development of known auriferous areas, and all speculative excitement allayed. But why wait for a Warden being at liberty in preference to dispatching a mining surveyor 1 If the discovery is worth anything, before this time the expense of a qualified surveyor would have been repaid to the Province a hundred—perhaps a thousand-fold. It is certainly true that gold, while in the earth, does not waste nor run away, and on that ground there is no necessity to hurry so much in seeking it as in catching fleas ; but it is of no value until it is raised, and the Province is the poorer by every day’s delay.
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Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1970, 28 August 1869, Page 2
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924THE Evening Star. SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1869. Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1970, 28 August 1869, Page 2
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