The Evening Star THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2368, 3 November 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1870.

Is it habit, want of investigation, or prejudice, that leads the majority of our legislators to ignore the value of our goldfields, above other fields lor investment ol capital I Periodically, reports are received from the. Goldfields Wardens, and not one has yet been published that does not tell of increasing prosperity wherever gold workings are pursued systematically and with business tact. Yet in the face of facts which, properly analysed, would point out how preferable it would be to train up a settled mining population, our statesmen indulge in dreams of manufactures, the success of which depends in great measure upon low wages and a superabundant town population. To a certain extent this indifference may be accounted for. It is unfortunately true that Otago, as well as Auckland, has been damaged by

bubble companies, and the faith reposed in specious prospects of profit by men of capital has been abused by unscrupulous and designing men. But against these swindles must be set the solid facts that thousands of men are earning good wages ; that hundreds, if nob thousands, engaged in gold mining are saving money j and that there is room for tens of thousands more, who, without competing with others tor work, could enrich themselves, and become large and permanent consumers oi agricultural and pastoral produce. We need not add that all other classes would benefit in equal proportion ; that trade, which has languished so long, would revive; that taxation, now beginning to be felt oppressive, would be lightened, and public works prosecuted. This subject has been prominently brought under notice in Victoria by Mr C. F. N icholls in a mining circular, extracts from which are published in the Anjass summary for Europe last month. The statistics given by Mr Nicholls point conclusively to the vastly greater profit realised by mining companies in Victoria, compared with the capital invested, than that derived from the pursuit of other industries. He states that the capital invested in mining companies is “ about .£3,000,000. The “ amount invested in all other com- “ panics is nearly £17,000,000 ; yet “ the dividends from mining companies “ are more than those from all other “joint-stock companies in the Colony.” So much for the chances of profit to the capitalist. For one-sixth of the risk he may fairly calculate, in Victoria, on receiving a larger return than from any other investment. But this is essentially a working man’s question. The value of an industry to a country is not altogether whether it will pay 10 or 12 per cent, upon the capital invested. The indirect advantages must be estimated as well as the direct profit. It is even possible to conceive that the encouragement of a special class of industry by a capitalist might yield him indirectly a large profit, although directly he might not receive one penny dividend. Such is really the case in gold mining. In Victoria, the investment of three millions of money in gold working involves the outlay of “ about £6,000,000 annually in “ wages ” paid by “ public and private “ mining companies,” while in all other associated enterprises the outlay of £17,000,000 only requires wages to be paid to tire amount of £300,000 ayear. That is, twenty times as many men, at the same rate of wages, are employed by the outlay of three millions, as are employed at an outlay of seventeen millions in other ways. It follows, then, that had that seventeen millions been laid out judiciously in mining, instead of in those branches of human labor to which it is devoted, 120 men might have been employed where one only finds work now. Now what is true of Victoria is true of Otago, in which tire yield of gold, for each man employed on the goldfields, is vastly larger. We do not undervalue agricultural nor pastoral pursuits, but the profit on them depends upon a ready market for their produce, and it is this which we want to see provided. Hitherto principal care has been given to the introduction of agricultural and skilled labor. This is perhaps natural. Our ideas of human employment are derived from Home associations. We come to these Southern lands with prepossessions in favor of industries amid which avc have been brought up ; and in Britain >ve can find men ready trained to till the ground and tend the flocks. But Ave repeat Avhat Ave have already called attention to, that if avo Avili, have a mining population here, avg must train them on the spot. Those nomades, avlio came, reaped the first fruits of our goldfields, and left us in pursuit of phantom treasures in other parts of the Avorld, Avere not the class avc Avant. On many goldfields they have been replaced by more patient, plodding Chinese adventurers, who Avill in like manner take aAvay the profits of their labor for investment in a foreign land. Either of these classes is better than no population. But if by judicious method we can train men to the systematic pursuit of a more lucrative industry than any other to Avhich they can devote attention, avc shall place Otago immeasurably iu advance of the rest of the Colony in Avealth and progress. Every report speaks of quartz reefs unworked, large areas of alluvial ground scarcely touched—and yet we have idle men in the Province.