The Evening Star. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2369, 4 November 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1870.

Much as we have before urged in favor of a thorough investigation of the raining resources of the Province and the best means of their development, we were hardly prepared for the startling results disclosed by Mr C, F. Nicuolls. That gold mining is an industry that can be entered upon with the aid of very slender capital, is notoriously true. Take as an example the report of Mr Warden Robinson, published on Wednesday evening, in which it is stated that the approximate value of the raining plant in the Naseby district is £5,535. In that district there are 1,335 European and 295 Chinese alluvial miners, and 80 Europeans engaged in quartz mining. That is, there are 1,710 men constantly employed on a -capital of £5,535. That is, at the cost of a week’s wages per man. This does mot include the outlay on water races,

■which however form no part of mining plant, and the necessity for which is confined to special localities. In the early days of gold finding the miners used to go to work with a shovel and a tin dish, and with this slender capital many a splendid fortune has been founded. We do not want to see those days return. Where wealth is gathered with so little effort, it is valued so lightly as to be wasted instead of invested. In some special instances it is laid out’ rcpi'odactively ; bat in the majority of cases it falls into hands ignorant of its use, and leads to a state of society unfavorable to moral and intellectual progress. The love of money may be il the root of all evil, but the ri"ht use of it is productive of much good ; and the absence of it is an evil that affects all classes, as hundreds of thousands have felt during the troublous times through which the civilised world is passing. In Otago, the European miners who remain with us are the flower of those who came over from other Colonies. They have assumed settled habits, and so far understand their calling as to find it profitable. The rest of the old miners are scattered over the wide ai’eas of the Australian and New Zealand Goldfields, or have embarked in other fields of labor in the Colonies or at Home. What is required, therefore, is a new race of miners. The Provincial Government cannot be said to have been altogether indifferent to the value of our auriferous wealth. They have had volumes of reports laid before them from mining surveyors, the Government Geologist, the Goldfields Wardens, and others , but they have been allowed to lie upon the table, and when the session is over to take their jflaces on the shelves of the Provincial Council Library, without any action being taken upon them. The Government, the Council, nor the constituencies, ap pear to look upon these statistics in the light of guides for the future. There can bo no doubt !he Governments iVom | the foundation of the Province have ; acted up to the most approved mode:-; ! of laiswzfairs. They have hau priinvd their bills of fare, shewing what is provided for the welfare of comers to the Province j but they shut them up amongst dead records. Had hand-bills been printed for distribution throughout the world, for the purpose of inducing emigration, we might have seen posted on the walls of great cities—

GREAT ATTRACTION ! GO TO OTAGO !

GOLD FOR PICKING UP! COAL IN ABUNDANCE ! CHEAP MUTTON AND BEEF .' LAND 20s. AN ACRE ! GOOD INVESTMENT FOR CAPITALISTS ! CHEAP EDUCATION IN EVERYTHING BUT HOW TO GET A LIVING ! Now it is just in this last point where our system fails. Surrounded by plenty, people come to the Province strange to everything around them. Trained to settled habits at Home, they are bewildered with the new phases of society into which they plunge immediately on setting foot ashore. All faces are strange ; manners are strange ; customs are strange. Taking the bill of fare in their hands, they would say, Where is tlie gold we may have for picking up 1 and they would be told it was sixty to one hundred miles up the country. Suppose a man to have heart enough to go to Queenstown, the Arrow, to Nevis or Lawrence, in search of this cheap treasure, he finds some hundreds at each place, busy and prosperous, T*ot him try to follow their example, without experience and without training to the work, and he will soon find his education in gold finding will cost him dear. While others were washing out their ounces, he would be wasting them. He would have to learn those indications which lead experienced men to pitch upon spots the most likely to be remunerative j be would have to learn the use of the cradle and the sluice. In fact, like every learner of a new trade, he would have to pay for his education in one form or another. Now we want to know why there should be a Government School of Art, in which artists may be taught cheaply the use of implements capable of giving the means of obtaining a livelihood—why there should be public elementary schools, provided at heavy cost to the Province —why there should be colleges projected for imparting the higher education —and, lastly, why the practical use and appliance of mining implements, and the best mode of mining, should be left to be learnt by chance \ If those admirable institutions for the promotion of learning, the ornament of wealth, are thought advisable, why should education in the easiest way of obtaining wealth be left to chance 1 Our goldfields are a specialty, and require special appliances, If unskilfully worked, their produce is wasted, or the profits are diminished, If suffered to lie idle, through want of energy or supineness on our parts, we rtmst blame ourselves if we do not prosper as we

might, and bear uncomplainingly that comparative poverty, that almost to a certainty proper inquiry would enable us to avert.