The Evening Star. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2371, 7 November 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1870.

Editors of newspapers are not by any means to be envied if they do their duty. Not an article appears on any subject in the papers over which they have control, that docs not more or loss clash with the opinions of some reader. For our own parts, wherever truth or the advantage of the community is concerned, we should feel sadly annoyed if all were content, knowing as we do that some through feeling, some through interest, some through want of knowledge, some through prejudice, are opposed to both. We have not arrived at that perfect use of reason that leads to unerring conclusions from facts, and therefore it must be poor, commonplace stuff that all accept as true. When therefore on Saturday morning an intelligent friend saluted us with, a I really cannot understand your “ article of last night,” we were amused than surprised, as we felt that to a certain extent that curiosity was aroused that was intended. We hope that he is not the only one who wishes for fuller explanation—and, if so, a recapitulation of several facts may explain the matter, and convince our readers that our industrial organisation is in all probability capable of great improvement. These facts have forced themselves upon attention in a variety of ways during the past six months, and have thus far been treated by the Government as Turks treat all events bad and good—they accept them as the inevitable decrees of fate, and scarcely admit that they are the natural consequences of hitman agencies, badly or rightly directed. The facts may be enumerated as follow :

1. During the winter there was a large number of Europeans who wanted work, and whose families were subjected to great privation in consequence, 2. During all that period, while our own people were unable to earn a shilling, large parties of Chinese were arriving, who, immediately on landing, went up the country, and made good wages on the goldfields. 3. No truth is better established than that, under a healthy organisation, a large population is necessary to the prosperity of a country ; but in Otago immigration is looked upon with fear by the working-classes, on account of their belief that competition will tend to reduce wages. 4. That although at the close of the winter men were found who gladly accepted work at the test-labor price of four shillings per day, the Chinese on the goldfields and European miners were earning from three pounds to six pounds a week each. 5. It is proved, from the experience of all gold-producing countries, that a larger number of men can be employed in gold mining by the investment of smaller amounts of capital, than in any other manufacturing industry. In Victoria this amounts to twenty times as many. That is, twenty families can be sustained where one can now find employment, at equal wages. This, with a settled population, would equal at least eighty souls, without taking into consideration the increased demand for every article of food, raiment, domestic and industrial appliances, which would give employment to more than as many more.

6. That the depression in all industries in the Province is traceable to the decrease in the production of gold, consequent upon the West Coast rush. 7. That no effectual effort has been made to replace this population by men who, with a desire to settle in the country, can permanently take their places. 8. That from every goldfield statements arc received which prove how large a gold-producing area remains untouched. We could enumerate many more facts—but these are sufficient for our purpose ; and the end and object of our Friday’s leader was to shew that with special advantages, special investigation is necessary to make the best of them. When men were crying out for work, we pointed to the goldfields, and suggested that the Provincial Government, whose special duty it is to attend to the development of Provincial resources, and thus to ensure the prosperity of the Province, mightwith profit find them labor on them. This idea was approved by most, laughed at by some, and condemned by others. The Government did not act upon the suggestion, but employed the men on labor that could have been done at a quarter the cost by machinery. The crisis has passed, but it will recur; and with that certainty in view, our recommendation is inquiry into the subject. There must be a reason why a number of Chinese can go unerringly to a spot where they can earn good wages. If they can do it, surely Europeans, with equal advantages, can do the same, or better. In all probability, those

Chinese who come here are men trained to the work before their arrival, or they are guided by trained and experienced men. If there were no such men to be had amongst Europeans, a Government might find excuse for not organising a system by which newcomers or men out of work, at a gain to the country and to themselves, might experimentally acquire the necessary knowledge. But the strange part of it is that on the slightest and flimsiest grounds premiums are offered for the establishment of industries for which we are not ripe, while that employment which is special to the countiy, and which, we believe, systematically and intelligently followed, would make every man in the Province were there twenty times as many—who is industrious and healthy, prosperous, if not rich, is left to a chance population to follow. Now avc may be wrong in these ideas—but none can with certainty say that we are in error ; and, until that is proved, we feel it an imperative duty to persist in pointing out the necessity for enquiry into the best i way of introducing European miners who will make Otago their homo. A Commission made long and searching enquiry into the Land Laws, and a Commission should be appointed to investigate this matter. That is our meaning. Wo do not recommend movement without enquiry, for it is seldom that a leap in the dark prospers.