The Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2562, 4 May 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1871.

A single sentence in the Warden’s Report, published in the Evening Star last evening, points to the vast importance of our gold fields as a means of profitable employment to our population. Referring to the reduced yield of gold through want of water, he remarks : This season demonstrates how very dependent this district is on the yield of gold, and how soon, if it was to scop, wo would dwindle down into a hum-drum insignificant agricultural community. We make no remark upon the phraseology which no doubt might be improved. It is the truth expressed that should impress our minds. Whatever opinion the “ settlers ” may have of their own overwhelming importance, if what the Warden at Tuapeka states is true, their prosperity depends upon the collateral development of other industries. This fact has never been thoroughly grasped by our Provincial Council- There seems at all times to have been a political superstition connected with the cultivation and occupation of land. If immigrants are talked about, our clodocrats immediately advocate the introduction of ploughmen and farm labourers : the squattocrats of shepherds and herdsmen. When his honor the Superintendent, read, at the Masonic Hall, a proposition he had made for bringing manufacturers here and settling them in suitable localities, the Reidites raised a derisive cheer, and other listeners seemed mightily amused at the idea. It never seemed to strike them as anything more than a good joke, and scarcely worthy of so much consideration as the introduction of salmon or the stocking of our rivers with trout. It did not seem to be comprehended that if such a plan were successfully carried out, and the various artisans found employment in the occupations to which they had been brought up, every man present would be the better for their coming. Our fellow-colonists who live by their labor are hard to teach in this respect. Wo do not wonder at it, considering the manner in which the clodocrats treat the subject of immigration. The farmers in the Provincial Council are always willing to bring into the country laborers to suit their purposes, and to employ them on their own terms. From the disclosures that ate occasionally made in the Resident Magistrate’s Court, those terms are usually as advantageous to themselves as the necessities or nonacquaintance with Colonial life of the laborer will permit; and it is natural, when it is not disguised by those who need their help that their object is to reduce wages, immigration on such grounds should be resisted. It is no use to point out that such has not been, nor cannot from the nature of things be the result of a constant stream of immigrants into a country : men who contribute to the revenue object to have part of their earnings devoted to bringing in others to reduce their wages. But the case, theoretically, is widely different with planing new industries, or developing gold mining. In either of these cases additional demand is made upon the labor of those who are here. Gold raining especially commends itself on the ground that the smallest outlay of capital is required in Otago to secure the largest and quickest proportionate return of any known calling. There are many other pursuits that can be advantageously followed. Some may be more certain in their profits ; but it is in all probability because they have been followed through successive ages, so that the readiest and best means of success are known. Or as in the case of pastoral and agricultural processes, which, dealing with natural agents, will be more or less successful, although in the roughest and clumsiest O O hands. It is therefore desirable that even minute attention should be given to render gold raining as profitable as possible, by removing unnecessary restrictions, and by providing every possible facility for prosecuting it. We have no wish to see any district in the Province dwindle down to a humdrum insignificant agricultural community. Our desire is to have it re-

deemed from that by introducing variety of occupation, involving the necessity for cultivated thought and energetic action. Otago by nature is intended to be a manufacturing centre. Its mineral resources are scarcely even touched. That there are some disadvantages in following mining operations compared with Victoria and New South Wales is undeniable ; but they aro more than counterbalanced by the greater yield per man of those employed, and the greater certainty of success. How little is really known of the vast riches of the Province and of the best means of obtaining them, is evident from the discoveries reported from time to time of rich deep leads. Our Provincial Council has hitherto wasted its time in. discussing means to make Otago a “ hum-drum, insignificant agricultural” community, or a pastoral wilderness. Stagnation would be the consequence of either—partial stagnation has resulted from clodocratic rule. What requires attention is how to settle a large well-to-do population of miners and mining families on our gold fields. These splendid sources of wealth, intelligently worked, will afford employment for tens of thousands of people for generations to come, and little care need bo bestowed upon agricultural and pastoral industries—their prosperity will follow as a matter of course.