The Evening Star THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3717, 21 January 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1875.

Although many complaints of the. decline of gold-mining are circulated, it is evident from the escort returns that there is still considerable activity in that branch of industry. It cannot be expected that there should be the feverish excitement of a new rush, now that capital and machinery have become requisite to success. When surface digging oMy is necessary in order to obtain gold, a day’s provisions, a tin dish, a pick and shovel are the miner’s capital. He scarcely needs more, for in all probability a few hours’ labor is sufficient to provide him with means of subsistence for a week. In this stage of raining the daily return, provides capital not only for its own needs but for the extension of all other forms of industry. It is the ease with which high wagesare earned that forms thecharm of surface digging and causes men to rush from one goldfield to another, regardless of comfort, climatic drawbacks, and threatened disease. The deposits thus easily obtained are comparatively soon exhausted, and, if gold mining is to be prosecuted, those who propose to engage in it must be prepared to pursue it pretty much after the fashion of all other ,trades : <hey must invest capital, secure the highest skill that can be obtained, and be prepared to be satisfied with returns on the average pretty much on a par with other forms of employment. In this country this truth is not sufficiently recognised. Gold-digging has been looked upon more as a matter of chance speculation than as a legitimate Commercial enterprise. That there is a degree of risk in it beyond what is incurred in buying and selling is undeniable. So there is in farming, for success in that depends upon causes beyond human control. Long experience in it and a knowledge of the Conditions most favorable to secure a crop, have enabled men to take such means as are best calculated to avert the chances of failure; and when we have become more thoroughly acquainted with all the essentials to succtobftd gokhmiiui&gj wti aMi bo oaubJuU

to place it more nearly on a par with other remunerative employments. It might have been supposed that these common-place truths would have forced themselves upon public attention long ago ; but so long as gold was obtained in. quantity in the rough-and-ready style in which we have been accustomed to gather it, they have been overlooked. It has been washed away by the hose, thrown away in tailings, smothered in sludge channels in quantities that would have paid fifty times the cost of a scientific survey like that now in progress by Mr Ulrich ;

yet the practical miner and self-taught manager have been held sufficientauthorities, and faith has been placed in them for which, unfortunately, several capitalists have dearly paid. Even this faith might not have led Jo such serious losses as have been incurred, had there been common honesty on the part of projectors of mining companies. It is mainly because they have abused the confidence of investors that mining in Otago is so sickly. There is scarcely an instance in which the capitalists of Dunedin have not been coolly and impudently swindled. Mines that yielded good returns when in few hands, no sooner passed into the form of a company than they became unproductive ; and, in not a few cases, became again remunerative when transferred to a few miners or were worked on tribute. Mr Ulrich’s reports of v.-mous districts indicate that the mineral riches of Otago are scarcely touched, and he had hardly spoken before we heard of claims being taken up in a locality where mining has been languishing and the people have been apathetic, and we may almost say indolent. Consequent upon his visit, the pi’obability therefore is that visions of profit will be floated before our eyes, and efforts will be made to dazzle Dunedin with splendid paper schemes, in the expectation that if nothing more comes of it premiums on shares will be filched from those who are drawn in to this game of “ beggar-my-neighbor.” We have no wish to cramp legitimate enterprise, but we have every desire that there shall be an to the heartless abuse of confidence that has recoiled upon the honest as well as the dishonest on the goldfields. When, therefore, we draw attention to the probable consequences of Mr Ulrich’s visit, it is only to recommend that no scheme shall be supported until every care has been taken to ascertain that it is founded upon a sound and probable prospebt of success; and not merely to provide a billet for some JBREJIYDiddIer and his confreres. It is of importance to Dunedin that large and prosperous populations should be settled in the interior, and that the goldfields towns should prosper. It is of equal importance to the goidflelds towns that they should enjoy the coiir fidence and have the support of Dunedin. They have themselves to blame that they have to a great extent lost it. Every district is deeply interested in the development of its resources; squatters, farmers, tradesmen, store-keepers will all be profited by an immediate apd local market; and if they wish to secure it their true policy is to expose sham companies, so that every enterprise in the neighborhood should present only legitimate claims to support. By this means unity of purpose of town and country may be effected with great benefit to both.