The Evening Star FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4044, 11 February 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1876.

The inquiry of the gold miners of tbe North Island as to the prospects of success on the goldfields of Otago is suggestive : it points to the uncertain character of mining industry and the absence of resources in the North Island, enabling men otherwise to cm ploy their time profitably. We do not think that the goldfields of this Province are by any means exhausted, notwithstanding their decreased yield. We regard the falling off iff quantity of the gold produce as far from being an unhealthy sign. It points to the gradual absorption of those who once followed mining as a calling into other industrial pursuits. Gold drew them hither and they remain among us enI gaged in more permanent and less hazardous employment. We have never looked upon mining as the main stay of a country. It is a very valuable addition to other ways of obtaining a livelihood, and thus far it has been the means of attracting population to lands that would otherwise have been desert to this day. It may be regarded therefore as employed by Providence as a means to an end, It has appealed to the acquisitive propensities of mankind, and has proved sufficient to draw tens of thousands to search for it. But the fever is past. Gold has been found to cost gold, and sometimes the harvest has proved less valuable than the seed. I There are many qualities in a gold j mining population worthy of admiration. To succeed they must possess enterprise, vast muscular power, untiring industry, patience under disappointment, moderation in success, habits of order and self-control, honesty, and, we may add, sobriety. Never, until the gold mining era of the last five-and-twenty or thirty years, did the world v/itness how communities of men, each individual supposed to bo actuated by intenEe selfishness, could frame for themselves laws, it may be said in some respects separate and distinct from the laws of the land in which they lived, and abide by them. Yet, in one respect, a gold mining population is not the best for a country : it is unsettled. So long as gold is to be picked up and gathered with a pick, a shovel, and a long torn, they remain on the land and spend freely what they earn easily ; but when the surface is skimmed and capital must be invested as well as labor, the majority seek out new ground, although to. find it they have to traverse half the globe. Instances of this are numberless in the experience of every goldmining country. San Fiancisco sent its thousands to Victoria and New South Wales : Victoria and New South Wales ten or fifteen thousand or more to Otago: Otago ten thousand to the West Coast and Auckland, and every goldfield sent its quota to Queensland. In each country a sufficient number has remained to maintain the j name Jof its being gold-producing, but ' there ia not one that once appeared i so dependent upon the yield of gold, J but now seeks to maintain its inhabi- j tants on other, though less dazzling j pursuits. So far as Auckland is concerned, geographically, it seems unsuited to sustaining a large population. J

The Provinees of New Zealand that are the most prosperous owe their ' superiority to the chief ports being jasily connected with a large area of country calculated for pasture and agriculture. Thus Otago was enabled to supply a largft mining population with food raised within the Province; and while goldmining flourished, other industries were built upon it. Auckland, though a fine port, may be said to have but little or no agriculture, and the pastoral area is cramped through, being injudiciously hold by the Natives. Through this peculiarity of position, probably aggravated by a climate unsuited to production of cereals, Auek- [ land is dependent for its food supply upon other districts. Otago, Canterbury, and South Australia send thither their flour, Taranaki its stock. Perhaps no Province in New Zealand has equal facilities of river communication, but they do not connect the port with large producing communities. Auckland suffers through want of variety of products, so that men, disappointed in one pursuit cannot readily turn to another. The condition of the mining interest is proving this. Possibly the miners, tired of waiting on fortune, might tind profitable employment in Otago in the way of life they have chosen; for it can hardly be doubted that vast stores of gold remain yet to be obtained; but experience points to the advisability of developing and encouraging more certain modes of getting a living. Gold mining is a good thing to fall back upon, and we should be glad to see some well organised plan by which men could be employed at it profitably to themselves and the community when other industries are slack. But we think those who make it their sole business should be left to find their own work, in the same manner as the Chinese. They never seem to miss their aim, and always appear to have a settled purpose aud well-ordered arrangements. In whatever else we may be superior to them, in that respect they sot us a good example. British freedom is a valuable privilege, but there is yet to be added to it the power of co-operation based on knowledge. These combined with British pluck, courage, and enterprise, would insure constant and steady advancement in prosperity.