A MORAL FOR MINING SPECULATORS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1316, 17 October 1872, Page 2

A MORAL FOR MINING SPECULATORS.

The Rev. Warlow Davies, in the course of a sermon, in Auckland, touchingly referred to the death of Cazaly, taking his text from James IV., 13—15.: From the report in the Cross we extract the following :—" He, among the rest of men, had trusted too much to the contingent reauMa of the world for his happinp&e. He h*d

calculated upon what no man could reckon upon here below — upon a certainty that wealth would be the result of his commercial undertakings. It was a sad — it was a terrible mistake. A greater mistake still, because by placing a full reliance on the promise of God there could be no mistake. He did not say that our gold fields had not been the means of creating a great worldly prosperity ;' and there could be no doubt that the gold which was found in the hills and valleys of this. Province had been placed there for a wise purpose, fie believed our auriferous reefs had raised the Province from a state of great depression to its present high commercial position. But ho could not help thinking that vast numbers of men .had become greatly demoralised by forgetting that that gold was intended td be honestly sought and labored for> and then to be uaed for honest purposes. When a man offered something for sale, no matter whether it was scrip, or gold, or land, or merchandise, and offered it under Misrepresentation— offered it knowing that he was practicing a deception and was asking more than its intrinsic valuethat man was guilty of a great fraud. Mr Cazaly had been trusting and credulous ; but those whom he trusted would yet have to answer at an invisible throne lor the wicked deqd they had committed. Whoever had gained by these deceptions had made their gain at the price of man's blood. There was no reason why those who worked our gold fields, or managed j the commerce denved from them, should not be as honest as those who followother pursuits j but he feared greatly it was not so. Undue greed of gain, the excitement attendant upon gold-getting, the chances of becoming suddenly rich, demoralised men's minds, and led them to do those wrongs of which all of us had heard so much. In this colony men were subjected to extremes of prosperity or misfortunes, Rich to-day they were poor the next surrounded by affluence at one time ana at another struggling for a subsistence. It was here that men should place their highest hopes and expectations on that Great Power which would hold them up against all adversity; which would help them to be humble in their prosperity, and hopeful when reverses fell upon them.