THE OTAGO GOLD FIELDS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 10, 5 September 1861, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE OTAGO GOLD FIELDS.

extract the following from the Otago Witness of August 10; As was naturally to be expected, the news of the Otago Gold Field is having an effect upon the labour morket of the adjoining and neighbouring. Provinces, We have not the slightest doubt that, when the news has been fully confirmed at the more northern settlements, we shall receive additions from thence, and the shifting portion of the population of Australia will, of course, pay us a visit. All these events we may anticipate as a matter of course ; they occur wherever a really paying Gold Field is discovered, and that the Otago discoveries are of a paying nature is no longer to be doubted. We mentioned in our last that Mr. Reid had been prospecting on the Waitahuna, and reported favourably of that district. We now learn that a number I ot people are upon that stream working, and that many of them are doing well. Th" "°- ports which reach us appear to be rather of the nature of fables, and we refrain from mentioning them until fully confirmed; but that gold exists in the last mentioned locality, 10 miles from the Tuapeka, and not within the boundaries of the Gold Field of 50,000 acres already proclaimed, is a fact there is no denying. It is, therefore, quite impossible to say where gold may not be found, as the country for hundreds of miles presents the same geological formation. The number of persons at the diggings is considerably over 2000. Those who have returned to town axe comparatively few ; and, notwithstanding the severity of the season, the want of proper appliances (especially pumps) by the great majority of the diggers, those who can work are reported to be doing well; and as the summer approaches, we may fairly anticipate that even more of our existing population will be off. Numbers of the emigrants by the Storm Cloud have gone; the sailors of the ships have deserted; and we hear that the seamen of the Chrysolite, at Canterbury have started to walk overland. That our labour market will be completely deranged during the next twelve months is self-evident and that all New Zealand will feel the effect of the change cannot be doubted. The extent of that derangement in the neighbouring Provinces will much depend upon the facility with which their populations can migiate, and how far the gold field may extend ; hut at present there has been sufficient extent of gold producing country discovered, to afford occupation for twelve months to a larger population than there is any posibility of reaching ns. Already persons at Port Chalmers engaged in the business of discharging ships, receive 15s. per diem, and no man will lift his hand for less than 10s., however short a time the job offered may The Provincial Government have been obliged to raise the wages of the police force to ATB2 per annum for privates, £2OO for corporals, and <£22B for sergeants; and as a matter of course all occupations of a manual nature must be paid for in proportion. As we have often remarked, the discovery of a gold field is not an unmixed blessing. All our own public works, except such as are of immediate necessity, must be stopped. The operations of our farmers were stopped at a season when the seed had not been put into the ground, and the yield of corn and other necessaries of life will be less by thousands of bushels than we would require with our ordinary population. We must, therefore, import, and whether the prices to be obtained for these necessaries may not pay the Canterbury farmers better than coming to the is a question for their consideration. Supplies from Australia will, of course, rule the market, and there is no chance of prices rising as high with us as they did there in 1852 '53 ; but that prices will be high there is no doubt, and we arc persuaded that the r few, for they will be but few, in our own Province, who resist the temptation of taking a ticket in the lottery and stick to their ordinary occupation, will do better than hundreds who go to the diggings.