THE HAWKE’S BAY TIMES. NAPIER, THURSDAY, OCT. 3, 1861.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 14, 3 October 1861, Page 2

THE HAWKE’S BAY TIMES. NAPIER, THURSDAY, OCT. 3, 1861.

From our Otago correspondence published in an “ extra” on Monday, and reprinted in our columns to-day, it will be perceived that a disappointment awaits many of the feverstricken gold diggers, who are in all probability now on their way to the Tuapeka diggings—the el dorado of the New Zealand Islands. The subject is placed in so clear a light by our correspondent and in the extracts we give from contemporary journals as to need but little illustration from us • and we are inclined to think that the “ latest intelligence from the gold fields will damp the ardour of many an intending digger, and even cause not a few who had almost determined to leave us to change their minds and stay where they are. And we may ask—why is this? Is there a falling off in the supply of the precious metal ? Is the extent of the auriferous country too contracted for the increasing population ? Neither the one nur the other ; the quantity of the precious metal brought in by each succeeding escort '■•ms antly increases, though not (and here's tne rub) in tim same proportion to the increasing population ; the auriferous country is also most probably of great extent, hut whether gold in -paying quantities can he obtained beyond comparatively narrow limits is altogether another question, indeed the probability seems to he that such, is almost exclusively confined to the gullies, of which that named after the fortunate discoverer, Gabriel, is perhaps the best example. Now, those who are strangers to the peculiarities of New Zealand geological conformation may not, and we may say cannot, form an idea of <mr gullies in any degree approaching to the truth, ami in consequence may reasonably suppose that the large “finds” they read of can he obtained almost anywhere in the auriferous soil ; hut we who know what a New Zealand gully is like can well understand the comparatively contracted spaces in which the rich yields are likely to be found. The gully may fitly be compared to a natural cradle or “ long Tom” of enormous dimensions, in which the process of gold washing has been carried on for centuries, while its bottom has been unexamined until now, and tiie diggers on the field may he compared to a party, of which one takes the bottom of the cradle, and the rest examines the soil that has net yet been washed, or, what is worse, the refuse earth that has already passed through, leaving its gold behind. Whether the rush to New Zealand will ultimately prove for the good or the evil of the colony, time alone can show. Amongst the disappointed will doubtless he many of that elms who will have spent their all in reaching cur shores, —who, being without means of returning to their country, will of necessity he so much addition to our permanent labouring population, and as laud on on the middle island is -plentiful, reasonably good and of moderate price, those of them who are of industrious and sober habits willrise to fern a valuable addition to our colonial population ; but on the other hand the lust of gold is well known to be foremost among the inducements which entice the evil-disposed of our kind to any locality where their avarice may he by any means gratified. We are therefore under great apprehension that we shall shortly hear of similar excesses to those which we have heard cf as occurring on the Californian and Australian gold fields. Happily for the

colonists in the neighborhood of our gold fields all seems as yet to go on well. It was a pleasing feature in the accounts of the first diggers located in Gabriel’s Gully that they had refused to allow the sale of intoxicating drinks on the gold field. Of course as a more mixed multitude arrived this resolution could hardly be expected to be carried out, as some would make their appearance amongst them who would not forego their indulgence in their passion for strong drink, while many more, who would be only too glad to be kept cut of the way of temptation, would not be able to resist when brought within its influence, and we were grieved to hear that sly grog-selling was carried on to a fearful extent. We cannot too strongly express our indignation at the. conduct if those who, for gain, were the first to introduce these liquors there, well-knowing, as they must have done, the evils they would certainly entail upon a previously sober population. We yet trust, for the sake-of '

Kew Zealand, and particularly for the sake of our fellow colonists of Otago, that we shall not be called on to lament the occurrence of such scenes of demoralisation and crime as have almost universally disgraced a gold field wherever it may have been.