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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1452, 11 October 1872, Page 2

The writer of "Under the Verandah," in the Melbourne Leader, dilates upon gold-mining and gold seekers as follows ; —I have been at a mine meeting at which the directors have read and distributed a very glowing report of the condition of the mine. This is as usual, and it is nothing. But when the meeting i* concluded a group is formed in the mom, and there are some gold-miners who are railing at the Govcruquiit for wishing to maintain the

half-crown duty per ounce on gold. Tben ray dander is riz, and I give the* fellows a piece of my mind. I telk theni that out of Australia and New Zealand there is no country in tho wide, wide world the Government or which would grant so many indulgences and make so many concessions to thedigger?. "For a twenty-shilling* license fee," I say, " a digger, with pick;, shovel, and pan in hand, can wander through the length and breadth of the province, turning up the soil here,, there, and everywhere, in search of thethe precious metal He may get upon as much gold by digging on a few daysor weeks as will set him up for life. Armed with his piece of parchment, which has cost him £l, no one may say him nay for a whole year in search for gold. If aurifeious acres of quartz are discovered, those who first come upon them can peg out their 10 to 20 acres of ground upon a slight annual payment —giound beneath which more gold may be come upon thaa there is bullion in the Bank of England. The diggers demand that roads shall be made for them ; that Wardens shall be appointed to settle their differences ; that Courts of Justice shall beprovided; that they shall possess the franchise; that they may send their own representatives to Parliament; and: that their every interest shall be watched and protected whilst they are disembowelling the rocks and alluvial soils rich with the golden ore. Would this be allowed in France, in Germany,, or Russia, or any country of the four quarters of the globe outside ot the British dominions? When any man for a few shillings per annum can become a gold-digger, labor is drawn away from flowing in its legitimate channels. The land ceases to be cultivated to the extent it should be, and other industries are crippled because men are permitted to go forth and turn over the soil instead of tilling and cultivating it. We have raised up to ourselves a Frankensteiu, and who now turns and defies us with its power. Instead of the gold dutj being reduced, in my humble opinion it should be doubled,, and the license fee very greatly increased. Then perhaps agricultural and many other interests would revive and flourish.