THE COLONIAL MINING POPULATION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1472, 5 November 1872, Page 2

THE COLONIAL MINING POPULATION.

(From the Marlborough Press.) A sudden fit of restlessness seems tohave seized miners in these coloDie%Everywhere they are leaving, or talking of leaving, for somewhere else. Thochief centres of attraction at presentappear to bo thß new diggings uv< Queensland, near Townsville, and the. reported diggings at the Roper River*. in the North of Australia. To the fernmet an exodus is going on from Victoria, New South Wales, and theThames. To the latter miners arc proceeding from Victoria, and the VVest Coast of this island. In the case of the Queensland diggings there appears to* have been some show of reason for themigration thither; though the latest reports say that the accounts of the richness of the diggings were much exaggerated, aad even that the lich lead is worked out. In the case of the Roper River, however, there is nothing; but the most vague information to* justify the ruslu It is to he feared that the miners who have gone or are going; thither will repent their hasty step.. To go to a place so far beyond ail civilization, in a country almost wholly un? known, and subject to tropical fevers,, is not an inviting prospect; but this of course will nob deter miners who havegot it into their head«, how they don't, know, that there is plenty of gold there. Miners started for New Guinea, and came to grief r ihey went to Natal,.and came back penniless : they went to the diamond fields, and are now coming, away again poorer than they went: but they do not heed these failures. Their pluck is indeed admirable, even though, in some cases it should verge on folly. Tn the present case there are miners going to unknown wilds in search of* gold that may not exist, leaving- good claims in the Grey Valley, and tested quartz reefs at Inangahua. In Qtago, too, some of them are talking of* leaving for Australia, while Chinamen, are making <£9o per week at the Shotover. It is, of course, useless to arguewith men who prefer hope to certainty. —otherwise it might be poiuted out that this nomadic character of themining population is in a great measureto blame for the iH-tieafcrnent that theminers complain of receiving at thehands of Government. Governments, are naturally slow to expend mom 1 )' oa districts which may lie deserted at the first breath of a rumor that gold has been discovered in some out of the way place. Like residents in districts frequented by tourists, they make as much as th<7 can while they have the chance—they pluck as many feathers as possible from these birds of passage beforethese take their flight. Nor can they be hlaoied for so doing, any more than* a man can be blamed for not improving a property of which be may be deprived, at any moment. Sir David Monro, iiL a speech made at the last general election, spoke of persons who possessed! only a portmanteau and a box of paper collars, meaning thereby persons whocould leave the Colony at the-shortest, notice, if it suited them to do so. If he had spoken of mm who. carry their fortunes in their swag*, ne w o»ld ha.™ been more true to colonial life, and; would have indicated, a class with ! which everyone in the Colony is familiar—the class of which wc havespoken above.