Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 8th, 1920. THE MINES STATEMENT.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 September 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPT. Bth, 1920. THE MINES STATEMENT.

The Mines Statement this year bears some slight evidence of not being the mere official statement of dry statistics it lias fallen into of late years. This .is some promise that the new Minister of Mines, the Rt. Hon W. F. Massey, is taking a grip of affairs, docs not intend to be a mere figurehead *>r a x.qund peg in a square hole. But, withal, there is sjxll packing that essential of a live ©apartment—a definite policy of development.. Any concern which stands still in effect goes back. The cry to-day is for advancement, for without progress being accomplished nothing is attempted and nothing done, and the honest reward of sincere toil is not earned. The Mines Department has beeen “going slow,” — that pernicious microbe which is eating its way into the vitals of this country. It is all very well to rail at individuals, or combinations of individuals, prac-

tising the “go-slow,” policy on the community. It is done with a. purpose to retard progress, and when practised it has its effect, but when a State Department pursues a like line of policy it injures the country as a whole, for its influence affects the whole Dominion. So we would invite the New Minister of Mines to discard the rest and be thankful inactivity of the past, and girding hie loins, hit out on a line of policy wfiifc-h will make amende and so retrieve some of the lost ground the late marking time has been responsible for. In the Statement itself, the Minister enumerates some of the means whereby it is prepared to help the prospector, but more than this is required, j if not demanded, by the circumstances. , Where the prospector may go is the territory of the State. The State there- , fore has some obligations Of its own to develope its own estate. The goal which was set away back in the early ' .nineties by making the Geological De- 4 parfment, a live concern, might be set out for again. Dealing with gold=mining alone, the records show that over g eighty-eight millions sterling value of jj

gold was exported from the Dominion 1 up to December last. This is an enor- ( mous yield and further the magic { qualities of gold not only created an enormous expenditure and development in regard to the building up of the 1 country, but it brought to New Zealand 1 a population of sturdy people who have left stock which has not disgraced its forebears. The encouragement of goldmining is therefore worth while, and if | Mr Massey could but catch the enthusiasm of the gold miner, the practice of the spirit would do great tilings for the country. Here on the West Coast over thirty millions sterling of gold ! has been won from nature, and there ' must be many plaoed hemmed in and sealed by nature still richly gold-bear- 1 ing and awaiting discovery and development. The prospectors, now, perforce, are few and far between. The old spirit is being starved out of the men by the hard and difficult times and the lack of, sympathetic treatment. Labor is scarce, and provisions and material are dear. The subsidies in some cases have not paid for rails and candles, and it is hard to buffer nature without financial resources. The storekeeper cannot afford to be as long suffering as he used to lie, and so with resources contracted, the prospectors have ibecome a negligible quantity. The industry in the past has repaid the country in advance for anything which might be done now to assist in its revival. These are the days when countries are going in for research w6rk, and prospecting, like all other matter must be tackled scientifically. The average gold-prospector Is not always well equipped in that respect, which makes it all the more necessary for a trained party of scientists to lead in the prospecting. In a country so highly mineralised as New Zealand is, there is no telling what . such a party might drop on in the fastnesses of the unexplored portions of the Dominion. Here on the Coast traces of all kinds of minerals have been found, and the most valuable are not being looked for. That is a reflection and a reproach on the Mines Department, which will not be a Department , in being till it takes up prospecting in the genuine way it should.