The Hokitika Guardian SATURDAY, APRIL Ist, 1922. THE WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 April 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian SATURDAY, APRIL Ist, 1922. THE WEEK.

Considering the fact that the province of Otago has yielded geld to the value of over thirty millions, which is rather more than five millions ahead of the West Coast in value it is quite surprising to find the evening paper in Dunedin expressing deprecatory remarks about gold production. The paper irt a recent editorial expresses opinions which seem to be prompted rather 'by jealousy thoto. good sense and certainly some comment is founded on wrong premises. The recent statement of the Minister of Mines as to the success of the Rimu Flat dredge is the text which has .brought forth the attention of the Dunedin paper. It might be remarked in passing that the Hon.. Anderson was not himself very cordially disposed to the American venture, and his passing comment at Kumara for instance was hardly in good taste. Perhaps he conveyed something of his personal feelings to the Dunedin interviewer, with the result that there has been thought transference to the editorial columns. Also the Minister and the Department for the matter of that plumes itself a good deal about the use of the Government drills for the prospecting. Those who gather the impression that the Government did the prospecting will be quite in error. The Government loaned the machines on hard and fast conditions, and the prospecting was financed by private enterprise. The folk did their own prospecting at their own expense and satisfied with the results launched out. The first company, principally of New South Wales capital did not succeed! because the plant; was not equal to the occasion. To give honor unstintingly wheie honor is due it is as well to say that the Americans succeeded because they understood their job and put a machine on to d°

that job. The same gold was there all the time-, and the project was open to all.

The pleasing part about the whole project is that it is a success—so assured that the Company contemplates a second and even a third dredge and sooner or later must install a large hydro-electric plant to supply' the power. An enterprise of this dimensions is not to be decried at this juncture, when Ministers on all sides aro calling for more and more production auj what more useful commodity can Ire produced at this moment than gold? Tlio expenditure in connection with the large dredging enterprise at Rimu Flat will mn into hundreds of thousands of pounds. It will he a large employer of labor, and all along the Company had not cavilled about wages—high rates have been paid. Material in a, large quantity has been purchased in the Dominion, so that this branch of the mining industry has justified itself fully and given a ;yery substantial quid »prb quo for the mining privileges held. Having said so much aoout the enterprise itself, let us turn now to the newspaper comment. The, reference is made to Rimu Flat being well timbered. This is not so how, the adjacent sawmills have been through the bush and picked out the eyes of the forest. But what was left is not lost. Th e Dredging Company has taken out milling rights over the small timber reinainings, has erected a sawmill and can use up flic marketable trees which are being saved. So the country is not losing anything from the timber lands On th e contrary the Company is rescuing the available timber which the millers left behind. As to the magnificent soil of which the editorial article spenivs, the Government valuation of the land when used for pastoral pur poses was four shillings an acre—loo acres were valued at £2O! Tn another instance 187 acres were valued at £4O and both these areas were used fori depasturing stock only.

While the Government valuation of the land was so low for pastoral purposes, used as a mining privilege the Company has to pay 7s (kl an acre per annum in ground rent, with mining rates on a large capita] value for the auriferous ground as well. So the State is not losing oil the transaction. The writer of the DutledlU article talks of Riinu Flat being the only land of its kind adjacent to Hokitika and adds “it should he doubly valuable on account of its limited area and position”. One would think Hokitika was a place -surrounded by water, and that there were Ho rich river fiats and wide stretching ttible lands available for settlement. As to being doubly valuable by reason of its position, we see above the wonderful transition in value created by the fortunate circumstances of t.he gold miti* ing enterprise. Th e Rimu Flat was regarded always as highly auriferous It is high and heavily timbered land, with a good deal of heavy metal. It cannot be considered first class agricultural land, or it would not have remained in its virgin state so long, when actually loaded and so close to the town. It would be a costly process to clear the forest growth, stump the land and establish fenced paddocks. The cost would be beyond thp value of the land for farming purposes. The native scrub burned and the land grassed it would yield rougn pasture for light stock, but it could never give the return it is now doing. Th e success of the American system of dredging at Rimu Flat indicates what can be done where heretofore local enterprise has failed. There are other places in the district with greater auriferous possibilities if treated in the the same way, and we believe the success at Rimu will result in the operations ueing so extended. Here on the Coast there can he no complaint and no regret at the Americans success.

Apkopos of forestry matters which Mr \Vill Lawson dealt with this week at the Town Hall, it is interesting to note how otten we are being told about the timber plantation which is to' materialise in the vicinity of Hokitika. It reminds us of the experimental farm 'the late Hon. McNab once promised us—and which lias never come to puss. Mr McNab went througli the district, saw its pastoral possibilities, and then tickled the ears of his auditors at a subsequent gathering with an empty promise. His successors repeated the promises, and still we are without the experimental farm, though it would be interesting to know how many officials visited the district, and what it cost for their pigeon-holed reports on the make believe project. We are very suspici- 1 ous about this timber afforestation in Westland, me promise has been made all round. Those in high positions speak of it as assured, but wuen you follow the matter up to the source it j actual authority, you find there is no j chance of anything practical being ! done. It is all make believe again, I and the Department is dallying with j a subject wliicn can be made always j to read well as a policy measure, but j which in regard to actual practice is something impossible. The lack of | practical work to justify the exist— ; ence of the Forest Serlice in wliat arouses public opposition. To drift along ip an expensive way theorising line]

propounding conditions which load up the cost of timber production, antagonises the opinions of those on the spot, who see and understand what is really happening. It is all very well in a comfortable arm chair in head office to talk about what should ae done, hut it would b e more satisfactory if something were really done to justify existence calculated to afford practical results along the liiies deemed so essential for the future.

•Events have moved- very swiftly in Ireland in the last, few days and the whole outlook has been changed. It is only a couple of months since, commonts an exchange that the English Press united in its 'expression of sat isfaction at the agreement arrived at between Sir James Craig and Mr Michael Collins on the highly controversial subjects of the Boundary Commission, the boycott of Belfast and the victimisation of Catholic workers in Belfast. “The Timbs”, comment upoii this pact, said, ‘‘One notedffirthy feature of the arrangement id that both Premiers are agreed that for the future Irish difficulties can be bfcst settled by Irishmeh, without English intervention.” There were evidences that both the Irish leaders were actuated by worthy and sincere motives. The Belfast boycott ceased, and “The Times” recorded the great revival in trade in Belfast caused by the flood of orders. Sir James Craig for his part, in an address to the Ulster Unionist Council a few days after the pact made it clear that he intended to do his best to bring about a better understanding between north and south. He intended, he said, to alter the “ridiculous” condition of affairs in Belfast, where certain people had to lie warned that they must not walk in certain streets. He quoted Lord Carson, hut his choice of quotations from the sayings of the black past was m itself an augury for a hapoier future. “Ulster can he won,” he repeated “hut she cannot be coerced.” Nothing that has since happened gives any clear evidence tha either the responsible Government of Ulster or the responsible Government of the Irish Free State have altered their commendable resolve to live peaceably and amicably together, Mr Collins’s complaints against sir James Craig notwithstanding. -

But there is quite a mass of evidence that certain malcontents both in Southern Ireland and in Ulster have determined to defeat the cause of peace. Mr do Valera, who becomes more and more the most sinister figure in Ireland, has been credited recently With two extremely inconsistent- utterances. In accepting the presidency of the Irish Racial Conference he made it a condition of acceptance that the conference should not he embroiled in the quarrel of the “two political parties in Ireland,” while at Carrick he is reported to have said that “the Irish soldiery” would “fight for their independence over the dead bodies of the soldiers of the Government set up by the treaty supporters.” The affray in County Donegal, reported in this week’s cable news, where “Republicans” attacked Free State, troops indicates that the dream of a Republican military dictatorship outlined by Commandant O’Connor is a real and mischievous influence in Ireland today. The worst feature of the present situation seems to he that the die-hards on both sides in the interminable Ulster controversy haye succeeded in bringing about a degree of annoyance and irritation which impel both Irish Governments to take their quarrel to London for settlement. It is regrettable that the Irish cannot compose their own differences. But both the Northern and Southern Governments are new in the saddle. Their authority is being challenged, and the challengers are involving Ireland in a state of disorder and insecurity not easily distinguishable from the chaos which resulted in the days of English government. Both sides will have to deal more firmly and decisively with the mischief makers in their respective territories, and that is probably What they will be told in London. Britain has got the Irish tangle off her hands, and is not at all anxious to take it hack.