tHE Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1881.

Kumara Times, Issue 1558, 24 September 1881, Page 2

tHE Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1881.

Notwithstanding the general depression which is said to exist throughout the colony, the mining industry may safely be said to be in a tolerably prosperous condition on the West Coast, or in this district at all events. It is quite true that many men are working very hard f..r very small returns, but it is equally true that a large number are working claims which are yielding very handsome returns-. It is Vbiy much to he doubted if any ground throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand, is giving equally good dividends as the many claims in the district ot Knmara. If we compare our position with that of other goldfields in the colony, we find this, that While here new ground is being opeued-up and worked in all directions, elsewhere the work amounts to mere “fossicking,” and turning over ground that was more or less worked out years ago. Those who have visited the Otago goldfields after au absence of many years have observed that in a vast majority of cases, it was simply the same old gullies being worked, and re-worked over and over again, while in many cases the mining population were represented merely by a few Chinamen, who, judging from their appearance, barely managed *o eke out a miserable living. On the West Coast, however, matters are widely different, and theie is found to he fair scope for the energies of the miners. Further than this, mining on the West Coast is being carried out on a very extensive scale, arid we venture to say that in no part of the wot Id is there more genuine mining enterprise shown than there is in Westland. One very important result which arises from this is that the mining industry is becoming a settled pursuit. If those persons who represent cockatoo settlements in obscure parts of the colony had an opportunity (and made use of it) of visiting our goldfields, they might possibly be made to understand that a goldfields population is not so nomadic as they have chosen to imagine. A largo proportion of the miners of this district have obtained double areas, and that

means that they have years of work before them. Those who assume that miners are here to-day and away tomorrow should be made to understand that nothing bat the stupidly imperfect condition of the land laws of the colony, has prevented the miners from making suitable homes for themselves. In addition to this, it must not be forgotten that tbesystem of nominated Waste Lands Boards has had the most detrimental effects, the members in a vast majority of cases being residents of large towns, immersed in their own occupations, knowing nothing whatever about the country districts, and probably caring as little. If the miners upon the West Coast had been afforded an opportunity of settling upon the lands, the cry about a wandering population would have ceased long since. In consequence of the restrictions placed upon the sale of land, the miners have been forced, against their will, to invest their hard earnings (when they were fortunate enough to make a few hundred pounds) in other parts of the colony. The most thriving farmers in Otago made their first “ rise,” as it is called, on the diggings. The subject opened up is a large one, and consequently cannot he done justice to in a few words, therefore we propose to make further reference to it on a future occasion.