SIR JULIUS VOGEL AT LAWRENCE.

Kumara Times, Issue 3147, 4 December 1886, Page 3

SIR JULIUS VOGEL AT LAWRENCE.

Sir Julius Vogel (Colonial Treasurer), accompanied by a number of Dunedin gentlemen, visited Lawrence (Otago) by special train on Friday, the 26th ultimo. The party inspected the Blue Spur. A dinner was subsequently held, at which the Mayor (Mr G. 0. Taylor) proposed the health of Sir Julius Vogel. In the evening Sir Julius Vogel addressed a crowded meeting at the Town Hall. His remarks in reference to the first discovery of gold in Oiago and to mining geuerally are very inter, esting, and will, we are sure, be welcomely perused by the majority of our readers. We quote from the Preps Association telegram to Christchurch papers:— GOLD MINERS. My early life waß passed a great deal on the goldfields. I have known their hardships and their fascinations, and I do not doubt that in this district I have friends and acquaintances of many years' standing. The miners of Victoria have spread themselves over the whole colonies, and taken in the whole are a grand race of men. I do not doubt that there are amongst you who can remember, and I am sure they will not forget, that what gave the great impetus to this district was the first rush from Victoria, and I was amongst the many thousands who came with that rush. This is my second visit to Lawrence, though on the last occasion I visited it, it was called by its ancient name of Tuapeka. AN ANCIENT EPISODE. It is now nineteen years since I was here, and I need not tell you that the place has grown out of all recognition. I came on that occasion, being a member of the Provincial Government, because of an act of aggression committed by the Geoeral Government in taking out of their charge the management of the goldfields. We may laugh now at these things, but then they •were looked upon as serious, and to us tragical events. I remember that I arrived there unexpectedly and took possession of the goldfields buildings, and thought I had very successfully executed my mission, but I cannot say it turned out so, because during the night the officers of the General Government got through the windows and took out all the books and documents, so that I was left with rather a barren charge.—[Laughter.] OUR GOLD EXPORTS. I look upon the Tuapeka discovery of gold as the first great episode of prosperity in the colony of New Zealand.— [Applause.] There was but little gold obtained before the discovery of Gabriel's Gully, and uow I find the value of the precious metal exported from New Zealand amounts to no less than the prodigious sum of forty-three millions sterling. Could we realise what.a vast sum it means, and the good it must have done ns directly and indirectly ? Of this £43,000,000 I find that Otago has produced £17,760,000* Weatl-ind, £12,930,000 ; £6,510,000; Auckland, £5,597,000; and Marlborough £207,000. I have not yet given you the amounts lower than £IOOO, but if that became necessary Wellington has only contributed the large amount of £706 and Canterbury £96—[Laughter]—so you have an anti-climax, but I do not think it is safe to say, seeing how unexpectedly gold is discovered, that of those places may not yet swell the list largely.

WHAT GOLD MINING DOES. I have heard people say that it does not pay to work gold; that it is obtained at a greater cost than its value. I believe nothing of the sort. These people do not take into consideration the many indirect ways in which gold mining benefits a community—the larger employment it gives to all classes of people, and all species of occupations. I look upon it as of all pursuits one of the most useful for the purposo of distributing wealth throughout a community, and I do not believe that the gold in Otago, or even in this district, or in New Zealand, is in any way exhausted. To use an old adage, I believe there are as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it, that we shall yet find that gold will be to us the same means of prosperity in the future as in the past.—[Applause.] THE SCARCITY OF GOLD. Now the scarcity of gold is one of the great difficulties of the age. At the present the appreciation, as it is called, which makes the purchasing power of the sovereign so large has for its effect to give such an advantage to those with mixed incomes over the working pmtions of (he community. It is my belief that it is one of the active agents which have led to the depression and distress which exists, though in different stages and depths, throughout the whole world ; and I believe no greater service could be rendered to mankind at piesent than a great gold discovery to replenish the stock of the precious metal through the world. It is curious how rapidly large amounts of capital aro being subscribed in England for the purpose of mining pursuits. THE RICHES OF THE SIOLYNEUX. I know that some say that I am rather mad on this subject, but in my opinion there is enough gold in the CI "it ha River alone to make everyone in Otago rich, and it seems to me a reproach to the energy of this community that for something like twenty years it has been allowed to rest there with comparatively litti'e effort to obtain it. We all remember how after the first rush at Gabriel's Gully the whole of New Zealand was startled at hearing that two men had picked out with their knives in a few days on one of the Molyneux beaches, a large amount of gold. We know how thousands flocked to the spot, and the river rose almost immediately ; how they waited for months for it to fall, and how many of them went to other places, especially to the West Coast rush, and I believe, in fact, that the river has never since fallen to so low a level as on that occasion. I am glad to hear that efforts are now being made to get the gold by means of newly invented dredgers, and, if successful, it seems to me that large engineering efforts will probably follow in their wake, and that great results may ensue. A MINING REVIVAL. It is curious how things go together. I am told on good authority that there seems now something of the return of a «old revival all over the colony. Whereas, a few months ago people were in the last stages of depression as regarded mining ventures, there are now substantial realities which will tend to make them more hopeful for the future. I heard gf a case in Wellington where a gentleman some three or four months ago parted with some 1200 odd shares which he held in a certain quariz company on the West Coast because he was tired of paying the calls. He parted with the 1200 for the small sum of 20s, and the shares are now selling at over £2 each. This uncertainty that accompanies goldmining is one of its chief characteristics. It is also a characteristic that when the advance unexpectedly takes place, it generally does so all along the line. This has been exemplified in the case of Victoria, where a few years ago the mining industry was at a low ebb, and now at the present time it is in a prosperous condition. AN ANECDOTE. And here I may tell you of an anecdote which I saw in the papers lately regarding the uncertainty of mining, which is too good not to be true. A gentleman on the Pacific slope was called upon by a friend, who was surprised to find his whole study papered with scrip of a mining company. On inqtiiiing the meaning of th" eccentricity, the gentleman told him that it was to perpetually remind him of his folly in inventing in mining undertakings, with the object of preventing him doing the same thing again. A few weeks after he was called upon by his friend again, who found him with a pail of waier, and a brush industriously pulling down the mining scrip. On being asked the meaning of this he sail " Everyone of these scrip is worth nnvr ■ IOuO dols., and I am Liking ibem tlown j myself, bscause I could not iruat anyi body else tu do ho," —[Applause.]

THE GOVERMIKNT AND MINING PURSUITS. Gentlemen, I hope you will not think I am taking too much credit to myself, but I cannot help feeling that this revival of the prospects of mining, and especially the revival of interest in mining pursuits, is coincident with the much larger attention given to mining affairs by the present Government.— [App'ause.] The Government have certainly done all they could to encourage mining pursuits, and I thiuk they may fairly take some credit if good results follow.—[Applause.j The Minister for Mines, my colleague Mr Larnach, spares no pains hi his endeavours to do all he can to benefit the goldfields personally, so that he shall be under no mistake as to the condition's which are existing, and I think also that the Government have done something in the way of legislation to benefit the goldfields. I may point to the Mining Act of last session, and ask you to agree with me that the consolidation of mining laws in itself was a most valuable work, and it is all the more valuable that together with the consolidation a great many matters, the result of the knowledge gained by experience, were added to the new Act. Amongst others, there was the reduction of the miner's right—[applause] a step which I cannot help thinking was of the greatest possible advantage in allowing any person who is not in other employment the opportunity of testing his good fortune in working on his own account as a miner. We also tried, and tried hard, to obtain a reduction in the rate of the export duty on gold, with a view to its ultimate removal. You are aware, gentlemen, that though we canied this in the Lower House, it did not meet with the approval of the Legislative Council, and after a considerable amount of struggling the Bill was thrown out for the session, a fate which I nm sorry to say had frequently previously awaited a similar measure. Still I am disposed to think there will not be much longer delay, and that we shall shortly see those parts of the goldfields that consider that the goldfields revenue derived from the export duty should be reduced and ultimately removed will carry the day, and that such a measure will be passed.—[Applause.]