The Lyttelton Times

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 467, 25 April 1857, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times

Saturday, April 25£ A. The news from Nelson is likely to create 'considerable excitement in the other provinces of New Zealand. Wherever gold is to be found in any quantity, men are apt to congregate together,without much consideration as to the probable advantages and disadvantages of suddenly leaving their homes and giving up the business they were profitably engaged in. There can scarcely be any doubt now but that working gold-fields have been discovered in and about Massacre Bay, and that the majority of those who have as yet gone there are full of hopt as to the future; Yet it must not be concealed that other accounts, less favourable than those in the. public prints,have reached us by private hand, and that it is manifestly to the advantage of Nelson to give the most favourable accounts of the new diggings. The ' Nelson Examiner,' we observe, speaks very guardedly and cautiously on the subject. The evident anxiety which is shown by it not to deceive the public and to get at the truth is worthy the high character which that paper has always maintained. We may, however,gather, as we have above said, that the Nelson diggings are likely to attract a large population to the district in which they are discovered.

The first enquiry of Canterbury will of course be, What effect are these gold diggings likely to have upon this province ? and this question can, we think, be satisfactorily answered. Anything which conduces to the advantage of any one province of New Zealand must conduce to the wellbeing of the whole colony. It is impossible that Nelson should make any great stride in wealth and prosperity without a proportionate advance in the adjacent provinces/ If* we play our cards well, it is not improbable that the inhabitants of this corn growing province may reap even greater advantage from the diggings than . the inhabitants of Nelson itself. It is notorious that in Australia the large fortunes were seldom made by diggers. Those who sup. plied the diggers reaped a far more certain and far easier harvest. If our settlers resist the temptation of gold seeking, they will probably do better than even successful gold-diggers, without leaving their homes and families. We are assuming now that the Nelson gold-fields will afford occupation to a large ' population. But we have still to learn the certainty of this. If »ye balance the certainty of well-being which attends the settler on our plains and the equal certainty of his benefiting by any wealth which may be developed in a neighbouring province, with the uncertainty, risk, dis-

comfort, and waste of property attending a digger's life, surely the scale will turn, with reasoning men in favour of the former. If there are any who have determined at all risks toll try their fortune at the diggings, we would recommend them at all events to await the issue of the next two or three months. Let them remember time alone will test the accuracy of the rumour that flies about on the first symptoms of a gold

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