The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 1863.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume II, Issue 62, 2 December 1863, Page 4

The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 1863.

Looking back into history would be the means of furnishing an instructive lesson to every legislator; but looking back into history, so far as it shews the effects resulting from gold being produced from a country, would be particularly instructive to the legislature of this Province. The gold of Ophir, with which Solomon decorated the temple in Jerusalem, was not the first upon record. And the gold of Ophir, inexhaustible as it seems to have been thought, has departed, and left no trace of its locality. The discovery of gold in a country has often been declared to be a curse to that country. We have no intention of entering into an ethical description as to what effects the possession of gold may have upon individual and weak natures, but we deny the truth of the aphorism, that gold is a curse to a country. If gold be taken as it ought to be, merely as one element of wealth, and used in its proper way, and in combination with other elements of wealth which a country may contain, it is decidedly a blessing. The coal which has been produced from the earth far exceeds in value the gold. Because the latter, by reason of its scarcity, has become a criterion of value—unthinking men are accustomed to look upon it as possessing value above all other material things. Gold may be valuable, or not valuable, as its utility may be affected by place or circumstance. A thirsty wretch crossing a desert would look upon an oasis and a draught of water as infinitely more valuable than a gold-bearing quartz reef. A starving man would gladly part with the " gold of Afric, or the gems of Golconda," for a morsel of bread. Gold is only valuable for the uses to which it can be pnt. The treasures of the earth are manifold, and it becomes those who have the government of a country in their hands to watch narrowly what may be most beneficial for that country. We know that gold has been found almost in every corner of the earth at some period or another, and we know that gold has always, in every clime, become exhausted. We know also, that, although the earth may have ceased to yield up her riches in the shape of precious metals, she will never cease to yield her fruits if the soil be tilled.

We do not purpose, in the present article, to adduce facts as to the general spread of gold, and the way in which it has disappeared from various countries at different times. We reserve that for another article, which will follow as a part of this. Our intention at present is to call the attention of the legislature to the necessity of opening up the agricultural lands of the Province, so that their riches may be developed simultaneously with the mineral riches of the soil, and that the general interest of all classes in the Province may be benefitted thereby. So long as the yield of gold continues, surely it will be beneficial to all if a part of it is kept within the Province, to assist in developing the other

natural riches which the Province contains. The gold in the Province of Otago is the principal source of its wealth, but it is an ex haustible one. The wealth, however, contained in the soil is of permanent worth, and, in fact, the only thing which can ever make the country continuously prosperous. It must be then a necessity that some attention should be paid to the parcelling out of these lands commensurate to the important influence which they have over the Province. Already in Otago, the most youthful of goldbearing countries, has the usual diminution of the supply of gold commenced. When the supply has ceased altogether, what will be the result to those in the Province if proper means have not been taken to foster other sources of wealth ? No commercial interests can exist unless they are backed by agricultural ones in the interior of the country. The only real and permanent source of wealth is land; and countries can only be prosperous if the resources of that land are made available. The primary object of the Imperial legislature in fostering colonies has ever been that they might become places of settlement for surplus population. It looks as if the original object of Colonial and Provincial governments is to thwart this intention, and to drive to and fro those who have come with the right which God and Nature has put into their hands—to settle. While cruelly withholding the power to settle upon the soil, they who do so do not hesitate to make it a subject of reproach to those whom they thus prevent, that they do not settle.

We purpose returning to this subject, and showing a comparative statement of the prosperity of those gold-bearing countries where the governments have attended equally to the interests of those concerned in developing their resources, and the prosperity of those gold-bearing countries where exclusive attention has been given to the production of gold.