LETTERS FOR THE PEOPLE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 153, 28 June 1880, Page 2

LETTERS FOR THE PEOPLE.

No. 2. \Commw\ica tedJ] In my first letter j drew attention to our goldfields, particularly those of the West Coast, as a source of employment for our surplus labor. And now a few words with respect to the capabilities and mineral wealth of the West Coast will not be out of place. 1 From the absence of all such excitement as prevailed during the days of the early rushes many people think that our gold districts yield less gold, and that they are incapable of supporting such large numbers of people as in former times, in fact that our goldfields ■ are worked out, and that population is decreasing in the miniug districts. Now, taking Westland as par excellence the gold country of New Zealand, we shall find, on comparing the latest statistics of population and of the export of gold, that this is very far from beiDg the case. The following tables show the population of Westland at the different censuses since that of 1867, the first census in which Westland was apart from Canterbury: —

From the above it will be seen that the population has increased since the days of the first rushes, and also that while there has been a gradual decrease in the male population, the females have increased at an average rate of about 1000 at each census taking, presumably adults, assuming the male and female children to be about equal in point of numbers: thua a larger population than in • former times is supported by a lees number of workeri. The yield of gold for the years 1877 and 1878 is as follows: — 1877: 157,963 oz«, valued at £631,615; 1878: 144,634 ozs, valued at £578,508. The returns for 1879 have not yet been published. Tho falling of£ iv the number of ouncos for 1878, as compared with the previous year, is to a great extent owing to an extraordinarily wet season, which pre. vented the miners, for weeks together, from working their claims, and not from tho claims yielding less, or becoming worked out. On looking at a map of Westland it wll be Been that the towns, which have in most cases sprung up on the Bites of the old goldfields, are either on the sea coast or a very 6hort aistunce inland. The. diggers at first sought for the gold in the most accessible places, and since, from various causes (most of the old class of diggers having married and settled down) have been conteut to make a living by working the creeks or tho 6and on the beach, which is being continually eilted up •, in some places they are going over their old toilinga again, and in places the ground is being worked for the third time. So far from the gold being worked out on the Coast it has hardly been touched as yet, the diggers having only scraped the ground suuerfieial'y here and there on the edges of the gold country. Gold is continually brought dowu by the« creeks, and is washed up on the sea beach by every gale. The whole face of the country has the same appearance, and there is no reason why the back ranges should not be quite aa rich as the sea coast, as the gold must, at some lime or other, have been washed down from tho baok ranges. But if there are just as rich goldfields in Weßtland as have yet been discovered, why do not the diggers who are ther» discover and work them ? The diggers belong to a generation that is past ; t hey were the wild and roving spirits of their time. The news of the Californian gold discoveriea roused them from their hitherto uneventful live. All that was wild and unsettled in the human race flocked to California, and from thence many came to Australia and New Zealand. By a rough process of natural selection and survival of the fittest, they represent, so far as physique and sturdy common sense are concerned, the pick of & past generation. Death has thinned their ranks, and of the remainder marriage and middle age have combined to tame them idown ; they are content on the site of their 'old El Dorado to earn a comfortable living ;from what they formerly threw aside as worthless. It now remains to be seen whether from the youth of the present generation a class of men similar to the old diggers can be formed, comprising those who are gifted with an excess of energy in whom a roving spirit is cherished by the- lore of tndflpeoaepoeanq ,,,|^yffWiJwjjgg I j|hW

unfitted for the tamer duties of the stay-at-homes. And now a few remarks as to wby tve should pay more attention to gold-mining than to any other branch of industry, with the exceptions of farming and coal- mining. I io not thiuk that minerals other than gold exist id such large and payable quantities in • Mew Zealand as is usually represented to be the case. Taking iron, for instance, as the most valuable and useful of the metals, the fact of our possessing a certain quantity of the mineral is no reason why we should expect a large iron industry to spiing into existence which only requires a> little nursing and cherishing at first. If they can be made payable they will come in the natural course of events, and no amount of Government; pap will force fhens into a healthy existence. There are many things to be taken into consideration with respect to the profitable working of such mineral wealth. To form a practical opinion on the subject we should examine such industries in loogsettled countries, la England we hare a country in which the iron trade has beeu lflng established, working and machinery perfected fey experience, and workmen descended from generations of workmen of the same trade. Wages are adjusted so as to allow a fair margin of profit to the masters and capitalists. We find that the iron districts of the old country are situated with few exceptions either on or close to coalfields.- in the largest iron district that °* South Staffordshire, the iron ore, lims?3 to P e > and coal often come from the same pit. r lil e means of transportation are both good and cheap, not only by roads and railways, but also by reason of a network of canais, on which, be it noted, most heavy goods are carried. Coal and limestone are essential to the iron trade, arid the slightest extra cost for carriage in bringing these two essentials together materially a ffects the aoce'ess of the iron industry! There are parts of England in which iron exists,- not in combination with or in the neighborhood of coal, and yet in spite of cheap labor and comparatively small cost of carriage, it is found impossible to work the tttioeral W advantage. Such, in fact, is the case in the County of Surrey, where iron ore of a superior quality exists ; it has not been worked, howeve-, for ISO years, as, since the destruction of forest deprived them of fuel to smelt it with, it cannot be made payable. Again, while iron and other minerals exist in only a few favorable situations in the two Islands, the whole of the South Island, with the exception of Canterbury, is more or less auriferous ; in the -North Island, also, there is a large gold district. Gold being found as a metal, after it is once taken from the earth all further expense is at an end, there is no cost for carriage, and it is fit for the market at once ; in iron, after the mineral has been brought to the surface, there is the expense of smelting it and a heavy cost for carriage. As compared with the iron trade, gold-mining requires but little capital ; no expense for buildings, furnaces, etc., very little training and experience will suffice to make a digger, and it is not subject to fluctuations in v a iue in the same way that iron is. With our large extent of gold country, I think these are good and sufficient reasons why we should pay more attention to, and use every endeavor to develop, our gold country, leaving other industries to take care of themselves, for the present, at any rate. Of the actual producers of the country, the farmers come first, in point of numbers. According to the census of 1878, there were 16,381 farmers in New Zealand ; the gold miners came next, their numbers being 12,979. Did we but turn our attention to the development of our unequalled gold resources, the numbers of our gold miners would rapidly increase, and thus add to our population at a far greater rate than could be done by the introduction, establishment, and ordinary Buccesa of any other industry among us. Our farmers would then have a market for their produce, .without the fear of losing it by competition, as is the case now, when they have to send their surplus produce over the sea. Vox E Pofolo.

1867 1871 1874 1878 Males 11,877 10/53 9,473 10,577 Females 3,656 4,904 5,387 6,355 Total 15,533 15,357 14,860 16,932