ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 708, 26 January 1853, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the New Zealandjbr. Sir, —I read a letter in your paper a few weeks ago from a Subscriber to the Gold Reward Fund, urging the immediate payment of the reward to the discoverer of gold atCoromandel,on the ground of the fact having been established by the appointment of a Government Gold Commissioner and the collection of license fees from diggers. Now I should be one of the last to grudge paying the mite I have subscribed if I could see that the discovery which has been made was likely to become as valuable to us as we anticipated when we subscribed ; hut really, sir, there has been comparatively speaking so little practical results, so far, to justify a confident reliance on the productiveness of the discovery, that I think there would not be anything like a general concurrence of the subscribers to the payment of the reward just yet. It is true the discoverers are not to blame for the tardy development of the resources of the gold field —which every one who has had any practical experience has pronounced, to afford every indication of rich mines nigh at hand. The Committee's own deputation were satisfied of the abundance of gold somewhere in the vicinity of the creek from having found it in small quantities wherever they examined the soil—and those who have persevered in digging pits have been encouraged by the results of ■their' Labour to expect greater things. I freely admit that the Executive Government have done all that under the circumstances could reasonably be looked for. But now, as matters stand, I cannot but think that it would be for the pood of the country if some new plan were adopted, by which, say for the ensuing three months while we are likely to have the sort of weather most favourable for prospecting, liberty would be given to prospect without a Fee, —at any rate without more than a trifling, almost peppercorn, charge, sufficient say to pay the Natives for their permission. This I am told was substantially, if not formally, done in the gold fields of other countries. There need be no great expense incurred by the Government, unless circumstances should alter ; a single Commissioner and an Interpreter might be staff enough to maintain. And if it should be necessary to apply to the Provincial Council for a vote to cover the"cost of these appointments, His Excellency might secure that the present members, should "they be re-elected, would not object to grant this, by again consulting with them, as he did when he was preparing the existing Regulations in which it is known that they every one concurred on benaJLf of tne people whom tUey represent, —and who would beyond all doubt be better pleased with them for promoting a relaxation of the License fee, than they are for their agreement in the imposition of the Tax at so early a period. I shall be glad to know the opinion of other subscribers, and I think this a matter on which the public should express their views ; in the mean time some such suggestion as I have hinted, might come well from the Gold Committee, and I have no doubt anything they would recommend in reason would be duly considered by the Lieutenant-Governor. —Yours truly, A Subscriber. Auckland, January 25, 1853.