THE STATE OF THE THAMES GOLDFIELDS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 229, 29 January 1876, Page 16

THE STATE OF THE THAMES GOLDFIELDS.

(From the New Zealand Times.) One of the most significant, as it is also one of the most regrettable facts of the day, is the announcement in our telegraphic column that over two hundred men have applied for temporary employment on Government work at the Thames. These men are not part of the floating population to be found on all goldfields ; —on the contrary, they are part and parcel of the fixed population of the Thames, and their position of industrial dependence has been brought about through no fault of their own, and has no relation whatever to the general productiveness of the Thames mines. The fact is simply this, that through the stoppage of the Bright Smile pumping engine, between three and four hundred men have been thrown out of employment. This mine drained a large area of ground on the Thames, and when the difficulty between the Bank and the Bright Smile directors arose, which ended by stopping pumping operations at the mine, many men who had been profitably employed in other mines in the neighbourhood were thrown out of work. They were in reality flooded out. 3STow, it is not difficult to imagine the effect of such a calamity upon the limited laboremploying resources of the Thames. The men and their families, (for on the Thames goldfield most of the miners are. heads of families,) could not remain for many weeks without any resource besides the little savings that may have been made during more prosperous times, and the consequence has been that meetings of unemployed have been held, with the Mayor in the chair, and an application to Government to provide the men with work. This application, we perceive, has been responded to by the Government, who apply £I,OOO to this purpose at Puriri, a district lying between Shortland and Ohinemuri, and at one time the scene of active mining operations.

The telegram announces that the Government has been condemned by resolution at a public meeting, because the goldfield revenue has been stopped to pay interest on the Mercer railway, and because only £IOOO has been applied towards the relief of the unemployed. , Some such action as this might have been expected, and we can hardly say that it is unreasonable. To begin with, £IOOO will go a short way towards meeting the difficulty, and does not represent more than the weekly earnings of the men thrown out of employment ; but the Government can hardly be expected to make good the failure of private enterprise. Much or little, it is an act of kindness on the part of the

Government; but we cannot possibly speak approvingly of the stoppage of the goldfields revenue to make good the deficit on the Waikato railway. The Thames has no more connection with that railway than it has with the line from Picton to Blenheim, and although the law enables the stoppage to be made, we think, tinder all the circumstances, that Ministers might have found some other way out of the difficulty. Indeed, as a matter of policy it was, in our judgment, a very serious mistake to make any such stoppage. The Public Revenues Act makes goldfields revenue part of the Ci land fund" or territorial revenue, and the several Acts regulating the public works policy make railway expenditure an ultimate charge upon the land fund of the various provinces. Technically, therefore, the Government are justified in stopping the goldfields revenue of Auckland to make good the deficit on the railway receipts of that province, which is absolutely without a land fund proper, as we showed the other day from official returns, but this stoppage, on the other hand, is opposed to the whole spirit and tenor of goldfields legislation. It is, moreover, opposed to the scope and intention of the public works policy. By all means compel districts through which a line of railway is carried to contribute in aid of railway receipts when the takings fall short of working expenses and interest, but do not call upon a specially taxed industry to pay for something from which it does not derive the least benefit. To levy a rate in aid of the Waikato railway on the Thames goldfield is perhaps the least defensible act any Government could do under color of law. It is at once unfair and impolitic. Another question hence arises, namely, how far the land fund of a province or provincial district should be chargeable with interest on railway expenditure over which it had no more control than it has over the management of constructed railways. This point is certain to give rise to a great deal of debate next session, and certainly with the Thames example before the country a decided change of system is rendered necessaiy. It is nob for us to say offhand what should be done, but we are of opinion that the matter should not be permitted to remain in its present position. The sense of justice in the country will not long tolerate such a state of things. But it is just a moot point whether the management of constructed railways by the Government is of such a character as to warrant the Executive in enforcing the fiscal clauses of the Railway Acts against the provinces. The law presumes that the most has been made of the railways ; that no revenue beyond the earnings of the lines under Government management could be obtained. Now, is this the case, and are the complaints we hear and read from one part of the colony to another groundless 1 Is the Government management perfect, and 'are the complaints to the contrary pure fabrications ? If there is a large strain of truth in these complaints it will be apparent that to hold a province responsible for a deficit caused by Government mismanagement is to do violence to the spirit, although it may comply with the letter, of the law. We throw this out, however, as a suggestion rather than as an argument, although we clearly perceive that the Government will have to defend their position with all their ability on this and other cognate points. The stoppage of the Thames goldfields revenue, to the serious detriment of the mining industry, has raised the question which might not have assumed such serious importance but for the collapse of the Bright Smile Company, and the various mines drained by its pumping apparatus. Meanwhile we should recommend the Government to prepare for taking over the goldfields departments from the Provincial Executives, as we advised in previous issues. Once this is done it will be a much easier matter to meet such a contingency as that which has arisen at the Thames.