Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1875.

It is really amusing to read the article in the Daily Times on the Ohinemuri goldfield, arid bubble companies generally. After recent experience of their own,.one would have imagined that Dunedin newspapers would have preserved a discreet silence regarding all efforts to stimulate public enthusiasm in a speculative direction. But the fun of the "whole thing is, that the people of Auckland, who are held up to public obloquy as sharpers and swindlers, had nothing whatever to do with the Ohinemuri goldfield. It was a matter entirely between the native owners and the Government. Men who were acquainted with the country believed that payable gold would be found in the Ohinemuri district, but they were hindered from prospecting by the Maoris. This obstruction naturally enough excited undue hopes, it being generally believed that unless the natives knew there was gold in the district they would not close it against the miners. Then, the law is so framed as to play into the hands of the Maoris. Itisillegaltoprospectonnative land without a license from the Government; and it is not too much to say that, in the public interest, no prospecting license has been issued. Thus the Maoris and the law combined to surround Ohinenniri with mystery. What wonder, therefore, if a popular delusion should exist, to the effect that in Ohinemuri would be found richer gold deposits than had been unearthed in the Caledonian, Golden Crown, and other celebrated mines of the Thames. This delusion was the natural consequence of the course of events, but, as we have- already said, the people of Auckland were not responsible for it. The mystery was between the Government and the natives. Nor had the Auckland public anything whatever to do with Mr. Mackay’s conflict with the diggers, notwithstanding what the Daily Times says to the contrary. The utter want of fairness and honesty, however, which our Dunedin contemporary displays in reference to this matter, will be best understood by the following extract from the Daily 'limes of the 10th instant : They manage these things differently in France—so they do in Auckland. We never realised the difference that has grown up b tween the different parts of this colony as wo did in reading tho accounts of the far-famed Ohinenmn. There is a natural and an artificial way of doing these things. Have we not seen tho one in Otago—the other in the great Northern province ? Many an old miner from California, Victoria, and Gabriels, has. enuggly sniggered In his sleeve at tho great flourish of trumpets with which the new-found goldfield was announced. The art of advertising is not likely to die out—far otherwise, indeed, since governments now employ it instead of only private citizens. Press. Agency telegrams, correspondents’ letters, special telegrams, locals, private letters—all the machinery, in fact, “of excitement raising," lias been employed, without stint, to stir up a mania for tho now goldfield. The Auckland people have nothing for which to blame themselves; the gas for their last toy balloon was ready in any quantity, the beautiful thing was inflated, tho last rope was let go, and tho result is—collapse. It does not much matter down here, of course. Notwithstanding the allurements held out to them, the miners of Otago refused to budge one inch. A ship-load sailed for tho Palmer in defiance of us, and if they didn't take the medicine chest with them they were recommended to indulge in—why, no matter, Ohinemuri is comparatively at our doors. Thanks to energetic puffing, it seemed almost possible to peg out a claim by telegram, we knew so much about it. Not a dozen—no, not half a dozen—miners have gone North to make their pile there. Tho wind-bag is punctured and has collapsed, but the fun of the thing lies In tho determination to keep up to the very last tho delusion of a new rush. A new rush ! It is only when wo contemplate what a new rush used to mean here and elsewhere, when gold was to be found in the ground os well as in the brains of special correspondents, that wo understand and appreciate the staginess of the whole business. The whole arrangement bears the same relation to the real thing that Turpin's ride to York, as exhibited in a circus, bears to the noble highwayman. The unities had to be preserved, the right slang of the goldfields had to be adopted, and If tho business smelt rather of tho sock and buskin than of the miner’s gum boots and jumper, well, no one could say that the proprieties were not attended to. The funniest scene of all was.when the valorous Mackay Is represented as stemming a whole army of eager miners in the name of the law. Alone lie stood, vested with the panoply of warfare—a man of peace. Alone he stood, with swarming swarthy crowds of miners who could have crushed him, only withheld by his mild “ Wait a bit.” We seem to see them toeing the line, breasting tho handkerchief, and then rushing on at the signal to peg out.

It was not thus in days of yore that a honafide rush took place in Otago and elsewhere. The spontaneity of action which betokens the real thing was wholly wanting. Wo have no faith in a Government gold--Held: Governments don’t find such tilings, and if they say they have they generally conceal an ulterior design. We are somewhatsurprised that, with aswindio on. band of such fine proportions, the Auckland people did not go a little farther. They should

have had townships laid out, court houses built, gaols,, hoapltdft, and all the rest of the ef ceteris of rule before they opened this wondeffuld goldflelLWonderful; pah! it smells of the 1 sawdust, t)ie banglds jingle on the listening ear. Was there', ever a goldfield worth naming on which the occupants, found it paid better, to dig gum within a week of. its discovery? In the words of the latest inforniatioa, hungry miners must come prepared to spend plenty of money, Not to make it, which we* take to be the usual purpose of going to a goldfield, but to spend it. The promoters are not even content with adopting the dialect peculiar to a new-found field of alluvial gold ; they must crowd in, in a week or so, 'all all the phrases peculiar to quartz-mining, mining d la Ballarat in deep leads. They employ the method of encouragement adapted for a field, of which the likely spots have been exhausted after years of labor. All, all is required to continue the delusion. Auckland has long had an unenviable reputation of being the best part of New Zealand in which to float a shaky concern. Intoxicated with her success, nearly half a in starting certain useful undertakings, the mania of company-making besets her still. 'Tis her vocation ; she has, according to her lights, done her best \o start a goldfield on the same principle—or want of it that other concerns have been set afloat. The quart rush to Ohlnemuri will long bo remembered ns the boldest imposition that has been passed on upon the public for many a long day. Tb Hi.ua and Moananui, the 'great fighting chief, Ruwt, and other romantic characters, pass over the stajje just to give that air of romance which might tickle the vulgar. Whether they be clad in blanket and moleskins, or seedy black, we recognise them ns utility men, and admire the skill and liberality of mind with which the manager has organised his troupe. Wc only want a few good old mining jokes, clad in the appropriate slang, to complete the representation, and no doubt the faithful Knocker will ere long semi these by telegram.

Poverty is proverbially said to make ns acquainted with strange bedfellows, and the saying was never more admirably true than in the upon which we have commented. While we admire the skill shown in manipulating the material, anti give a duo meed of praise to the intelligent propoundors of the play, wo must also add a regret that, as the magistrates say, “they should have devoted talents capable of adorning a high sphere to the’ acquisition of gain by illicit means,'’

The writer of the foregoing does a deliberate injustice to one part of the colony, thereby perpetuating provincial jealousies. He should know, if be does not, that only the right to mine has been secured by the Government, that there are no alluvial diggings, and that in quartz and “ company ” mining, as the experience of Otago proves, there is something more needed than to scratch the ground and find gold, as was the case at Gabriel’s Gully and elsewhere, when Otago was a virgin goldfield. Indeed, we venture to say, that without any great inducement to speculation in goldmining, as much has been relatively done in Otago in that direction, and witli as little profit to the shareholders, as ever there was in Auckland. But that is not to the point. Should Ohlnemuri turn out to be a payable goldfield, the colony will benefit ; but at all events, its opening will do good, because there is a large breadth of agricultural land available for settlement, not to speak of the forests. Convenient water carriage exists, the navigation being open for vessels of considerable draught almost to the Gorge, which has been proclaimed a township. We regret that our Otago contemporary should have so far forgotten what is due to other parts of the colony, as to suppress the truth in order to give point to a sarcasm. Whatever may have been the faults of Auckland speculators in time past, they certainly must be exonerated from all blame in connection with Ohinemuri. It is not safe to anticipate failure, however, as the field has yet to he proved. It is of large extent, and not quite fifty men have penetrated the forest to give it a trial. The great majority are camping round the public house and stores, waiting for “a find” to be reported, when they will rush to the spot and endeavor to “jump” the claim of the prospectors. This is the invariable rule in quartzmining. It is not generally adopted on alluvial diggings, because it does not pay. This is the true secret of the Ohinemuri goldfield. The bulk of the waiters on Providence will in time slink away out of sight, or take advantage of the labors of others ; but it is too bad to brand a whole community for the faults of a few who may not, after all, belong to it.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18750319.2.9

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4367, 19 March 1875, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,770

New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1875. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4367, 19 March 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1875. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4367, 19 March 1875, Page 2

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert