GOLD DISCOVERIES.

Southland Times, Issue 1042, 21 October 1868, Page 3

GOLD DISCOVERIES.

(TO THE EDITOB OV THE SUUTHIAND TIMES), Sib —One of the last acts of the Provincial Council was the most important of the whole business of the session. The adoption of Mr Pea-rsoits motion for offering a reward of £1000 for the discovery of a goldfield within the bounds of the Province, or" £500, for one outside our boundary, but within a commercial proximity, will tend more than anything to increase the confidence of the people in the future of the place, There is positive evidence that gold is widely scattered over portions of Southland, and I have no misgiving as to it ultimately proving asjjprolific in mineral riches, as it is of fertile lands. The steps the Government have *aken will, I trust, lead to valuable discoveries, and induce a large mining population to come into the Province. The discovery of gold across the Waiau, is highly satisfactory. It is true that the 3pot where the prospectors are working is outside the bounds of tnis Province, but so close to it as toensure for Riverton and Invercargill all the commercial advantages to be derived from a mining population being settled there. The Longwood Ranges are unquestionably auriferous, and the cutting of tracks during the next few months will most ptobably reveal some of the hidden treasure. While I give the Council and the Government every credit for the evidence of a desire to develop the mineral resources of the country, something has been omitted which ought to have been done. Gold seeking should never be looked to as more than the means to a better and more settled employment. It is true that goldfields are greatly to Jbe valued if the wealth they yield is judiciously employed, but on the other Lhand, if the gold obtained is recklessly spent it may for a short time improve business, and engender a spirit of speculation, but ultimate in another commercial crises as disastrous as the one from which the Province is only, now emerging. If goldfields are to be of lasting value they should be used as a means for settlement. Inducements should be held out to nnite cultivation of the soil with mining operations. Experience goes to prove that a roving population, having no vested interest in the country, cannot be looked upon as desirable colonists. They stay only so long as easy work supplies them with the means of extravagance, or some attractive new goldfield is reported to have been discovered. This is not the class of people wanted to colonise a country. What Southland requires is men with enterprise, who will invest in machinery, and combine capital with labor. How are such men to be induced to come ? The answer is simply follow the example of Victoria and Otago, and grant mining leases, not only of auriferous ground, bat land for agricultural purposes. It is not a rush of surface scrapers that would really benefit the province, but men who with their earnings would baild for themselves homesteads, and cultivate the gronnd, making mining subservient to permanent settlement. With a climate such as ours, healthy and vigorous, for a large portion of the year mining operations must necessarily ba_ausD_ended^^and the interval spent in idleness, urilßss—i^^L^^^ ments to locate and cultivate are offered" by the Government. In anticipation of efforts being made"; to develop the mineral riches of this Province, and proving successful, the serious attention of the Government should be given to the subject. The existing mining rules and. regulations are crude and imperfect, offering no adequate inducement tooths, miner to

invest capital, and build up for himself a local habitation and a name. The claims in such localities as the Orepuki should be considerably enlarged, and leases granted of agricultural land, say from ten to fifty acres, at a low rental for a term of years, the Government retaining the right to cancel the lease upon [ the ground being found to be auriferous. Until this is done, Southland, whatever discoveries may be made, will never be able to compete with Victoria and Otago, for a high class mining popttlation. This is a question of great importance. We have now an acknowledged goldfield at Orepuki, unmistakeable indications of a still more exteasive one in the Longwood Ranges, fair prospects of one at Stewart's Island, and other localities, and the Waiau on its borders. Is it not then politic on the part of Southland to afford the same facilities to the miner to settle here, as are offered by the Otago Government, if he locates a few chains from the limits of our own Province ? Upon this matter matter there can scarcely be two opinions, I remain, Sir, Obseeveb. Invercargill, October 18, 1868.