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Southland Times, Issue 1100, 26 July 1869, Page 2

Fob a considerable time back the question of systematically prospecting several districts in the province, known to be aiu-ifer >as, ha< be mi mooted. A. frfw enterprising individuals amongst our com >unity have constantly kept the subject before the public, and their persisteucy, backed by the probabilities of success which they have been able to adduce, seems likely to lead to a fair trial being made. During the past week the matter has been taken up with renewed interest. Several meetings have been held, and the result is that something definite has been accomplished towards the object in view. A prospectus has been drawn up for the formation of a company, with a nominal capital of £500, in one hundred shares, £1 on allocation of the shares, and monthly calls of a similar sum if necessary. Although the list was only opened on Saturday, we learn that already the greater portion of the shares are taken up, and there is a likelihood that it will have to be considerably extended, so great is the favor with which the enterprise is regarded. The Provisional Committee includes the names of most of our leading business men, a sufficient sjuarantee that the scheme will be economically and energetically conducted. On Saturday, a deputation consisting of Mersrs W. H. Pearson, E. Buchanan, J. W. Mitchell, I\ W. Wade, and J. KrNGSLAND, waited by appointment upon the Government, to ascertain what assistance and protection they might rely upon from the Executive. His Honor received them most cordially, and assured them that the proposed company was one whose objects specially recommended it to the Government, that every facility for the prosecution of the schema Jwhich

he could offer would be most willingly accorded, and that the largest reserves allowed would be made as soon as the site of operations was selected. The original idea was to prospect for gold only the old "Wakatip outlet, Glenquoich. This was considered the most suitable locality for a first attempt, but it has ultimately been determined not to confine the efforts of the company to gold discovery alone, but to include boring [for coal, iron, and other minerals. Operations will in the meantime be commenced in the locality indicated in the case of gold ; and in that of coal, near Winton. There can be no doubt that minerals exist in this province in great abundance. Gold, coal, iron, and lime have all been discovered in places widely apart, while other minerals, of which traces have not yet been observed, may safely be presumed to exist in abundance. But even supposing our underground resources to be confined to the four minerals named, or even to any of them, it would still afford ample scope for the employment of both capital and skill to properly develop them. The imperative ; necessity of something being done to increase our exports is becoming daily more painfully appareufc. Wool, the great staple of the country, is less valuable, less remunerative, and will continue to decrease, unless some new means of consumption is devised, or the existing market largely increases its demauds. ! This is the inevitable result in the case of any product which attracts too exclusively the attention of capitalists. The same effect may be witnessed in other commodities on a small scale in our neighborhood. "When farmers universally devote their efforts to the production of one kind of crop, to the neglect of all others, they adopt a course which ensures its own defeat. In that article the market is glutted, and they have no other product upon which to fall back. Thus it is with countries also which depend for their prosperity on the value of one kind of produce or one description of manufacture. Stagnation in trade, or decline in that particular commodity, is inexorably followed by com mercial crisis and generaldistress. The only true method ofescaping these evils is by a judicious division of ourinvestments. In our case it requires no very acute powers, of perception to comprehend that unless some means are devised to counteract the continual drain importation makes upon our capital, the circulation of money will gradually contract until we are reduced to the primitive but inconvenient system of barter. With a cessation of immigration, and no immediate prospect of any perceptible influx of capital, in the shape of land purchases, it indeed behoves our merchants, and all the settlers in the province, to give their earnest attention to the development of the resources which lie within our own borders.