(By TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) Wellington, August 21.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 396, 24 August 1889, Page 5

(By TELEGRAPH.— SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) Wellington, August 21.

MR WITHEFORD'S SCHEME. Mr Witbeford's scheme for the advancement of our goldfields is receiving some attention. He gave evidence before the Goldfields Committee yesterday, but he cannot yet,, say what sort of an impression he has - made. His scheme has received a decided fillip by an article in the "Evening Press." This paper eulogises the scheme, as the following extracts which show :—: — " Now wehave really a quite inexhaustible field of employment for labour in gold reefs. It is one of the certainties of enterurise that you may. put out too much flax, wool, mutton, tallow, butter, cheese, bacon, or gum and overstock the markets ; but you can never pub out too much gold.

The putting out of gold is a process which employs an immense amount of labour, anal it has the greatest power of attracting capital. Flax* has proved a pretty attractive subject for capital under the influence of golden prices, but flax is a baby in the art of attracting capital compared to gold ; an'd a goldfield will make a bigger town in 12 months than other industries can build in 12 years. Can we, then, do nothing to develop our goldfields, to open up gold reefs and crash gold out of the hills ? We do not believe in Wellington gold booms ; the only gold we have here is our central position and our splendid natural harbour. We are going to ask the House and the Government to turn their attention to Coromandel, and see if they cannot satisfy themselves that there are extensive and rich < reefs worth working, and to consider if they cannot give sufficient inducement and aid to labour to co-operate and get a big golden harvest out of Coromandel. If Auckland had applied the half-million that she has muddled away in the last five or six years in all sorts of pretentious folly, to the skilful and wise development of the gold of Coromandel, she would be the Queen of the North, instead of being as she is, a muchdethroned and weeping kind of widow ; but the rest of the colony cannot afford to let Auckland lie lamenting. We are all interested in her speedy return to prosperity, and her best hope of prosperity lies in the accive development of her goldfields. The basis of the scheme should be co-operative, sharing by every one employed from top to bottom ; from the colony which owns the land down to the miner who quarries the stone. At any rate, we commend the suggestion to the House as equally worthy of consideration with the somewhat thieadbare question of the beauties of a land tax. the charms of an income tax, or the wicked deformities of the property tax."