The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30,1886.

Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5202, 30 September 1885, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30,1886.

The miners are, as a body, one of the mainstays of this colorjy, and what they have done for it deserves every recognition at the hands of the governing powers. The Minister of Mines now in office has erer evinced a desire to foster this most important industry ; he has afforded facilities for its development which bis predecessors in office bare not been singularly celebrated for doing. The mining industry has been a powerful factor in tbe advancement of the colony, and will yet—we have no hesitation ia asserting—prove a mainstay when per haps other resources may wane. Taking such things into consideration, in conjunction with recent events, tends to point out the necessity for a closer " working in " of the Mines end Native Departments, at least as far as tbe North Island is concerned. Gold has been discovered in various parts of that terra incognita—tbe King Country,—yet no facilities are offered to those willing to unearth the treasure known to be' concealed. Prospectors have been sent by syndicates;. trained seekers have gone on their own behalf, and in certain cases—in the face of difficulty and hardship—satisfactory results have been here and there obtained, but obstacles bave been encountered, natives have inter fered, and no assistance has been given by the Government to surmount difficulties necessarily arising in a work such as that of prospecting a nstive country. A large amount of power in connection with this subject lies in the administration of the Native Department, and it should, without a day's delay, be called upon to facilitate the development of the fields now closed, with as little loss of time as is possible. There are residents on the Thames prepared to go out and prove the existence of auriferous ground not many hundreds of miles from here —there are prospecting associations formed willing to equip qualified parties for similar work, and yet these men cannot open op the treasure of the land, owing principally to tbe laxity of Government departments. The wealth of the discoveries likely to be made could be very opportunely used at the present moment, when trade and commerce are not mere lively than they should be, and every facility possible should be given to any enterprising or adventurous man or body of men willing to prove the value of the discoveries hitherto made* We would, on behalf of prospectors who are plucky enough to endure the trials and hardships generally entailed by pursuing tbeir occupation, urge upon the notice of the Native Department tbe necessity of offering every facility possible to the opening up of any district under its control in which there is even a chance of a goldfield being discovered.