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Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 106, 19 February 1870, Page 4

It is high time something or other was done in Tuapeka to retain the already decimated population. Everyman who now shifts his camp to other quarters tends to impoverish the district, and can ill he spared. If Tuapeka is to hold its proud position as the leading goldfield of Otago, the inhabitants must show more public spirit and enterprise than they have exhibited for the last two years. No later than this week upwards of seventy Chinamen have left us, in search of more payable ground than they can find within our precincts, and it is well known when Chinamen become dissatisfied and find it difficult to eke out a livelihood, Europeans have a very poor show. This is anything but cheering in the face of the fact that large tracts of auriferous country exist at our very doors, which only require the application of water to bring forth a plentiful harvest. Is there not to be found one leading member of the community with sufficient enterprise to inaugurate some scheme by which the district may be partly redeemed from its present backward tendency — some scheme for the introduction of a water supply that could be brought to bear upon the many auriferous spurs on the Tuapeka river, and the prolific spurs in the neighbourhood of Wetherstones? Several unfailing sources of water, such as the Waipori river and its tributaries, the Beaumont creek, and other streams, have been pointed to by skilled miners as only requiring a little capital to be made available for the purposes suggested. Let one or two of our business men take the initiative in some such project, and the confidence of our small capitalists would at once be gained, and a company organised with a capital of say five or six thousand pounds. There is nothing chimerical in this proposal; the scheme is not only within the bounds of possibility, but we believe if taken in hand by the right men, would prove a great success. We are getting sick of the oft-repeated remarks upon the bad times and the expressed hopes that Tuapeka has passed through its worst trial, and that a change is at hand, and so on. How times can change without any effort on the part of the inhabitants to bring any change about is difficult to surmise. There is no other part of the province — we may say of New Zealand — -can be compared with this for want of public spirit. In other localities we find flax-dressing or some other industry being prosecuted with a will, and a corresponding healthy state of commerce arising. If Tuapeka had not equal advantages for the prosecution of similar industries — if the auriferous lands of the district were all worked out, then, and only then, might we rest on our oars complacently ; but seeing we have flax in abundance, as well as untold mineral wealth in our neighbourhood, we say that this is not the time to relax our energies Perhaps we are waiting for Government assistance, but surely we have waited long enough, and in vain. Let the district place a little more reliance upon itself, and less on the Government, and a brighter future will very soon dawn upon Tuapeka.