THE GABRIELS GULLY CHANNEL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 367, 24 June 1874, Page 3

THE GABRIELS GULLY CHANNEL.

{To the- Editor.) Sib,— The petition of the people of this district praying the Provincial Government to recommend the expenditure of the sum of £10,000 in constructing a channel from Tuapeka Flat to the head of Gabriel's Gully, out of the loan for works on Goldfields, will have been by this - time committed to the flames. His Honor did not send the deputation away with sore hearts. Nay, His Honour expressed himself strongly in favour of the scheme, and we are justified in believing that he will do what he can to see it carried out in the Assembly. Everybody who knows the peculiar affection of Messrs. Webster and Turnbull for the gold mining industry will have no difficulty in being reconciled in this instance, when "they consider the amounts they have expended on the Waitahuna road, which was unauthorised. It is no use telling Messrs. Turnbull and Webster that this work will be essentially a reproductive one — ! hat the people here' base their claim to a fair share of the loan on its apparent justness ; not to themselves only, but to the colony at large ; not because this work would compare favorably with other works which are being carried out on other goldfields, but solely because it bears substantial evidence of being essentially reproductive, and also beceusc this district is entitled to a fair share in the allocation of money for this purpose, ever j thing else being equal. The mining community in this district have exhibited an energy and enterprise in coping with natural difiicutics, to the development of their industry, which will challenge comparison with any lniniug community in New Zealand. But the undertaking in question is one of a public character, and must of necessity, if ever carried out, be done by the Government, as the advantages to be derived from the proposed channel if once made could not be put into the pockets of' the proprietors, even should it be undertaken by a company. Besides, the existing interests are sacred, and the miners owning those interests would resist any company levying toll on them for- the right to use the channel $ so that this large area of ground is likely to remain until the last shot is fired and the last shovelful of dirtr is washed away from the Blue Spur. It is to be regretted that the Government of Otago should show such apathy to the extension of the goldfields of this province. It a pile of auriferous dirt of the same value were to be found in Wellington, Canterbury, or Auckland, the Governments of either of those provinces would not consent to let it lie till doomsday without some effort to work it. I would ask those who would see gold mining cease in Otago how they intend to employ the thousands who are flocking to our shores when- all our pnblic money is spent and the railway works completed? In this district Dr.- Webster knows the land is purely pastoral. How is the railway to pay working expenses if the district is denuded of its mining, population P Already the miners are- being drafted off and converted into navvies, &c. Wetherstones, Tuapeka Flat, Evans Flat, &c., are all but deserted, and yet it is expected that the railway will pay expenses. I would tale this opportunity to urge on the Committee not to let the matter rest here, but to have it laid fairly before the General Assembly at the coining session. Should they do so, I will i wait hopefully the result, — I am, &c., ' Mines.