Wanganui Chronicle. AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1880.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 9187, 11 August 1880, Page 2

Wanganui Chronicle. AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1880.

Scatieeed far and wide throughout New_ Zealand are a multitude of men who in years past have tried their fortune with varying success on the gold fields. A good many have found their way to Wanganui, and have settled down to suoh employment as has presented itself. But there are few callings by which bread cap be earned which possess the fascination of goldmining, and the man who has once known what it is to be the holder of a rich claim is seldom entirely cured of a vague longing to resume the old occupation. A new rush arouses within him the wish to be off and try his luck once more. As a class, miners are amongst the most sanguine of mankind, and it has repeatedly happened that large crowds of them have thrown up remunerative work and travelled long distances on the strength of reported discoveries, which have turned out to be valueless. In times of depression; such as' the colony is at present struggling with,_ the labouring population, and especially those who have formerly been diggers, are very apt to have their attention fixed, and their imagination fascinated, by rumours of new gold fields. At such times there is more than the usual tendency to exaggeration. The wish is father to the thought, and men give their belief to reported discoveries on insufiicienj;a.adcontradiotory evidence. Something of this bind is now going on with reference to the gol,d fields of ■Westland. A rush, at present small but threatening to assume very much larger proportions, has set in to the almost deserted township of Okarito, as the nearest seaport to the diggings recently discovered near the Mapouriki Lake. Steamers filled with passengers hare already begun to ply between Hokitjka and the new El Dorado. Large quantities of stores have been sent down, and it seems quite certain that before long a very considerable population will be located in a spot which, onjy a, few weeks ago, was a solitary bush. It js obviously impossible to say whether a largo gold field will be the result of all the prospecting which this influx of miners will inevitably gipa rise to. There was a time when a geologist like Dr Haast could predict that small quantities of gold might possibly be found between the sea and the western slopes of the New Zealand Alps, but that there was no probability of rich discoveries ; extending over any large area of country. But that was in days prior to the great imibli to WestlanJ, which ; resulted in the opening up of one of the fiuest gold fields the world ever saw. At the present time, no one acquainted with the history of Westland, and its geoloi;ical . formation, would be. surprised to learn that another extensive gold field had been discovered within its ' borders, and at almost any point between the Grey lliver and the Otago boundary. Tho whole of the country from one cud to the other is more or less auriferous, and noth withstanding the length of time which has elapsed since sold was first discovered in remunerative quantities, it is a fact that by far the greatest part of the area of Westland remains unprospcclcd. Utmost the entire face of tho country iss vwctvi liy gigautiu

forests, which render travelling out of beaten tracks a very difficult matter ; and communication with the settled portions of the district is not easily obtained, and is frequently hazardous on account of rapid and swollen rivers. Even where tho work of prospecting has been attempted it has too often been prematurely abandoned because it has been almost impossible to obtain stores and tools necessary lo carry on the work. For all, therefore, that is known to the contrary, very rich and extensive gold deposits may yet bo brought- to light in Westland ; but that will not serve as a guide to the value of the present rusk to Okarito. Tho reports on the subject are, as is usually the case, very contradictory, and it is difficult to distinguish with certainty between what is true and what is false. Wo should scarcely have gone to tho trouble of alluding to the subject at all if it had not been that the rush is already attracting a great deal of attention throughout the colony, and men even about Wanganui are beginning to ask themselves whether it is wise to remain in a place where wages are very low and work far from plentiful, when they havo the chance of reaping a rich harvest by taking a trip to the southward; So far as we can gather from the reports which have appeared in the Westland papers, the chance of such a harvest by going to Okarito is not after all very great. It is truo tint a few parties are doing fairly well, and a few more making wages, say £3 per man a week, but that is the extent of the discovery which bids fair to cause a rush from all parts of New Zealand. Here, in Wanganui, we have a number of unemployed, and certainly to that extent the population might be decreased without inflicting any present loss on the district ; but in tho first place, persons going to Okarito from Wanganui and other parts of New Zealand would not belong to the ranks of tho unemployed, who, as a rule, have not the money in hand to pay for the trip. The wanderers would probably be the possessors of means sufficient for the passage and for their support for a while after their arrival on tbo gold field ; that is to say, they would belong to the better class of labouring men, the very ones a district can least afford to lose. We ask men of this stamp to consider well before they throw up work at which they are making a living, on the strength of the meagre and certainly not very satisfactory intelligence that has as yet come from Okarito. Quite recently Mr Grimmond, the Mayor of Boas (a town, as many of our readers are aware, some distance to the north, of Okarito), sent the following telegram to the Mayor of Christclmrch :— "Seeing in the Christchurch papers that some persons wish a trial shipment of the unemployed to this district, I beg to advise you that nothing could happen that would be more to be deplored. While not underrating the value of the discovery at Mapouriki, a large influx of people at present, without capital, would be disastrous both to the district, and more particularly to tho people coming here." It never could, wo presume, have seriously entered into the heads of the Christchurch authorities to get rid of a shipload of the unemployed by packing them off to Okarito. Such a course would have argued insanity on the part of thoße who adopted it, and the unemployed thus disposed of for the time would probably have either starved or become a burden on the public purse of Westland. But Mr Grimmond, whilst saying what he can to prevent an influx of paupers, does not appear unwilling that a large number of persons with money in their pockets should pay the West Coast a visit. We thiok his telegram may be taken lo imply that no harm would be done by their coming. He certainly has no warrant for thinking that they would do any good for themselves, though the spending of their money — whilst it lasted— might be profitable to the business men of Okarito, Boss, and Hokitika. Everyone going to this rush, runs a very good chance of losing the whole of his means and finding himself penniless in a part of tho colony where, if digging fails, there is very little el?e to fall back on. I'he breaking down of a large rush to tho Okarito district would not, perhaps, be quite as disastrous as the failure at Port Curtis; but in our opinion there would not be much to choose between the two. A few months back the Government were filling the Stella with the unemployed of Westland and taking them to other parts of the colony, and we sincerely trust that similar work may not be found for her in bringing back tho disappointed ones from Okatito. 1