THE FORMATION OF TRACKS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 471, 27 February 1869, Page 3

THE FORMATION OF TRACKS.

A correspondent of the Hokitika Evening Star has some remarks which are as applicable to the Westport district as to any district in the country. He says:—" Tracks, make us tracks," is the cry from the far interior, but it is not heeded. The consequence of this inaction is not hard to foresee, and has been predicted time after time, but without avail. Our rulers seem unable to comprehend the fact that they are living in a country existing solely by the exercise of that feverish restless energy which is so marked a characteristic of the digger, and which renders him at once a most impatient as well as an enterprising man. The pioneer miner as soon as he plants his foot on what he considers a field where he and his fellows can extract the precious metal from the earth in quantities sufficient to make their trade valuable to the capitalist, and an acquisition to the revenue, expects, and expects justly too, that his labors will be followed up by those in authority, and that he will not after he has settled dowa be left to endure the hardships and privations of prospecting life. But in too many cases these expectations are not realised, and the miner, sick at heart with the neglect and indifference he is treated with, goes to another country where, if his labors are not so well remunerated, they are recognised, in proof of which all obstacles are cleared out of his way, and he is allowed to pursue his legitimate pursuit of gold hunting without being compelled to take upon himself the additional duties of roadmaker, surveyor, and pack-horse.