The Westport Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1869.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 599, 28 December 1869, Page 2

The Westport Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1869.

It is only those wisely silent, silently wise, or seemingly wise because silent gentlemen, the Bankers, who enjoy opportunities of appreciating how a district is advancing or retrograding in its productiveness as a goldfield. Unfortunately, in such a district as this, they enjoy these opportunities in such a perfect spirit of selfishness, and without any spirit of inquiry on the part of the Government, that few persons, even on the spot, are aware of the wealth by which they are surrounded, or of the progress which is being made in its diminution or its development In other matters, or in connection with other interests, it is different. Census is taken of the number of tents in each district, and of the, number of the rooms in the numbers of houses which are built of stone, or brick, or wood, or raupo, whatever that may be. Dogs are registered ; goats, pigs, and poultry are enumerated, and the day may come when eggs, ducks' and hens' divided, will be included in the enumeration ; the number of acres, fenced and unfenced, is recorded ; and the quantities of maize or sorghum, rye or bere, peas or beans, carrots or onions annually raised are reported with an accuracy at least apparent, if it is not real. All this is admirable, and useful in connection with national and domestic economy. And the collection of such statistics does not necessarily involve espionage or injury to private interests. Need it necessarily do so in connection with the mineral products of a country, any more than in connection with its agricultural produce ? An ordinary conception of ordinary things would suggest the answer that it need not. But, for the present, we suppose we must cultivate contentment with the existing condition of things, and, while doing so, guess, as approximately as possible, the possible product of the diggings of a district. We may even be content with a single circumstance as " a straw showing how the wind blows." And, taking it for granted that it is something near the truth, we imagine that it must gratify those whoso interests are involved in the progress or retrogression of mining to hear the statement that, on the day before Christmas, this year, there was bought by the Banks in Westport, and as the product of the Buller district, about Twelve Thousand Pounds worth of gold. For a district described as in a state of atrophy, we think that this is very fair illustration of the opposite, especially when it is considered that there is a large extent of untouched territory, and an acknowledged amount of hard and protracted work yet to be done before the discovered auriferous area can be at all exhausted. Considering the reduced population of the district, and the regularity with which the Banks had been purchasing parcels up to the dkte of this last and largest purchase, it is evident that at no time previously—certainly at no Christmas time—have the people of theßuller district been better able to make holiday than at present. And, judging by passing circumstances, they mean to do it. Charleston, also, at this season, has made a satisfactory deposit at its bankers ; and yesterday both it and its banking fraternity were represented by the arrival in Westport of a weight, in men and metal, such as few districts in the Colony can produce. The escort could not have brought less than Four Thousand Ounces of gold, the product of the Charleston district; and the future prospects of Charleston may be sufficiently indicated by the undignified and vulgar, but suggestive statement that " there is more where that came from." Charleston, equally with AYestport, is in the disposition, as it is thus in a position, to make holiday ; sport is more a subject of interest than statistics ; and, in the absence of other statistics, perhaps this sporting spirit is of itself an index, equal to what might be provided by Grovernment or Banks, as to the general prosperity of this section of the Nelson South-West Goldfields.