PROSPECTING.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1179, 26 May 1874, Page 4

PROSPECTING.

[WESTPOET EVENING STAR.]

CojS'siDEiuxGthealmost unprecedented dulness prevailing and likely to prevail in Westpbrt—and in fact throughout the South-west Goldfields—would it not be well during the winter mouths to perfect a scheme for the thorough prospecting of the district for auriferous ground? It would be unwise to send out men just as midwinter is approaching, even supposing men could be found willing to go; but means might be ensured and a plan of action decided on, which, in the early spring, might result in much benefit and in a measure banish the inevitable and oft recurring dull times which make life on the Coast so wearying. AVestport owes its existence to the profitable working ot alluvial claims, as it also dates its depression from unprofitable investments in quartz. But because the old workings are becoming exhausted, and the mining population less and less day by day, it does not follow that no new ground exists or that present known leads of gold might not be traced onward to richer aud wider deposits. It may be said that much money has been already expended by private enterprise in prospecting, and unprofitably, but it cannot be said that any systematic plau has been followed. Such contributions have, for the most part, beeu frittered away in hap hazard search, persevered in for only short periods. A comprehensive and well devised scheme of prospecting will cost more than this community can of itself afford to contribute, and our representatives might be urged to obtain what ever assistance they can from the Provincial revenues. The amount under existing circumstances would be doubtless small, but it would help, and in the interests of the province would be wisely appropriated. Help thus obtained would encourage contributions from the public. The granting of a government subsidy should not, however, entail its expenditure under Government supervision. The control should be deputed unreservedly to practical miners. Some remarks of our contemporary, the Greymouth Star, are pertinent to this subject. Eeferriu"to the class of men that Government invariably chooses from when prospectors are required it says :— "Bona fides as to ability are never looked for. Some hard-up first-cousin to a minister is chosen to command the party, and his subordinates are chosen from the frequenters of bars and billiard rooms. The party departs to some secluded spot, passes the days in shooting and fishing, the nights in gambling for small stakes, or recounting scenes of other days ; and when the allotted time for the absence of the expedition has expired, it returns, furnishes aplausive account of the work done, receives wages due, and the country supposed to have been prospected is put down as non-auriferous. And then journalists who are as ignorant of the actual facts of the case as the Government itself, decry the system altogether, instead of advising the more judicious selection of men and a better arrangement of details. It is quite possible to initiate an efficient plan for prospecting the country at a very small expense. There are hundreds of meu on the West Coast anxious to prospect if they could only obtain sufficient means to support them for the time it would take to give ground a thorough trial. But these men will not hang about Government offices, touching their caps to petty officials, and therefore they are never employed on the work they are so well able to perform."