The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. TEUSDAY, SEPT. 27, 1887.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2374, 27 September 1887, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

TEUSDAY, SEPT. 27, 1887.

I C'i'l 1 '! ill. !'«■ til >'i m-11, (M nil t Mill- IT ill- ; ,n

To,, iti;;■ ’i imnoitimv can scarcely j,,. mm;11•]o ii to the recent j'oM jin,!.; :u Waitoa. 'Hie matter is nut nn;r !y one of local, hut or colonial interest, tor it is not lint rielines,-; of the (lejaMl alone that is mi r •, | no ip 1 ina re. a . its vast i'\tcnt.

A v. lit (.. (lie 1 Ut.ili! on Slimiiiy 1m i wnrl;i-il nut, a calculation 11;: 1 1 tin- .'!(H) acre , nil AI v Smith s

iai m. it the deposit (hi. t V loot in depth, will yield nearly ; ni millions .sterling, and that, il I mated at the rate of -lilt) tons a day -miv, will not be worked out until the

vi a r iif grace 'JILLS

Now these figures, whether correctly bused nr not, an; suggestive. Tint the deposit will average thirty feet in depth eanmit be said, as the ul most, depth yet obtained, and that niily in one shaft, is twenty-six feet, but that it is very extensive has been unde manifest. Moreover, il is not routined l.n .Mr (Smith's property. Emm careful enquiry we learn that for a certainty it will be found on the property of Air Larkworthy, Afr Chudlcigh, the native leasehold held by Air .Moon, Mr Gould's property, and probably on a portion of the Waikato .Band Associations’ estate. Air Strange's property is sonic miles distant from the present find, and though not as rich in bullion, the same or similar wash dirt has been found there. It is manifestly desirable that we should at least reap the benefit of this vast accumulation of wealth in the present generation, and this is so not only in the interest of this portion of the country, hut of the colony. It may he made not only the lever to raise the colony out of its present depressed state, but become the immediate means to populate our waste lands, and place the immediate future of New Zealand on so prosperous a basis that our at present exceptional burden of taxation will be lightly fell, and agriculture, tratio, and commerce he launched again upon the lloodtido of prosperity. To etl’ect all this will require something more than the working of these deposits by a few companies, managed, perhaps, in the same fashion as the bonanzas of America, in the interests of stockbroking. That the gold has been discovered only on private property is the one drawback, but even that, we trust, may bo got over, and a goldfield opened that will attract to it thousands and scores of thousands of adventurous miners. It rests with the Government of the colony to effect this. AVill it bo believed that before Mr J. B. Smith raised a company to work this goldfield ho endeavoured to ar range with the Government to take the property oft' Ids hands, on terms equally favourable as those offered to the company, but the Government would have nothing to do with it ? Yet such now turns out to have been the case. Little more than a year ago Sir Julius Vogel, in a Southern address, advocated the raising of fresh loans, one of the objects to lie carried out with the money being the diversion of the ilolyne.aux River, to enable its present bed to be worked for the gold believed to exist there. Yet when a certainly that would turn out of more value occurs in the North, to be obtained at a twentieth part of the cost, the opportunity is let slip. There was no risk in this case, for the oiler was conditional on the result of the same tests afforded to the Canterbury men, who have only been too glad to accept Air Smith’s terms. The Government had its own professional and responsible experts, on whose report it might have acted. It may be that they were seized with a sudden feeling of extreme caution, hut it does look as if a .Ministry with Southern proclivities, much as the colony needed such a revival as a poor man’s alluvial goldfield would alibi'd, have sacrificed Northern interests to Southern jealousy. Wc do not say that it is so, hut we warn the Government, while there is time, to put it out of the power of their enemies to say this, and of their opponents in Parliament to urge it as yet another reason why they have forfeited the confidence of the country.

While there is yet time, wo say, because this discovery is only in its infancy. The section of: some .'IOO nrivs on Mr Smith’s land, which has 1 reel i already proved, is at the boundary of two other properties which the same country traverses, and the natural supposition is that, whether ou the shores of an old lake, or in the former bod of a river, the run of gold will not be confined to the comparatively small space ou which it has yet boon found. Had the land belonged to the Crown the course would have been clear. It would have been rushed and the question settled at once, but in tbe interests of the public it is desirable that the next best thing should be doue—that the Government should make arrangements witli the owners to have the country prospected and proved, and then, under the powers provided in the Mining Act of quoted by us ou Saturday, arrange with the present owners, hat e the lands proclaimed a cold held, and throw them open to miners. Mr JfaHuuco boasts that he has removed the cry of the unemployed, and placed a thousand persons ou the lauds by bis village .settlement scheme, which it will take some .£70,000 altogether to make a success. If twice that amount were expended in the purchase of an alluvial goldfield of the character of that discovered at Waitoa, it would bo mmie.y well invested, for such a Held, which would bo the world’s attraction, would bring thousands into the heart of the immense Waikato basin and the valleys of the Thames, and the northern portion of the King Country, where millions of acres are waiting the colonising hand of man. It would swell the revenue, and infuse new life into every trade and business from the North Cape to the Jiluff. That the Government, and that too a Ministry which poses as the friend of the working man, lias let such an opportunity slip through its lingers is, to say the

least, most extraordinary. Tin.' opening by them of a rich alluvial goldfield just at the present time would, like charity, have covered a multitude of sins.