17

C—l

this colony placed upon a solid basis, and our mines worked upon sound commercial principles, for I feel that the future welfare of the colony depends in a great measure on the development of its immense mineral resources, as we have large tracts of land unsuitable for any other occupation than mining, and which are known to contain considerable wealth in minerals. It was with the object of distributing reliable and practical information far and wide that I first attempted the publication of the Handbook. With regard to further assistance by the State towards mining, I am of opinion that every industry in this colony should, by the aid of good government, be placed in such a position as to be able to progress on its own basis, and I feel that the sooner this principle is adopted in respect to mining and all other industries the more sound and permanent each will become. It is true that the mining industry has heretofore been liberally fostered ; but for this I am not responsible. My predecessors established a desultory system of assistance in such varied forms to works of many descriptions that the custom, I found, could not be suddenly stopped During my term of office I have been endeavouring by degrees to discontinue that kind of assistance, excepting in very special cases, and in the construction of roads and tracks to open up the country. It is in the latter direction.that aid by the State should be freely given, in order to place the mining industry on a somewhat equal footing with other industries in the colony. Most other industries spring into existence in localities where there are good roads and railways and other means of communication. Therefore to progress in mining and open up new auriferous or mineral ground for occupation by the miner roads and tracks will have to be constructed; and it must not be forgotten that the prosecution of works of this character offers every inducement to people to settle on the land where arable areas are available, and settlers taking up land in the back-country cannot be expected to prosper unless a mining community carries on operations in the neighbourhood, otherwise the distance from the principal markets make the cost of transit of the settlers' produce so great that the latter are unable to compete with their fellow-producers, who may enjoy the advantage of living near large centres of population. Mining and settlement on the land, in distant portions of the colony, will have to advance hand in hand, as the former industry will always be foremost in exploring new blocks of land for the settler to establish himself on, and will provide him with a ready market for his produce. Beyond continued aid to the construction of roads and tracks I would advocate assistance towards obtaining reliable knowledge of the best and most modern modes of treating and reducing refractory ores. It is too well known in this colony that, with the systems we now practice, and the appliances in use for extracting gold and silver, not only is a very large percentage of the former metal lost, but very little of the silver is saved ; and most of the refractory ores in the North Island contain much more silver than gold. The ore recently forwarded to England and America from Tui Creek and Waihi for treatment fully bears out what I have just said; indeed, it is entirely owing to the extremely rich character of these ores that the mines could have been worked and proved remunerative under our present rude process of treatment; but the real value of the ores was only made apparent by sending them out of the country. It will surely be prudent, then, to offer liberal aid to acquire the necessary knowledge for preventing a waste of the great riches which many of the ores of New Zealand contain. The Owen is a new and extensive reefing district opened up within the last twelve months. It is some few miles up the river of that name above its junction with the Buller, and I think that its reefs will support a large population for some years to come. The stone found up to the present time shows itself perhaps of a low grade, and I estimate the gold return at from Bdwt. to 12dwt. per ton; but the immense bodies of stone and the great facilities that offer in this locality for crushing will help to make this character of stone pay for working. The present road to the reefs has been partly formed and constructed; but it is useless to attempt to improve and complete it until the summer season sets in, when probably it will be found to be more economical to lay off and construct a new road for a portion of the distance up the Owen River than to repair the road on 3—C. 1.