1862 - Richardson, J. L. C. Sketch of Otago, New Zealand, as a Field of British Emigration - Prospects of the Otago Gold Fields, p 44-51

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PROSPECTS OF THE OTAGO GOLD FIELDS.

(From the Otago Daily Times, March 13, 1862.)

THE people of Otago lost the opportunity of communicating with England by the last mail. The "Aldinga" sailed on the 6th of February, and it was considered certain another vessel would be forthcoming at a later period of the month to catch the mail steamer that left on the 24th. The expectation was doomed to disappointment; and, except in a few instances, the mail was entirely lost to the residents of the Province. Under the circumstances, it is particularly gratifying to observe that The Argus spoke of Otago in its summary for England in less depreciating terms than it has been in the habit of employing. The Argus sees now, what it should long ago have appreciated, that the New Zealand gold-fields have done, and are likely to do, Melbourne and Victoria a vast amount of good. They have served the great social and commercial purposes of ridding Victoria of its surplus labour, and Melbourne of its surplus foods. The miners who were earning a laborious starvation on its older, partially worked-out fields, and thereby increasing the average cost of all the gold that was obtained, were enabled to find a better field for their industry;

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the average earnings of those left behind increased; whilst the attractions of a more luxuriantly developed civilization, and something of the attachment engendered by old associations, were sufficient to draw back again a large number of the miners, whose success enabled them to consult their own inclinations. Thus, in a great measure, Victoria has been able to consider as its own the gold produce of this Province, 1300 miles distant from its shores; and the general status of its mining community has been advanced by the larger wealth diffused through it. From the other point of view, the purely commercial, the benefits that the mercantile community of Victoria have derived from the outlet to its markets are of a magnitude not easily to be overstated. Thousands of pounds, locked up in unsaleable goods, have been set free; the money has been allowed to become reproductive, instead of continuing unfruitful; and the pursuit of business has been kept open to many who would otherwise have had to succumb to the gloomy period of depression that prevailed in Victoria prior to the discovery of the Otago gold-fields.

Of course much of the advantage gained by Victoria has been at the expense of Otago. It is mortifying to those who settle down in the Province, prepared to do long and arduous battle with fortune, and, by steady industry and perseverance, to overcome the fickle goddess--it is mortifying to them, we say, to see others rush in hastily, gather up more or less of a competence, and then rush off to expend it or in-

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vest it elsewhere. Still, the mortification is one which previous example alone, if nothing else, should teach the people of Otago to bear with unrepining philosophy. What Otago now suffers from Victoria, Victoria itself suffered from Adelaide, New South Wales, and Tasmania. New South Wales, again, suffered from Victoria; and British Columbia suffered from California. The invasion of one gold country by the mining population of another, and the rushing off with the golden treasure as soon as procured, are a phase of gold mining existence that the last ten years have tolerably frequently familiarised one to. The country subjected to the invasion is not altogether a loser. A more or less large percentage of the invaders always remains behind. Otago has every reason to be content with the percentage it has retained; hitherto the average has been about two out of every three; possibly, before the winter is over, the average may have fallen to one out of every two. It would be curious, if the figures could be easily got at, to ascertain what percentage of the gold miners in the early days of Victoria, who came to the colony from New South Wales, New Zealand, South Australia, and Tasmania, remained to employ the wealth they obtained, and what percentage returned to the places whence they came. If memory serves us rightly, Victoria had to philosophise over a very large number of birds of passage, and it was not until a steady tide of emigration set in to its shores from the Mother Country that the permanent value of its gold-fields

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was admitted as an established fact. According to returning Tasmanians, South Australians, New South Welshmen, and New Zealanders, Ballarat, Bendigo, and Castlemaine were many times worked out. Again and again they were deserted, and again and again re-rushed, until at last they were permanently peopled by emigrants who, knowing there were thirteen thousand miles of ocean between them and the homes they had left, considered themselves more or less tied to the places where they were located. If we accept the calculation, that Otago keeps only one out of every two Victorian miners who visit the Province, we may estimate that every emigrant from the Mother Country is worth two visitors from Victoria, inasmuch as there are two chances to one of retaining him. This, of course, assumes that their respective values as colonists are equal; it makes no allowance for the experiences of colonization, and of mining, that are supposed to be so much in favour of the Victorian visitor.

We know that great stress is laid on the reported inclemency of the weather, and that it is stated hundreds of miners contemplate leaving in anticipation of it. It may sound something like heresy, to say that we put very little faith in this alleged reason. We believe that the majority of the miners who leave Otago can be divided into two classes, the one which, having earned a little money, follows the roving instincts, and the desire for change and variety which seem to belong to the occupation of gold mining; the other, composed of men who have been guided by the

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opinions of others, and barely, if at all, have visited the gold-fields. We do not believe that one out of twenty miners who have worked for any length of time on the gold-fields, is leaving in consequence of non-success. No doubt many miners give as a reason for their going, that they fear the winter, but we take leave to doubt their fears; we venture to suppose that they would equally have gone if the winter bugbear had not been started. The wonderful effects to arise from a change of season must be a familiar topic with all those who are accustomed to gold-mining jargon. There is scarcely a gold-field in Victoria but of which it has been said in summer, "Wait till the winter and it will yield splendid results and, in the winter, the same has been said concerning the summer, -- "See how the wet diggings will pay in the summer time;"-- "See what gold we will be able to get in the winter, when there's plenty of water," --are the cant phrases familiar to the residents of every gold-field. Who does not recollect the splendid promise that was to await the Kiandra gold-field in the spring, and the impossibility of working it in the winter? nevertheless, the winter escorts were higher than those of the succeeding summer. No doubt the Otago winter will present some difficulties, and will temporarily suspend some kinds of mining; but still, its effect we believe to be very much exaggerated. Gold miners fear nothing in the pursuit of their occupation. Mere inclemency of weather, even if they had to endure it as severely as the alarmists make out, they would

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not shrink from, and those miners who determine to winter in Otago will work as heartily and with just as much success as those who determine to come back in the spring. From inquiries we have made, we believe that there are very few, if any, mining operations that will require to be suspended through the winter. The past summer has been so wet that all the works have been undertaken with the view to constant severe visitations of rain; and, indeed, it is very doubtful whether the rainfall of the winter will be as heavy as that during the summer. We are to suppose, then, a very considerable population located on the diggings during the winter; a very large percentage of the mining population that has visited the Province from Victoria; quite as large as that retained by Victoria, in its early days, from the neighbouring colonies. This population, we have reason to believe, will be greatly augmented by direct immigration from England, in the same way as was that of Victoria, when its first visitants began to return to their neighbouring homes.

Of the success that is likely to await those who remain and those who come, the limits of the present article will scarcely permit us to enter into as extensively as we should wish. It should be borne in mind that the miners here will receive, at the hands of Government, advantages that are not to be found elsewhere. We know that some delay has occurred in carrying out the promises recently made, but we are in a position to say that all of them will be shortly carried

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out. The contracts for the Hospital, and for the supply of fuel, are already entered into. The roads between the various diggings are to be forthwith made. Some forty thousand acres of land have been purchased for commonage, for the use of the residents of the gold-fields; and, as soon as the survey is completed, town and suburban lots, of from one-quarter acre to ten acres in extent, will be offered for sale in large quantities in the immediate neighbourhood of the diggings. The miners will be able to secure homes which they can call their own. The new mining regulations are sufficiently liberal, but the miners will be enabled to make them even more so, as a Mining Board is about to be constituted, --the elections to take place in April. Prospecting parties, desirous of prospecting particular localities (not roaming the country at large) are to be afforded rations and a tent, if their application is approved of by the Government. Last, but not least, those miners who are unlucky at their occupation, or who desire to exchange it for something else, will find profitable employment on the many public works, contracts for which have been, or are about being entered into.

Concerning the relative results of gold-mining in Victoria and Otago, a very few words will suffice. The last escort of which we have information, in Victoria, was 22,268 ozs.; whilst the average of the last thirteen escorts was 31,991 ozs. The last escort from Otago was 7,239 ozs, whilst the average of the last thirteen, ending March 6th, was 11,542 ozs. To ob-

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tain the gold in Victoria, it is estimated that there are 99,086 miners engaged, out of a population on the gold-fields of 232,335--vide Mining Surveyor's Reports for month of December. Besides which, machinery to the value of £1,408,012 is employed. To obtain the yield in Otago, out of a total population of about 16,000, suppose we estimate 12,000 actually engaged in mining, we then have the following results:--