1862 - Richardson, J. L. C. Sketch of Otago, New Zealand, as a Field of British Emigration - Otago and its Detractosr, p 55-60

       
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  1862 - Richardson, J. L. C. Sketch of Otago, New Zealand, as a Field of British Emigration - Otago and its Detractosr, p 55-60
 
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OTAGO AND ITS DETRACTOSR.

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OTAGO AND ITS DETRACTOSR.

[From The Otago Witness.)

THOSE who are familiar with Sheridan's charming comedy of "The School for Scandal," will remember with what admirable tact Mrs Candour contrived to damage the characters of all her acquaintances, while pretending to have a horror of tale-bearing. She did not, like Pope's Atticus, "just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike," but boldly told the naughty stories, and hoped they were not true; she had heard them reported--but people were so dreadfully censorious. The Mrs Candour race is far from being extinct in the present day, nor are the praiseworthy exertions of the family confined merely to the narrow circle of private society. There are members of the Candour family in every walk of life, and their industry is as remarkable as that of their great prototype of the stage.

Otago, as might be expected, has many of these "good natured friends," who, in the kindest spirit, are ever ready to circulate any reports to her disadvantage. Conspicuous among these is 'The Melbourne Argus,' a journal which, rejoicing in the noble motto-- "I am in the place where I am demanded of conscience to speak the truth, and therefore the truth I

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speak, impugn it whoso list," is yet at all times willing to give currency to statements which may tend to depreciate Otago in the eyes of the world. Pretending to take a friendly interest in the progress of the new gold country which has opened so fine a field for Victorian enterprise, 'The Argus' yet lets no occasion slip that offers the least opportunity for disparaging its resources, or throwing a doubt upon the permanence of its prosperity.

It is not difficult to fathom the motive of these systematic efforts to injure Otago. 'The Argus,' writing in the interest of its own colony, and viewing with alarm the prospect of Otago proving more attractive than Victoria as a field for emigration from Europe, seeks to throw a false colour upon all its reports respecting New Zealand and its gold-fields, trusting that the minds of intending emigrants may thus be prejudiced, and hoping that Otago's loss may be Victoria's gain.

That 'The Argus' has set this object before it is in a manner proved by the fact that, in its last summary for Europe, published on the 25th March, that journal took especial pains to avoid more than the most cursory allusion to the Otago gold-fields; the only direct notice of them, in fact, being conveyed in the following brief paragraph:--

"From New Zealand we have only the usual rumours of impending disturbances. The early winter has begun to tell on the gold-fields of Otago, where the rain and cold, and the want of timber for fire-wood and for mining pur-

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poses, render a diggers life impossible of endurance in winter."

It will be observed that this paragraph is ingeniously arranged, so as to convey to European readers the most gloomy idea of New Zealand generally. "From New Zealand we have only the usual rumours of impending disturbances;"--as if the whole of New Zealand were on the eve of being desolated by an internecine war of races. 'The Argus' writer is well aware of the ignorance that prevails in Europe respecting the distant colonies of the South Sea. He does not require to be told that to most people New Zealand is a terra incognita, and that very few are aware that the "impending disturbances," even supposing there is any real foundation for the "rumours," must of necessity be confined to a portion of the Northern Island, and could as little affect Otago as a row at John O'Groat's could disturb the peace or diminish the earnings of the miners of Cornwall. 'The Argus,' we say, does not require to be told all this, but, calculating on the ignorance of English readers, it has prefaced its notice of the Otago gold-fields by the allusion to rumoured "disturbances." Mrs Candour herself could hardly have managed better.

The statement, that the "early winter," the "rain and cold," and the "want of timber, render a digger's life impossible," is equally disingenuous. Not a word, it will be noticed, is said of the extraordinary richness of the Otago gold-fields--of the high average earnings of miners--of the plentifulness of coal and lignite;

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not a word of the number of ships constantly leaving Melbourne with full cargoes of goods and more than full complements of passengers for Otago; but the winter and the cold are harped upon with an energy the motive of which is but too apparent. With regard even to the "winter," of which so much is attempted to be made, the facts are deliberately falsified. That the climate of Otago is uncertain, has never been attempted to be denied, but that it is anything like what 'The Argus' would seek to represent it, is absolutely untrue; and, so far from the "early winter" having commenced at the time 'The Argus'' summary was penned, the real fact is, that during the last month there was an almost uninterrupted succession of warm fine days, with the thermometer averaging over sixty degrees at noon, and occasionally reaching eighty degrees in the shade in the afternoon.

But it is said that people of a certain class should have good memories, and certainly 'The Argus' would do well to lay the homely proverb to heart; for, in other parts of the same issue of the paper, we find statements which tend, in a remarkable manner, to contradict the sweeping condemnation passed upon New Zealand in the paragraph specially devoted to it. The poison, indeed, bears with it its own antidote. In noticing the Victorian gold-fields, 'The Argus' has to account for a continuous falling off in the yield, and it does so after the following fashion:--

"The yield of the gold-fields is still much below that

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of former years. The emigration to New Zealand has carried off, for the time, large numbers of the most able and vigorous of our mining population. The following table gives the arrivals from, and departures for Otago, since the first intelligence arrived here of the opening of the gold-fields to the present date:--

Departures during the first rush............12,418
Ditto since resumed emigration............ 9,702
[Total...............................] 22,120

Immigration from Otago............ 5,275
Balance of Emigration ............16,845

"With so large a reduction in the ranks of Victorian miners as this table discloses, it cannot be wondered that a smaller quantity of gold has been produced in this colony. The gold-fields returns of the mining surveyors, just published, clearly prove that the numbers actually employed in mining are now some 10,000 less than at this time last year."

The cat is out of the bag! In spite of the "usual rumours of impending disturbances," in spite of the "early winter," in spite of "want of timber for firewood," upwards of 22,000 Victorians have left that golden land for the despised Otago, and nearly 17,000 of the number have remained there. It would be difficult to find a more damning commentary upon the calumnies of 'The Argus' than is supplied by this simple fact.

But we have not done with 'The Argus' yet. The trade of Victoria has to be treated of, and in doing

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this it would be a sad oversight to omit to chronicle so important an item as that of the exportation of New Zealand gold, taken to Melbourne for transhipment. Accordingly, we find the following paragraph:--

"The total quantity shipped during the current year has amounted to 501,662 ounces, including 96,336 ounces transhipped from New Zealand vessels. The total production of the Victorian mines for the year stands therefore at 405,326 ounces."

And a little further, under the same head-

"The total quantity of New Zealand gold shipped from this port since the opening of the mines at Otago has amounted to 229,606 ounces, 133,270 ounces of which was shipped in 1861, and 96,336 ounces during the current year."

So that, taking our contemporary's own statements, Otago has, in less than eight months, attracted from Victoria alone about 17,000 people, and has sent to Melbourne 229,606 ounces of the precious metal. Pretty well this for a place only deemed worthy of a casual notice at the tail of a contemptuous paragraph.


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