When the just dues arc paid out of the pro ceeds of the gold obtained in the colony, for &iu kin? fund to pay off principal of cost of re pro aictive permanent works and int9rest on amount laid out, there i-* little left for the actual workers. Tim has often made me think that if a law was passed prohibiting gold-mining in any shape or form, it would be the best thing that could possibly happen to the working miners There woull be some cases of hard ship, but the benefits that would accrae to the miners as a class would be so great as to entirely over-bilance anything iv the shapo of hardship. But then it will be s.iid, and with a great deal of truth, that the har-lship would not be alone with th se that had laid out their all in sooie mining venture. There are others that claim a vested viyhtiu the goldfieids as well as themioers. The farmers on. or near the goldfieids would feel the loss if such a change took place ; but the store keepers in the goldfield towns would be ruined. All these have vested interest; in the goldfieids aB well as the miner There is another class — and a very influential one, too— that would be seriously affected, that is the merchants in the large seaboard vities that supply the goldfield towns with merchandise. In my humble opiuitn it is when these classes see that it is to their interest to bav<* the condition of the working miners improved that we may expect something in that direction will be done, and not by the miners wrangling amongst themselves. My experience tells me that there is too much of the obstructive element amongst them.
