For nigh 50 years past the gold mining industry has been a splendid asset to Dunedin, the merchants of the city supplying the wants of a large and prosperous mining population. No doubt the necessities of the goldfields induced many enterprising business men to establish manufacturing industries, most of which are good live concerns to-day, with many of their products competing both in quality and price with similar products of the world’s markets. Therefore, I think it can be safely claimed that Dunedin owes a lot of its past prosperity and its present position as a manufacturing centre to the wealth of the goldfields.
Without one essential — namely, water, the assistance rendered to the city by the goldfields would have been impossible. Soon after the discovery of the Otago goldfields it was quickly recognised that owing to the depth and nature of the gold-bearing drifts, water in large quantities was necessary for the economic development of the industry, and laws were framed which enabled those having the energy and enterprise to construct races to secure water rights giving them the privilege to divert sufficient water out of the numerous streams, which were then running to waste, to enable them to work their claims. Most of these races were constructed through rough gorges, in most cases by hard-working industrious parties. In some cases as long as two years’ hard toil was spent in their construction. Other races cost £10,000 and more for construction. With the exception of one or two, all this was done by private enterprise. In addition to those races used for sluicing, other rights were granted in connection with lode mining, and great care should be taken that the mining industry shall not be permanently handicapped by taking from it one of the essentials of its existence. At the present time mining in Otago is at a low ebb, but scientific research and improved mechanical appliances may admit of many of our lodes, both in gold and other minerals, being profitably worked. The laws governing water for mining purposes give a certain amount of protection to water formerly and now being used in mining, and care should be taken in framing any future laws governing water rights that proper provision is made to protect mining interests.
At the present time hopes of maintaining and improving the commercial status of Dunedin appear to be centered to a large extent on fruit-growing and improving the productiveness of Central Otago. No doubt it is very desirable that the most should be obtained from the land, but care should be taken that in the building up of one industry another is not killed. The water for mining was invariably lifted out of some almost inaccessible mountain torrent or creek which, if permitted to flow on its natural course, would have eventually discharged into some large river and thence on to the ocean, without the slightest chance of irrigating on its way. Therefore, the granting of these mining rights has not had the slightest effect on the pasturage of Central Otago, and has not stopped or retarded the growth of one blade of grass. The Chamber of Commerce might do worse than appoint a committee of its members to review the position in regard to mining in Otago, with the object of trying to improve an industry that has for so many years been such an important factor in the prosperity of Dunedin. — I am, etc., J.A. Sligo. — ODT, 27.11.1916.
