The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-19 00:00:00

MINING REVIETV.

COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL SUMMARY.

The Report of the Commissioner for the Col-
lection of Mining Statistics on the Pacific Coast
being compiled with such a strict regard to ex-
actness, and by parties every way competent
and veracious, when it shall appear, will have
strong claims to be received as au authority
upon the various topics of which it treats. That
it will, despite these precautions against exaggera-
tion, exhibit for our Pacific possessions an immensity
of mineral wealth need hardly be stated. Indeed
the representations made of these and our other
material resources are such as cannot fail to astonish
the world by reason of their ready availability and
vastness. The nations of the Eastern Continent,
accustomed to pursue the business of mining
in fields of comparatively narrow limits, will
be amazed when they come to learn through
an authoritative channel the richness and
extent of the mineral regions lying west of the
Rocky Mountains. llere, instead of a few small
districts, as with them, they will perceive that our
metalliferous ranges stretch over States and Terri-
tories, either of them larger than almost any king-
dom in Europe, our lodes being at the same time
heavier and the ores much richer than theirs. Here,
they will readily come to understand, are fields of
profitable industry broad enough to absorb the
cheap capital and give employment to all the sur-
plus labour of the Old World. Fields of industry,
too, already explored and opened up to the enter-
prise of all peoples, native and foreign alike—our
system making no distinction in this respect between
our own and alien citizens. Here the miner from
abroad can take up and hold claims, work and sell
the same or buy others, without divesting himself
of his nationality—enjoying, if he choose, all the
advantages without assuming any of the burdens
of citizenship. Here the labourer can com-
mand steady work at wages
.more than double
those he has been accustomed to receive ;
or, if he prefer, become his own employer,
with abundant chance of success. Here the
capitalist receives every encouragement and protec-
tion, his investments enjoying immunity from
annoying espionage and excessive taxation, and
being safe against the fluctuations to which most
other Governments are exposed. Here there is no
danger of his being oppressed by arbitrary laws or
molested by official interference, as in many other
mining countries. lVith us he is not liable, as in
Mexico and South America, to be plundered by the
Government on the one hand and guerillas on the
other, nor subjected to a vexatious surveillance or
the payment of royalties and other exactions. All
these and many other advantages peculiar to our
mining policy will be made apparent, attaining to
wide notoriety through the pages of this report, an
immense edition of which, it is understood, will be
issued with a view to its broad and liberal distri-
bution. That great and lasting benefits will
through its agency accrue, not only to the mining
region, but to the country, and even the world at
large, cannot be doubted. When the extent to
which our own people have put their labour and
means in milling properties, and in improver ent*