The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 87
[From the Evening Star, October 10, 1877]
Our readers will observe, from the advertisement in the usual column, that a Company has been formed for quarrying and disposing of the beautiful stone that abounds between the Kakanui river and the Waitaki—a distance of twenty miles. This is one of the first fruits of the industrial policy of New Zealand. Without facility of carriage, the valuable building material now so accessible by means of the trunk and branch lines of railway would have been used to ornament some contiguous village church or hamlet only, instead of, as is most probable, becoming widely sought after in all the neighbouring colonies, because of its beauty, durability, and the ease with which it can be worked. The Company that has been formed to work those vast deposits appear to have proceeded with somewhat more than the usual caution. Previous knowledge of the value of the building stones of districts north of Oamaru might have sufficed for the people of Dunedin to have entered upon an enterprise likely to be profitable to the Provincial district. It is one of the main objects of the foregone policy of the past General and Provincial Governments to render possible the development of the rich mineral resources of Otago. This is the result looked forward to to recoup with interest the cost of our railways and harbour works. But others are not so well acquainted with facts that are patent to us. The committee have, therefore, taken the evidence of experts as to quantity, quality, cost of mining, and the probable demand for the stone, and this evidence is printed in a convenient form, so that all seeking investment may satisfy themselves as to the prospects of the company. We recommend a careful perusal of this evidence, which, we think, justifies the conclusions at which the Provisional Directorate have arrived. Thus far we permit ourselves to say. We regard industries of this class in a different light from gold-mining. They are, to a great extent, free from the speculative character of the most promising gold claim. The value of the material is ascertainable, the probable demand, the cost of working, transit, and return. The work requires no vast amount of skilled labour. A knowledge of the most useful adaptations of mechanical appliances is all that is needed, but on that account the risk of failure is reduced. The idea, therefore, of utilizing raw material sufficiently abundant to rebuild the whole of the capitals of Europe, obtainable under the most favourable circumstances for working, presents itself not merely as a local, but as a national, benefit. As in all other mercantile investments, success depends mainly upon good management; but that secured, the working of the stone quarries near Oamaru promises to afford permanent employment for future thousands, with their families; and no industry nourishes alone. We need hardly add what is self-evident—that if this apparently well-founded hope is realized, every class must share the benefit.