We regret deeply to see statements that gold has been
dis- covered in Wynaad, the best coffee-producing district of South. India, and is being worked by the "Alpha Mining Company.' The world does not need more gold, and the disturbance which. a profitable gold-field would produce in an Indian district might be excessive. The profits of the business will certainly not ex- ceed those of coffee-planting, while their gambling character may attract hosts of Europeans, whom the Madras Government may find it very difficult to control. We do not, of course, vouch for the reports, but we believe them, as the existence of gold in the South, as well as in Assam and the Punjab, has long been de- monstrated. The natives, more especially in the Punjab and Assam, make a wretched living of the search, but then they only wash the surface-sands, leaving the " reefs" from which the gold is brought down, unattacked. The Assam gold-bearing region is in the centre of a continent, and well out of the way, but the Wynaad reefs, if they turn out profitable, are accessible by railway within twelve miles.
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