We have it present these simple data--that in a soft, swampy soil gold has been found close to the surface in small specks, gradually increasing in size and quantity as a greater depth has been attained.
From the fact that gold will naturally lie deep, from its specific gravity, it is astonishing that any vestige of such a metal should be discovered in such soil so close to the surface.

Still more astonishing that it should be so generally disseminated throughout the locality.
This would naturally be accepted as a proof that the soil is rich in gold.

But the question will then arise, Where is the gold?
The quantities found are a mere nothing--it is only dust: we want "nuggets." The latter is positively the expression that I myself frequently heard in Ceylon--"We want nuggets." Who does not want nuggets?
But people speak of "nuggets" as they would of pebbles, forgetting that the very principle which keeps the light dust at the surface has forced the heavier gold to a greater depth, and that far from complaining of the lack of nuggets when digging has hardly commenced, they should gaze with wonder at the bare existence of the gold in its present form and situation.
The diggings at Ballarat are from a hundred to an hundred and sixty feet deep in hard ground, and yet people in Ceylon expect to find heavy gold in mere mud, close to the surface.

The idea is preposterous, and I conceive it only reasonable to infer from the present appearances that gold does exist in large quantities in Ceylon.

But as it is reasonable to suppose such to be the case, so it is unreasonable to suppose that private individuals will invest capital in so uncertain a speculation as mining without facilities from the government, and in the very face of the clause in their own title-deeds "that all precious metals belong to the crown." This is the anomalous position of the gold in Ceylon under the governorship of Sir G.Anderson.
Nevertheless, it becomes a question whether we should blame the man or the system, but the question arises in this case, as with everything else in which government is concerned, "Where is the fault ?" "Echo answers 'Where ?'" But the public are not satisfied with echoes, and in this matter-of-fact age people look to those who fill ostensible posts and draw bona fide salaries; and if these men hold the appointments, no matter under what system, they become the deserved objects of either praise or censure.
Thus it may appear too much to say that Sir G.Anderson is liable for the mismanagement of the colony in toto--for the total neglect of the public roads.