PUBLIC GRIEVANCES.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 25, 4 May 1870, Page 5

PUBLIC GRIEVANCES.

To the Editor of the Cromwell Argos. Sir— At public meetings, and in the columns of the local press, it is the custom to cry out about the systematic neglect with which the Cromwell district is treated, and the way in which it is robbed, right and left, of its few privileges ; but it has occurred to mo that we are ourselves more to blame than those in authority : our own apathy is tho real ciuso of many of our grievances. It appears to be universally noted that our worthy Warden has far too much to Jo in the large district ho has charge of, and yet we have only a fortnightly sitting of the Court in Cromwell, whore 1 am sure there is quite suffieieut business for a weekly Court. Places of far less importance than Cromwell get weekly Courts, and I do not see avhy we should not have one. It is useless nagging at tho authorities about a Court-house—that I suppose wo will not get till the old one blows away ; tho comfort or convenience of the gold-fields officers is not studied. But the people should demand a better and safer place in which to keep the titles and records of the various mining claims in the district. I might also call your attention to jhe miserable, leaky old buildings the police occupy. They have done good service, and it is time they were removed and better ones erected in their place. Surely the revenue derived from the district is sufficient to afford it. In your last issue I observed a letter about the leasing of the Lower Flat. I quite agree with the writer, and think it is time some one took the matter in hand. Mr Loughnan once offered the whole of the fiat extending from Bannockburn to the Lowburn, but the people did not consider it enough ; and now, while the settlement of the commonage question is in abeyance, and the Corporation at loggerheads, our most valuable piece of land is being taken possession of. Now is the time to try and stop the alienation, before the fence is completed—not to complain after it is once fenced in. But what is everyb idy’s business is nobody’s business. I believe it to be the Corporation’s, as the only recognised body to make known our grievances to the Government, for if you go down with a petition without their support, you are scarcely recognised. But instead of them supporting us, we find that the Mayor himself has taken possession of this piece of land to make a grass paddock of it—the only piece you can depend on for fee 1 all the year round. The loss to the district will be greater than it at first sight appears. It will not only give a monopoly to the best piece of grazing land in the district, but it shut up the river frontage, and prevent access being gained to the place used for lauding timber, consequently very materially damaging the timber trade with the Hawea and Wanaka Lakes. If Mr Loughnan’s offer had been accepted, and the commonage vested in trustees, to be elected annually, this would not have happened. 1 believe Mr Loughnan is charging 2ls per head for cattle running on the flat, and is alio .in, the best land to be taken up by a few monopolists. Regretting that the subject has not been taken up by au abler pen, I am, &c., Watchman.