DUNSTAN.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 199, 2 September 1873, Page 6

DUNSTAN.

(from a correspondent.) August 30, 1873’ Wednesday last was the day appointed for holding an enquiry regarding the auriferous nature of the land at Bald Hill Flat, held under agricultural lease, and to decide whether or not the same should be withheld from sale. The business of the Resident Magistrate and Warden’s Courts being concluded by about eleven o’clock, Messrs Simpson, Hazlett, and Thompson took their seats at the Board, Mr W. Forrest, from Alexandra, conducted the enquiry on the part of the miners; and Mr F. J. Wilson, for the agriculturists. About twenty witnesses were examined, but the evidence given was too voluminous for me to attempt to' give any report of it. One witness, however, amused me. He was treating the Board to a display of oratory, —as to how the Legislature should place the cockatoos on the soil so as not to interfere with the miner. The Board declined to hear any of his strong political views, but desired him to state simply what he knew relating to the auriferous nature of the land in question. He said that as far as he was concerned, he had all through his experience here been well out of the way of the ■cockatoo, and he hoped he would continue to be so ; for he had no desire to come in close •quarters with those gentlemen. His opinion of the land in question was that nine-tenths ■of it would never be required for mining, or else that that portion of it would be required, I could not make out which ; and the crossquestioning that commenced about the remaining tenth entirely bamboozled me, so I gave it up. The decision of the Board was deferred until September 3rd, The Board will also have another matter in hand that day, which is strongly attracting public attention. It is the application of R. H. Leary, Trustee in the estate of Mr J. D. Feraud, for leave to construct a dam in the Waikerikeri Valley, and also to cut a race from thence to Monte Christo, for irrigating and domestic purposes. Objections having been lodged against it, Mr Feraud has adopted the course of getting up a petition in support of the application, which I hear has been numerously •signed. For the last week, the buggy and grey horse have been constantly on the move. The energy Mr Feraud has been displaying has attracted considerable notice, for as I was walking through the town one day, there was the buggy drawn to the side of the street, mid he surrounded by a few of the citizens, no doubt putting forth the justice of his •cause. I, on the other side, passing one of the Town Councillors, he taps me on the shoulder and whispers (nodding his head in the direction of the buggy), “ He has got water on the brain.” In your last, I see you notice the resolution carried at the annual meeting of the Clyde Library, that they will not longer subscribe to the Argus. Your remarks taken in a common-sense business point of view could not be gainsayed. I should be sorry to put anything in the way of our Library not being supplied with your paper, either gratuitously or otherwise, but I am just reminded of a saying (which, though it may not exactly apply in all cases, is still pretty near the truth): it is, —What is not worth paying for is not worth having. I think there is a strong resemblance between newspaper proprietors or editors, or what in short is called the Press, and Members of Parliament. They are both a sort of public property, which everyone claims the right of ■criticising, abusing, or commending at their pleasure. Honourable members abuse each other in the House, and laugh over it in the •quiet parlour. Contemporaries abuse each other through the Press, but when they meet are firm friends. And the philanthropic representative of the Press who sends free copies to public reading rooms and libraries to injure his own trade, or circulation, reminds me of those honourable members who have got such a horror of having to pocket ' the honorarium.