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Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 208, 4 November 1873, Page 5

Jn our leader of the 21st ultimo, we drew attention to the necessity which existed of .■obtaining a commonage for this district ; arid we were, of course, more immediately ied to do so on account of the late irnpound•ings of the runholder, Mr Loughnan. Last week we published a letter from Mr Loughnan, which deals very sparingly with the main question raised by us,—that is, the necessity of a commonage,—but which yet deserves a little attention, if for nothing else, from the fact of its being the firsl genuine exposition of a runholder's feelings on this important question with which we in this district have as yet been favoured. In dealing, however, with the subject as lie does, it is evident to us that Mr Loughnan .has been in some things labouring under a misunderstanding, which it will be well for us tp clear away before further pursuing the subject. If Mr Loughnan will again look at our issue of the 21st hit, he will see. that we stated our views of hw-motives in carrying out this annual impounding raid with a qualification : we said it looked very like as if his wish were that such and such a thing should happen, Mr Loughnan knows as well as we do that the sum of £2OOO is at the disposal of the Govern ment for the purpose of providing a commonage for Cromwell, and he also knows, from the experience of last year,, that a few raids upon the cattle and horses, would force the matter of commonage upon the attention of the Government, and the im mediate disposal of the £2OOO would be the result. If Mr Loughnan says that such a result was not desired-by him/we do not --doubt .his word ; Vl only -wish. such had

• *;; ;. # , . ~ Mt«u • • • been bis intention.—Again, we must remind our correspondent that we were quoting the Commonage Committee's own words,, not our own, when we spoke of *'• raaisting to Jtbe utmost" any ntjtejnpta by tho nunholder to impound tattle. Tb© first object of the Committee was to obtain-an adequate pommonage. (surely a lawful ob-, ject) fof ( district,' and" the second Was to "resist to the utmost'' any further attempts! at impounding. It was so well understood at the time that the resistance was to be of a lawful nature, that on the first occasion of impounding which happened, lawful means were adopted to resist it, and as Mr Loughnan must surely recollect, the resistance was successful j the Commonage Committee proved to be better lawyers" than Mr Loughnax himself. Mr Loughnan must have been betrayed by his anxiety to indulge in a sneer at an " enlightened Press," when he came to the conclusion that our encouragement to the people to abide by the law, was an encouragement to petty thieving. The paragraph in our correspondent's letter, in which he speaks of publicans and dwellers in gold-fields towns and wayside shanties—the publican, especially, who "preys upon the digger,"—and the miner, who is.not a trespasser "in the way the runholders have to complain of," will not mislead.many people, we think; it looks too much like an attempt to set one class of the community against another. The digger-knows that his one horse or cow is impounded as remorselessly as the publican's or storekeeper's, and the fact weighs with him as strongly as it does with the other. As for the important fact men. tioned at the end of the paragraph,—that the funholder maintains his right annually at great cost to himself,—it may be important to remember that two or three of the shanty-keepers so contemptuously alluded to employ, each of them, far more labour in farming, and real bona fide settlement, than any runholder in this neighbourhood. It is veiy much to be regretted that the breed of cattle kept by° them should be so inferior, but even Mr Loughsak will admit that under the present circumstances it would be folly for them to invest very largely in first-class Ayrshires,- or Alderneys, or Durhams. When they have secured an undisturbed right to depasture them, they will no doubt improve the selection of their stock. A "weedy" horse, too, is better than none, and even a " weedy" horse is too good for periodical impoundings. Space will not permit us to do more than thus cursorily glance at the contents ot Mr Loughnan's letter at this time, even if we had the inclination ; but as he has implied so much as to his rights in the matter—legal rights, we presume,--we intend to inquire a little further into the power which he actually does possess. If we find that he legally has power to act as he lately has been doing, we shall then inquire into the most feasible method of withdrawing from him that power which presses so unjustly upon the great body of the people. In the meantime, we counsel the people of this district to encourage a unity of feeling amongst themselves upon the subject.