THE COMMONAGE QUESTION.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 231, 14 April 1874, Page 5

THE COMMONAGE QUESTION.

To the Editor of the Ceomweu, Aug us. Sir,—l luve read as much of what lias been written upon the above subject as I could put my hands, or rather my sight on, and—woe is me !—I have listened to a great deal that lias been talked about the same, but I cannot say I am satisfied that the proper remedy has been yet suggested to the public against the intolerable grievance that we labour under in this district, in that we cannot run a single horse or a cow without the c/radous permission of the surrounding runholders. I have read a letter in your columns from one of the runholders adjacent, in which ho states that Ids class do not object to the bona fide miner running a horse or a cow on the ground leased by them. Admitting this to be true, not only for the writer of that letter, but also for the very extensive number of persons that he vouches for (courageous individual!), what then? Surely this admits that without permission the horse or cow cannot be run ; and such, I fear, is undoubtedly the correct view of the case. Now, Sir, is it right or proper that I, who claim to be an independent man, must (metaphorically) go down on ray knees and beg any man to allow me to do a thing I am willing to pay for, and believe I am under the spirit, though not under the letter, of the Gold-fields Regulations, justly entitled to claim as a right ? And suppose that after having humbled myself, and obtamed permission to run a horse and cow from Smith the runholder, Smith sells out to Brown—what guarantee have I that Brown will not order my cattle off at once, and if I do not take them, immediately put them into that barren inclosure known as the pound ? And when, after hours of fatigue tnd pounds of expense, 1 get my cow back, will I not find that her milk is dried up ? and will not my children have to put up with tea without milk, or with water—ami such water (for I may tell you that I live in Cromwell)—for perhaps nine or ten months? All the writing and talking that I mentioned above seems only to have resulted in inducing fcne Government to enter into negociations with Messrs Loughnan for the purchase of 7000 acres of the bare, barren flat that adjoins Cromwell; but unfortunately, or perhaps I should sly fortunately, Messrs I. Loughnan and Co. could not come to terms with the Government. If the 7000 acres had been handed over as a commonage, how much better off should we be ? Very little, I opine. True, we, or rather a few—a very few—of us who live in Cromwell or its immediate vicinity, may have been able to run enough cows to keep our immediate families in milk, and perhaps have been able to keep one horse a-piece ; but what would have become of the miners and others at the Bannockburn, Nevis, and other important and well-populated parts of the Kawarau district? They would have been as badly off as ever.

Now, Sir, it seems to me tint if an idea occurs to anyone, or if they bear of an idea which they fancy may have a tendency to ameliorate the grievance, they are in duty bound to lay it before the public, so that it may be considered by those whose duty it is to legislate in this matter; and if worthless, the reason of its worthlessness shown, and it good, adopted. It has been suggested to me that the only proper cure would be to allow every man in the district to run as many horses and cattle as he wishes to, so long as he pays for the same a fair price. The price which the runholders at present pay is 3s 6d per head for great cattle, and 7d for small. It would he injudicious, I think, to allow miners and others not solely engaged in pastoral pursuits, to compete with the runholder on equal terms, and it would be as well not to allow them to run sheep, as probably this industry would suffer from too much disintegration. But let any “ outsiders” (I may call them so for the purpose) run horses and cattle ad libitum , if the owners pay say 50 per cent, over what the squatters pay. This would he about os for great and lOd for small cattle. This sum might be paid to the runholders themselves, and the difference between what they pay and what they receive would compensate them for the small inconvenience they would sometimes perhaps be put to by the necessary alteration of the number of their docks and herds caused by the fluctuation in the number of cattle and horsos the miners might keep. The runholders themselves would of course be assessed by the Government for the full amount of stock on their runs.—l am, i.Vc., Paterfamilias. I Cromwell, April 13.