The Dunstan Times SATURDAY, 28th APRIL, 1866

Dunstan Times, Issue 209, 28 April 1866, Page 2

The Dunstan Times

SATURDAY, 28th APRIL, 1866

‘Beneath the rule of'men entirely just, tip pen is mightier than the sword!”

The effects of the carriers' strike is beginning to be felt in the upcountry districts. Stocks are running low, and many mining enterprises have been suspended through the want of material. Before many flays are over our position will be one of difficulty ; provisions will be getting scarce, and as a matter of course will rise in price.. Then there, will be another interested party in

field, to whom some attention must be paid, and who will not be put off with mere promises, and „ the Government will find that dealing with a sleek and well-fed deputation of Dunedin. merchants is a far different matter to dealing with a body of hungry diggers. A demonstration made by men lacking ..the .common .necessaries of life,' and who, t perhaps, have their wives and little ones dn the goldfields wanting bread, will doubt-

less be a more forceable affair than the Okk Identities reckon upon. A bland countenance and fair promises'will carry "but little weight when things come- this pass, which .they assuredly will if the stoppage of supplies continues much longer. The ; cause of the carriers is doubtless a just one, and has Ihe entire sympathy of the majority of the up-country residents, "imposing a toll of one shilling per head upon horses drawing in a waggon, while those yoked to n dray only. pay sixpence, is a grobS piece oi injustice., and is nothing less than a tax levied upon an improved means of locomotion. Two tons of goods carried upon a waggon will not do sO much harm to a road as the same weight borne upon a dray. One has four wheels to susit, while the other has only two, consequently the hitter will cut a rut in a road where the former will pass over without scarcely leaving a mark. A horse is no stronger harnessed to a gon than when attached to a dray Mis capability of moving a weight is scarcely so great, on account of having extra friction to overcome. This is a fact well known to all teamsters, and must be plainly apparent to everybody except the block-headed members of theOtago Provincial Council who imposed the extra toll. If the Government require to be posted up in the laws of friction they have their district and road engineers to supply the required inhumation, and who will very soon set at rest the question as to the relative force required to move a given weight on a carriage haivng two or four wheels. Because waggon owners have endured the impost for so many months past.it does not follow that they should for ever continue to do so. The shoe, perhaps, never pinched so tightly before. The rates of freight have I gradually declined, while the number of toil-bars has increased, eon[scquenfty both causes operating logether have rendered carrying on the roads'an unprofitable speculation, and brought about the strike.

One way or another wc are: heavily taxed on the gold fields.! Father directly or indirectly we pay pretty smartly for the privilege of being allowed to labor for our bread, while at the same time we arc developing the resources of the country and enriching those who, if they had been left to themselves, would have still been eking out a miserable existence among their potato and corn patches, and whose aspirations never soared higher than enjoying the rural felicity of a residence in a rude mud hovel. Circumstances have proved that the Old Identity are behind the times. Any new idea or infringement of established custom is strenuously opposed by them, even to so small a matter as conveying goods by waggons in lieu of drays

The power is vested in the Superintendent and his Executive to alter the scale of tolls, and as an injustice has been perpetrated a remedy should he at once provided. There may he some little difficulty with the lessees of tha tolls, but if a satisfactory arrangement can-, •uot he come to it would he quite easy for the Government to remit upon production of the toll tickets any excess of charge. The matter would not amount to much. The loss to the country would be far less than the continuance of the. present strike. The carriers certainly appear to have the game in their own hands,, and ..as the majority of the people believe in the

justness of their cause a remedy must be quickly provided, or there is likely to be a -.trial of strength between a population wanting food and a week vacilating Government, whoso indecision of character wili not permit them to say yea or nay.