MR. FRASER, M.P.C. AT CLYDE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 435, 19 August 1870, Page 2

MR. FRASER, M.P.C. AT CLYDE.

PUBLIC MEETING. On Monday eveinng the Bth instant, a public meeting convened by W. Fra-er, Esq.. M.P.C. was held at Hawthorne’s Clyde Hotel. J. Hazlett, Esq., Mayor, occupied the Chair. Mr. Fraser said I again come before you for the purpose of rendering ah account of my stewardship, and trust you will accord me the patient hearing you have done on previous occasions. I did not address you at the close of the Session of 1809, as it did not appear to me there was any special necessity to do so, and to have called a meeting without a specific object would have looked like talking for talking sake, yet withal, the Session of 1809 was indirectly fruitful of a Measure, concerning which, there has been a deal of frothy declamation, 1 refer to the Hundre s Regulation Bill, on this matter I will principally dwell, and will leave it for you to say whether the course I saw fit to adopt with reference to it was to the interest of my constituents. During the Session several petitions for new Hundreds were presented to the Council and referred by them to a select Committee, who recommended that the Government should appoint a Commission to inquire into the Mutability for settlement of such Runs as the Government might propose to the Council to declare into Hundreds. The Council by a majority agreed to the recommendation, but some of the Runholders interested, petitioned the Governor against what they considered to beau act of spoliation, hence the Hundreds Regulation Bill, a measure which I confidently assert, afforded greater facilities for settlement on the gol .fields than any Land Act previously iu force. The provisions of the Bill are, Ist—The appointment of an Officer to report on the suitableness of the Runs demanded for Hundreds. 2nd—The limitation of Hundre Is to fifteen thousand acres. 3rd—The proviso, that the half must be agricultural land. 4th—Compensation to the Runholder. sth—The removal of all difficulties in way of proclaiming Hundreds on the Goldfields. The explanation of this regard for the Runholder, is this,—under the Laud Act of 1866, the pastoral tenants surrendered their licenses in exchange for leases, and agreed to pay a rent seven times greater than previously, this greatly increased rent entitled them to protection, but this fact has been ignored. With respect to the provisions of the Bid, I think the limination clause might with advantage have been increased to twenty thousand acres. That the area of agricultural land iu Hundred should be one third, instead of the half, and with regard to the compensation clause, in so far as it relates to improved laud, I conceive that the Runholder has no right to ask compensation his lease accords simply a grasing right, tncrefore if he breaks up and improvs land he does so at his own risk. The clause relating to the removing of all difficulties in the way of proclaiming hundreds within goldfields, I may say influenced me more than any other in supporting the Bill, as under it, tracts of country con'd be immediately thrown open, where most required, ami all the irritation and bitterness caused by the want of land to settle on be at once allayed. The Superintendent and his Executive held diametrically opposed views about the Bill, and a special meeting of the Council was convened to decide between them. Now had I consulted my own interests, 1 should certainly have supported the Government, as the Bill in so far as the proclaiming of the Hundreds oil the Goldfields, and the compensation clause Was prejudicial to the interests of those who hold Runs under the Gol fields Act. I had however a higher duty to perform, your interests and not my own. The Government sought the repea 1 of the Bill, and iu the hope of gaining this, they were content with locking up the lands from settlement for twelve months. The advantage of the Hundreds system over th e present One, lies iu the faetthat purchaser* of land Within a Hundred have a right of pasturage over +he unsold portions, a strong argument I think you will allow in favor of it Mr. Fraser then touched on the Representation Bill, Emigration, Railways, and other mat era of general interest, and after satisfactorily repyiug to numerous questions, was voted an unanimous vote of confidence; after which the meeting Repeated.