The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, MAY 15, 1874.

Dunstan Times, Issue 630, 15 May 1874, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 1874.

Beneath the Rule of Men entirely just the PEN is mightier than the sword.

Nothing can ho more disastrous to the success of a newly settled country than incendiarism. This fiendish crime appears to Imre broken out at the .Arrow in alarming force, four fires having followed each other in such quick succession that, it would almost seem some wickedly, disposed person | or persons had sot their hearts upon ruining the fanning interest of our I neighbors. What object the miscre- j ants may have in view it is difficult to'say-—surely, no one would be so develkhly wicked as to destroy the past year’s labor of the poor strug- 1 gling settler merely, because that wheat was cheap and unsaleable, so that it’s value might be increased to themselves, or is anyone so diabolically wicked as to have set themselves systemalically'to the task of destroying by fire the farm produce of the settlers, to satisfy their propensity for destruction. Whatever the causes may be, the matter is a very serious one pit may more immediately affect the Arrow farmers, but at the same time it is equally injurious to the settlement of the other mining districts, where it is sought to encourage a mixed population of miners and agriculturists. To make a gold-field’s prosperous, that is, the class of people most desirable to introduce, and where the system has been carried out that particular district has been the most prosperous and successful. It not only holds good in New Zealand, but it is the same in Victoria. Famous as Ballarat may be for its gigantic mining enterprises, the settlement of a large agricultural population in its near vicinity has principally con. tributed to ! this end ; it not only increases the demand for labor, but causes it to be less desultory, and people sought the district of Ballarat as a field where labor in some shape or anther stood the best chance of finding employment. To take up our gold-fields, and make them attractive nothing is more effective than holding out inducements to the miner, that when having acquired a small

capital, he might invest it in land, and- fund a home, leaving it ojitiouof whether he should still continue his calling, or adopt Iho culttvati’dh of the soil, or perhaps, follow both, according to the tiiue-aud ;place. Nov/ if incendiary fires should ever unfortunately happen to become common in the mining districts, and the feeling gets abroad that property is not safe, it is difficult; to say where the evil will end • many intending settlers will avoid the gold-fields as places to be loathed, and all we might do or say may never restore the confidence which has been broken. After subduing the wilderness and making it into almost a garden, the prospect of having his properly maliciously destroyed by the hand of man for some imaginary evil, is sufficient to curb the enthusiasm of the moot daring pioneer ; it is an evil he cannot provide against, and no one will risk their labor in a place where tire raising is carried on or even possible. Crime, as a rule, is catching,amd it is impossible to say when this unlocked for calamity may end, all we can do is to hope that it may not extend itself, at the same time it is the‘ duty of the Government to offer such a reward as would induce an accomplice to place the police upon the track ot his brother in crime. No pains should be snared to bring the perpetrators to justice, and no expense deemed too large to accomplish this most desirable end. Of all the inflictions ever inflicted upon society, nothing is to be more dreaded than the hand of th'i incendiary.