WASTE LANDS BOARD.

Dunstan Times, Issue 771, 26 January 1877, Page 3

WASTE LANDS BOARD.

At the usual weekly meeting of the above Board the following business was transacted The Chief Commissioner intimated the receipt of resignation of Mr D. Reid of his appointment as a Commissioner of the Board. The resignation was accepted, Mr Reid to be intimated accordingly. Craven Paget, lessee of coal mine at Alexandra, wrote explaining the reasons of nonpayment of rent of coal lease, and for not having worked the mine in accordance with conditions of lease ; also a letter from J. C. Chappie on the subject.—Paget to he informed that unless the terms of his )ea ; e he complied with within two months from the date of the lease would bo forthwith declared forfeited In discussion on arrears in survey work, Mr Bastings said : I have known people waiting from seven ami eight months with their fingers in their mouths, as it were, for land to be surveyed and thrown open. Mr Strode : I know there has been a great outcry about this. It is a very pressing want. The Chief Commissioner : I understood that Mr Arthur intended to put on more surveyors. Mr Bastings : Resolutions were passed eighteen months ago by this Board that land should he surveyed, find it is no nearer survey now. The public is inconvenienced by, and the revenue suffers, from the delay. I know a man who made application to this Board, and who has been to England, to America, and nearly all over the world twice since 5 now he is hack here, and the land is not surveyed yet. I met him the other day near Roxburgh, and lie asked me if 1 thought there was any chance of him getting the land before ISSO. Mr Fraser (who appeared for Mr Strode) enquired if the applicant would be allowed to put on his surveyor, but reply was made that such would tend to interfere with the Denartment. At the conclusion of the business, the Board resolved on the motion of Mr Bastings, to request the Chairman to write to the Government, asking that the survey staff might he increased, in order to overtake the large amount of arrears in the Survey Department. F. F, Smith and others called the Board's attention to the proposed sale of section 7, block IX., Chatton, which they were led to believe was reserved for gold mining purposes, on the recommendation of Warden Wood. They alleged that the ground was at present being worked, and paying at the rate of L 4 to LlO per week ; that the gold runs in a gutter 40ft. wide, and has every appearance of running through the whole section, which would givo employment to a great 11 nmlier of miners, etc. Mr Strode would sooner sec a number of families 011 the land. Mr Bastings; Have not diggers families? You would never have had families on it, had it not been for the diggers ; and but for

them, grass would have been growing on the streets of Dunedin now. Mr Strode ! I dis mite that entirely. Mr Bastings i At all events, that is my opinion. Mr Strode : I disagree with it entirely. Mr Bastings : I move that the sections bo withdrawn from sale. No possible harm can result from doing so ; and If reserved for three or tour years, it will become enhanced in value when sold, and all the gold will have been extracted by that time. We ought to run no risk in such matters. A good deal of the 10,000 acres already sold to Mr Logan is payably auriferous, and I know it would suppmt a largo population for two or throe years. Mr Clark was understood to bo opposed to the motion, saying that objection to the sa'e was left t(i the last moment. They do it in almost every instance.. The Chief Cnmmissioner would not object to miners objec ling when their rights w<>rc interfered with, but very often the grounds set up were merely hypothetical. Naturally enough, the miners tried to keep the land from being sold. Mr Bastings : It is a small area, and your own officer has reported against it being sold. The Chairman : It docs not appear what he recommended this portion to be.rcsorved for— Mr Bastings : For mining purposes. Then I say it is a fair assumption that if 10 acres are found to be payably auriferous, the remaining 90 acres will he the same. After further further discussion, tho Board decided to withdraw from sale the whole of section 7, block IX., under section 3 of the Waste Lands Administration Act of 1874.