WASTE LAND BOARD.

Evening Star, Issue 3141, 14 March 1873, Page 3

WASTE LAND BOARD.

A meeting of the Board was held yesterday. There were present, the Chief Commissioner, Messrs Strode, Tolmie, Butterworth, and Clarke.

The report of Ranger Innes on the application of Colonel Kitchener, to purchase a village reserve in the Dunback district, Shag Valley, was received. It recommended that the reserve be cut up into sections and sold. A memorial from settlers in the district, and another from a number of earners, were also received. The former complained that the sale, as requested by Colonel Kitchener, would be an injustice to them ; and the latter opposed on the ground that the reserve was the only camping ground for many miles on either side. It was resolved therefore that the reserves should be maintained.

A letter was read from Mr E. Chapman, of Dunedin, requesting the Board to aid him in recovering timber alleged to have been cut off section 1 block 3, Kaitangata district, subsequent to the time he applied for it, and several days after he had purchased it at auction. The Board were of opinion that if the application had been made before the sale it might have interfered, but that since the land had become private property it could not interfere. An application on behalf of the Board of Education for a school site at Evans .Flat, on section 22, block 10, and on part of the adjoining Crown lands was considered. It was shown that the holder of a coal license hr section 22 did not object to the application. It was resolved to accede to the letter of the Board of Education, and that the amount of the coal license should be proportionately reduced. Ihe consideration of the question of creating new land districts, and appointing new offices and officers, in accordance with the Otago Waste Lands Act, 1872, was postponed. It was resolved that, under clauses 103 A. and 103 D., notices should be sent to such holdei a of pastoral leases as have not taken up their pre-emptive rights, to take them up. A fetter was read from Mr John Spence, soliciting the Board to allow the site of his quarters at Queenstown to be offered for special sale, as surveyed up to Horne Creek. An order was made in accordance with the application. A form of license to occupy waste lands Under clause 53 of the Act, on deferred payments, was approved. Mr E. W. Aitfcon applied for a preemptive right on run 172 A. It was shown that the ground was high, rugged and inaccessible, and that, therefore, the applicant wished to have the right in two allotments intersected by a creek. The application was granted. A letter was read from Mr Hector, requesting that the pastoral lease applied for by him for country beyond the Waiau be without having to compete for it qt Ruction. He made the application on the ground that he was the original discoverer. It was resolved to grant the lease without competition, providing the applicant ca,n, within three months, substantiate his claim to being the discoverer. Mr Charles Heldcugorf applied, on behalf of the Germans and Danes located on the unsold sections in the Waibola District, that the Board would give them possession of their sections on the condition of deferred payments, or allow valuations for improvements when the land comes to be sold. It was resolved that, the Board having no power to act in the matter, the Executive be requested, under the terms of clause 22 of the Act, to temporarily locate the Germans and Danes on the land mentioned.

Mr John Oughton applied for a license for a six-horse-power saw mill for section 47, block 4, Tuturau district, at a rate of 3d per hundred feet of the timber sawn. The Board decided that the usual course could not be departed from. The report of Mr Warden Robinson, on the application of Sir F. D. Bell, to purchase land in the Dunback and Waihemo districts, hitherto withheld from sale, was read. It showed that a portion of the ground applied for was auriferous, and that a number of men were employed mining thereon. A man named Cox had been mining in a gully which runs through sections 35 and 36 on plan No. 2. He had a license for two w; terraces and a certificate for tail-races, both granted before the land was withdrawn from the goldfields. Cox considered that he had plenty of profitable work for many years to come, and it was plain that he had washed away a good deal of ground. Mr Robinson thought there was good gold about the locality ; but the Supply of water was limited. He did not think, however, that payable workings would be opened up at any distance from the lines of the gullies ; but thought that the sides of all the gullies in sections 35, 36, and 40 may some day be profitably sluiced. As regards section 44, he could not learn that it was auriferous. On the opposite side of the river to section 13 there are workings, and there seems to be a narrow run of gold, as shown on the plan. He had been credibly informed that good returns had been made from the river bed. On plan 3 he marked the points of a quartz reef, slightly opened up on section 17. It did not seem to ha\o been tested. It was probably a continuation of the reef which runs through Sir F. D. Bell’s property, which was pretty well opened up a few years ago, but abandoned. There seem to be no indications of gold on section 18. Section 51 has a large frontage to the river, but there were no workings in the solid bank, although there is every indication of gold. Cox, Gorland, and others mining here have no legal right to work the ground, as it is not within a goldfield boundary. They are therefore at the mercy of the pastoral tenants. Hb therefore thought thfit it would he impolitic to sell sections 35, 36, and 40, Waihemo district, or sections 11, 12, 13, and 14, Du aback district; sections 18 and 14, Waihemo, ought to be sold as they are ; and section 51 might also be sold, if one chain frontage to the river be reserved for mining purposes. He failed to see that much good could result from keeping the land back from sale. To render the land available for mining purposes, it should he thrown back into the goldfields. This land was withdrawn on the 4th November, 1868, and he would suggest, unless sufficient reason can be shown to the contrary, that the entire block then withdrawn should again be .included in the goldfields. This Would not interfere with the aaje of such portions as may hot be‘auriferous, or in the Vfdy'oi mining.' The Board resolved that the question of the extension of the goldfields be referred to the Government, and that the reserves be maintained. A letter from the Kev. Mr Dasent was read referring to an application for a portion of the Union Church reserve, Naseby, for Church of England purposes. Also letters from the late trustees of the ground and chairman of the Athenaeum in opposition to the application. No declaim regarding them was arrived at by the Board.