SALE OF THE WAKATIP RUNS.

Evening Star, Issue 3352, 17 November 1873, Page 2

SALE OF THE WAKATIP RUNS.

At a meeting of the Wakatip Board of Wardens on the 11th inst., the following letter from the Goldfields Secretary, to Mr K. Clarke, M.P.C., on the above subject, was read “It appears to me, however, from the tenor of your letter, that you must be under some misapprehension upon the matter. You express your surprise that the Government can have come to any such decision upon the matter in the face of the report of the Commission that I laid upon the table of the Provincial Council in May last. I may inform you that the decision of the Government is based upon the third clause suggested in report of Commissioners, which was backed up by four petitions, recommending the Government to carry out the course now proposed. These petitions are signed by all classes of persons—miners, settlers, stockowners, and business men ; then we have four other petitions against such a course. The Government have given the matter serious consideration, and while anxious to meet the wishes of the people, they have a duty to perform to the Province, and in discharging that duty they are not prepared to give way to an excitement got up by, it may be, some few interested persons. We are decided in our opinion that we are doing the best thing for your district, and feel assured time will prove this. You must admit the position of affairs has been very unsatisfactory for some time past. What is the fact? With a commonage of 310,000 acres, what revenue have the Governmen received from it ? And who has reaped the benefit? Not the miners or agriculturists, but a small class of squatters who have not paid half assessment for their stock; and the Government had to pay for the couutry for this class of settlers to occupy. That such a thing was never intended I think you will admit. Under the proposed system, this class of settlers will be obliged to pay an assessment upon bearing capabilities of the run, and so the Province will receive what it is entitled to for revenue, and about 100,000 acres will be left open for commonage, upon which no sheep will be allowed to graze; and I need not tell you this portion of the commonage is the very best, equal to 200,000 acres of what is termed sheep country. The Government have also borne fully in mind the interest of the miners and settlers by inserting clauses in the leases to the effect that persons other than the purchasers will be allowed to take up agricultural leases, and that each rim will be held subject to the right of the holder of a miner’s right, business license, or mining lease to run, say three head of great cattle in the vicinity of his claim or holding. I trust this explanation will prove satisfactory to you and your constituents. I have received many letters upon the subject, pro. and co/i., in soma of which the language is not very temperate. However, while lam prepared to do what I consider right and just towards the goldfields, I am not prepared to advocate the continuance of what I consider a pernicious system, and an injustice to other interests in the Province.” In the discussion that followed, the opinion generally expressed was that the Goldfields Secretary had been biassed in his judgiqent on the matter, having heard only one side.