MINING LEASE RENTS.

Evening Star, Issue 4112, 2 May 1876, Page 4

MINING LEASE RENTS.

This morning Mr Armstrong, M.P.C., presented to his Honor the Superintendent the following memorial signed by sixty-five residents in the Mount Ida district:— - The petition of the undersigned mining lessees And miners of the Mount Ida District, in the Province of Otago, humbly sheweth—(l) That your petitioners are desirous of bringing under the notice of your Honor the high rent at present charged upon mining leases in the Mount Ida district, in the Province of Otago, (a.) That the rent iharged on mining leases in the neighboring Colony of Victoria is only ten shillings (10a) per acre per annum being one-fifth of the rent charge in the Province of Otago in the Colony of New Zealand. 13.) That since the rent of two pounds ten shillings L2los) per acre per annum was fixed as the rent for auriferous lands under mining leases in the Province of Otago the whole of the Mount Ida district has been proclaimed as land of an inferior nature with regard t* the value of its gold deposit, aud may now be occupied in extended claims of one acre for each holder of a miner's right. (4). That your petitioners would respectfully urge that mining lessees should at least be placed ou au equal footing with 'the holders of extended claims in the Mount Ida district and their rents be reduced to the sum of one pound (LI) per acre per annum or such other ■um as to your Honor may seem just and equitable. And your petitioners will ever pray, &c. Hia Honor promised to forward an answer to Mr Armstrong after be bad consulted bis Executive upon tbe subject.