THE MINERS' LEAGUE.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 666, 26 April 1870, Page 2

THE MINERS' LEAGUE.

[WESTPORT TIMES,] The Westport and Charleston delegates from the Committee of the League met at the Empire Hotel, Westporb, on Tuesday last, and framed a fewftregulatioris to be submitted to a general meeting for the constituting of local committees. It is suggested that local committees shall consist of six members, exclusive of a chairman and secretary, whose term of office shall extend over six months ; the duties of su 'h local committees shall be to enrol members, collect subscriptions, aud gather jinfp'rmatlon for the promotion of the 1 League ; to guard the interests of the miners ; and to exercise their influence in returning competent and worthy representatives to the deliberative bodies of tiie Colony. The Central Board to, consist of the Chairmen and Secretaries of Ideal committees, having the appointment of Chairman and Secretary from their| own number; the Treasurer or Treasurers to be appointed from among themselves or such as may possess public confidence. The general duties of such. Board to be the careful guarding of mining interests and the removal of obstructions to the development of the mineral resources of the Colony. [Then follows copies of correspondence which, had passed between the delegates and Mr Warden Giles, in which that gentleman had beon invited, but refused to attend the meeting, for reasons which we shall hereafter notice.] At>the meeting mentioned above, the following document was drawn up and transmitted " To'theMinbrs op the Grey Valley. : : " We, as delegates from the districts of Buller and Charleston, wish to aderess a few remarks to you regarding a petition to His Excellency the Governor, and the formation of a standing combination in the form of a Miner's League. We should have felt happy to have had the advice and assistance of a delegate from your Committee, but seeing no person sent by you as such, we drew out to the best of our ability a petition to His Excellency the Gbvernor praying for increased representation, Mining Boards, &c. And as your wants are identical with our .own, your Committee could still assist in the general work of getting signatures to the petition, and on receipt of a copy of the rules ' and regulations of the Miners' League, could enrol members and extend it throughout the whole of that portion of the Nelson South- West Goldfields. Some time ago the Westport or Buller Committee submitted to your representative, Mr Franklyn, their general plans, and he promised to support these plans and submit them to a public meeting in your district. He may have done so, but we have failed to see any notice of such in the Press. On his arrival in Westport on Wednesday, the 20th instant, from Greymouth, we requested some information from him as to the position and proceedings of your Committee, when he informed us that you had given up all interest in the present movement. We inquired of him whether there existed a likelihood of your Committee collecting signatures to the petition, and he told us that the Superintendent would do that, meaning, we suppose, that the Superintendent would grant Mining Boards, and remove any grievance that might exist. : v Now does Mr Franklyn wish to blind the mining community to the fact that he i?, as his lumpish harangues and inconsistent expressions of opinion — Vide, speech at a recent public meeting in Westport as compared with his latest blow-off at Napoleon Hill — declare him to be a partizan of the Superintendent, and that he is to some extent licensed to declaim against the Government for the purpose of blindfolding those " houseless vagabonds" who populate the West Coast. \ A man may be fickle and inconsistent, and yet be a person of stainless probity, but where a purpose exists, as in this case it does for the donning of such qualities, it would be hard to discriminate between the cause and the man. "Since the Government officials have failed to make us believe that , no grievances, exist at all, or that they exist only in the imagination of a few discontented individuals, they are adopting another line of conduct and are conceding that there may be grounds for complaint amongst the miners because of some, defective portions of the rules and regulations of these gold fields, which it is intended our three honest, intelligent, and practical Wardens, will rectify at a meeting which they purpose holding in Gr,eyinouth .for that purpose at an early date, but we are of opinion that this, little ' kindness ' comes too late, " There are grievances of the most aggravating and complicated nature existing which it is impossible to expose in the limits of the gold fields' Press, nor can any be exposed without entailing an exr position of allj because like a bed of drift-, sand through which a shaft is sunk, if you remove the corner of a slab which might be an obstruction you are in danger of being swallowed up in the rubbish. : " Now is the time for the mining popu* lation of the Nelson South- West Gold Fields to rise to a man and cast official promises to the winds, which are no less uncertain than themselves, and demand that justice from the Nelson Government which they have never yet received, and that place in the constitution of the country to which they are entitled but have never yet enjoyed " Fergus Barrowman. "Aiden" Dqyle. Empire Hotel, Westport, ; April 20.

[To this MrFranklyn has replied, but we are unable to publish the document until our next.]