THE Grey River Argus. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1870.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 721, 1 September 1870, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1870.

At present there exists a sufficient amount of agitation and political action. amongst the mining community, both north and south of the Grey River, to attract public attention, and to cause the enquiry to be made as to the canses which have led to the sudden stirring up of the people There are different canses in the different districts, and the first of these w-e would notice is that in the Saltwater District, where a public meeting has been held, and a petition adopted for signature and transmission to the Governor, asking him to revoke the new rules and regulations recently proclaimed for the Westland Gold Fields by the County Chairman, by virtue of his delegated powers"; and asking his Excellency to substitute the code which were formerly in force. We have on former occasions reviewed those new rules at considerable length, and we have arrived it the conclusion that not only were they most inopportunely brought into force, considering tho political changes which were then on foot in the County, but they are in many points unnecessarily severe, and in others calculated to greatly retard the development of the mining interest in Westland. There are many square miles of beach and inland country which could be profitably worked for years to come tndcr liberal rules; "but those recently made, as to the number of men to be employed on extended claims, positively prevents that ground being taken up, as it would not pay the number of men required to work it, and consequently, as we know of onr own experience, men who were willing to invest capital and work large areas of such ground are disgusted with their treatment and have left the country. A telegram from Wellington says that nothing can be done with regard to the new rules until the question of the .Annexation of Ihe

Grey District to Nelson is finally decided. The reasons for this is obvious — that no similar demonstration to the one at Paroa has been held at any of the mining centres of the Comity, and also because j should the Annexation movement be successful, the miners in this district will then come under the rules aud regulations of the Nelson South-West Gold Fields. Meantime, as " there is many a slip, &c." the miners in the Saltwater District ought to continue the agitation, and there is no doubt they will soon be joined by their brethren further south, as, sooner or later, the new rules must be found to be most oppressive throughout the length and breadth of the County. Occurrences such as this show the folly of the members of the mining community in Westland in holding aloof from the Miners' League, which was formed at Westport some time ago, and which it was proposed to extend throughout all the Gold Fields of New Zealand. An organisation such aa was then proposed could ; have successfully resisted, by constitutional means, the enforcement of any obnoxious rule ; and the miners in the Bullev or iv Otago would have been as much interested in any regulation enforced in Westland, as a miner in the County, because a rush might take phace any day to the country lying between the Hokitika and Teremakau Rivers, and the men who rushed there, no matter where they came from, would be compelled to come under, the very objection able, laws which, if they had been properly organised, they could have assisted their fellowminers in resisting. Another case has occurred at Ross, which is referred to in an advertisement in another column, in which an attempt has been made to swamp that quarter with working miners, so as to bring about a reduction of wages and an increase in the hours of labor. In this instance a Miners' League would have operated most successfully in defeating the objects of a few capitalists (if the statements made in the advertisement are correct). We diaw the attention of the miners in the Grey District t) these facts, because we find that at the present time, in the Buller District the Miners' League is takiug prompt and immediate action upon most matters affecting the interests of its members, which are brought before the Assembly. Only lately they caused to be presented to his Excellency the Governor, by their member, Mr Kynnersley, a petition praying for the establishment of Mining Boards and the withdrawal of the delegated powers, under the Gold Fields Act, from the Superintendent of Nelson. Mr Kynnersley answered that it was not 2)robable the prayer of the petition would be goanted, but the petition ilself had one good effect— that it drew attention to the very general dissatisfaction which existed in the district with the present management of the South-West Gold Fields, and would most probably cause some more consideration to be given to their wants than they formerly received. With regard to the position of the petition which asked for the establishment of Mining Boards, Mr Kynnersley said : — " I would point out that by the provisions of; the Gold Fields' Act, 1866, they can only be established on the petiton of 500 persons who have held Miner's Rights for three months, and that the petition forwarded by you contained only 358 signatures, of which 13, in the same group, were obviously in the same handwriting. I may add that the establishment of a Mining Board at the Thames does not appear to have produced any satisfactory results, or to have been by any means an encouraging experiment." Another matter which has been taken up promptly by the Miners' League is the proposal of the Colonial Treasurer to spend £300,000 upon works for supplying tbe Gold Fields of the Colony with water. In order to be early in the field, so that this district should not be overlooked in the general distribution of the money, the miners in Addison's Flat sent a series of queries to Mr Kynnersley, and when the answer was received a public meeting was held, on Saturday evening last, when a reply, of which the following is the substance, was read. We publish it as it contains information of great interest to the residents on all the Gold Fields of the Colony. Mr Kynnersley said : — "The Act (Immigration and Public Works Act) lias not passed through both houses but few, if any, further alterations will be made in it. It provides that Lc0i),000 of the loan is to be expended on the construction of water- works on gold fields ; the works to be cai-ried out by the department of the Minister of Public Works, at the request of the Superintendent and Provincial Council of any Province. So that you will observe that the Provincial authorities are v the first who" 1 have to take action in the matter, and the proper course for the inhabitants of ! any district wishing to be supplied with I- water will be to petition the Snpevinten- | dent of their province, giving, of course, such information on the subject as it is ii their power to supr ly, and showing that there is a fair prospect for the desired i outlay being reproductive. I fear, lnwever, that nothing will be dono in the matter for many months, for, in the first place, the money has to be raised — an operation which will in itself occupy no I small time. It will, however, be well to be early in the field as I have no doubt that there will be applic; tions from all parts of the Colony for a far larger sum than that devoted to the purpose. lam by no means satisfied with the provisions of the Act, should much have preferred to have seen the wnrks carried out by the General Government without the interposition of the Provincial authorities, but too much opposition was dangerous and might have jeopardised the fate of the water-supply clauses altogether. After these examples, it is to be hoped the miners in the Grey Valley will interest themselves in the great political questions of the daj 1 -, and the important changes which are going on around them.