THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1091, 26 January 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1872.

The recent action of the County Chairman in endeavoring to coerce the Road Boards into rating mining property, claims, &c, on the Westland Gold Fields has aroused a spirit of opposition, and it has been considered deairable to take some combined action in the matter. It has been decided tc hold a conference of delegates from all the Road Boards in the County at Hokitika on an early day to discuss the question and bring some pressure to bear upon Mr Lahman. It is very desirable that whatever action is taken in the matter it should be uniform all through the County, as it would not be politic for claims to be assessed in the Paroa Road Board District and not in the Kanieri District. This anomalous position should be avoided if possible, and if the delegates carry with them the power of binding by their action the bodies they respectively represent, then the conference may be productive of some good ; but this we very much doubt, as, after all, each Board is likely to take its own independent actiou, and the County Chairman is almost sure to adhere to the decision to be given, more especially when he is backed up by a strong legal opinion. We admit that on this question Mr Lahman's position is one of great difficulty. The mode in which the subsidies granted by the General Government must be distributed and what property shall be rated i 3 very plainly defined by the Act, and it is not easy to see how he or the' conference can get over this fact, that these subsidies are to be paid only in proportion to the amount of rates levied and collected. One of the clauses of the Payment to Provinces Act distinctly states that mining property shall berated, and the nnly feasible way of getting over the difficulty is to make a nominal rate on claims, which, most probably, will never be collected. In fact, in a scattered and -BnM!dY^PjDulatg4jlito would not pay the cost of collection. But it is likely that since Mr Lahman has proceeded so far in the matter he would not consent to this arrangement, and would again exercise the power of veto given him by the Act. We lately pointed out that the Paroa- Road Board bad resolved to give way to the necessities of the case and rate mining property, but this was done only as a last resource, in order to participate in the General Government grant, and because the County Chairman would not give way. They have, however, resolved, before striking the rate, to send a delegate to the Conference. In conjunction with our Ross contemporary, we hope that the Conference, before apt pealing elsewhere, will try and induce the County Chairman to alter his course of action — a course we do not blame him for, as no doubt he acted under legal advice ; but that advice we have always thought was unsound in law and policy. On the latter view, we would point out that the holders of claims not held under lease have no assessible tenure, and that the yield of their claims is the uncertain wages or reward of their labor, and not a price at which they could be let — that it would be impossible to assess such property fairly, and still more so to collect rates therefrom. A workman's tools are not rateable, nor should whims and steam-engines be— they are labor-saving appliances, which miners should be encouraged to employ. The miner pays to the Crown a poll-tax to be allowed to search for gold, and, if successful, pays a proportion of that gold away as duty. The revenue thus received by Government is intended — however it may be misapplied — for expenditure on those purposes for which rates are levied, and the gold-duty, which is an income-tax on miners, if properly applied, would not be complained of; but to attempt to assess mining claims, which one day may be yitildiug well and the next be " duffered out" is next to impossible, and if attempted is sure to give rise to much dissatisfacinn, and in many cases to operate very unjudtly. We therefore hope that the Conference may bring about a better understanding between the Boards and the County Chairman.