THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1317, 18 October 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1872.

Considerable credit is being taken by and given to those members of the General Assembly who are at present interesting themselves in the matter of making a miner* right issued in Nelson or Westland applicable to all parts of the West Coast. And, so far as it and they go, the object and its promoters are, no doubt, worthy . of recognition and support. Auy provincial restriction of the privileges conferred under the miner's right is altogether anomalous, and has only been permitted to exist in New Zealand because there has ever been an absence of organised action on the part of the .mining community. While it is well that tho miner should be relieved of multiplied it would, however, be better that other classes of the community who also contribute unduly to the revenue of the country should receive some consideration. If it is a grievance that miners should have to pay twice for the privilege of mining within a certain area in consequence of the existence of some Provincial boundary-line, it is equally a grievance that those who provide them with the necessaries or the luxuries of life should have to pay twice for permission to do so. Business men form, in point of numbers and pecuniary interest, no small .- proportion of a mining community. Their investments generally exceed in importance that of the individual miner ; they bear an equal share of the general taxation ; they contribute capital, industry, and enterprise; yet their interests aro unconsidered by those who pretend to legislate for the public weal, or for the special interests of a gold fields population. A miner may, for instance—accordiug to the present intention of our representatives — wander at will over the whole West Coast, and tear up the soil as he likes, so long as he contributes to the revenue one pound per annum and an additional charge upon the product of his labor, but the man who chooses to advertise himself as an auctioneer can only exercise his calling within the same area by paying L4O per annum to the Nelson Government and an equal amount to the revenue of Westland. The privilege to sell any " person, place, or thing " on Ihe south side of the river Grey involves the payment of that, amount tipon which poor curates have in past times been " passing rich," and if the individual so privileged proceeds a few yards to the northward, by crossing the boundary stream, and there pursues his profession, his prerogative ceases, and he is again liable to the payment of £40 or to all the penalties which the evasion of such payment may involve. Tho restrictions imposed upon this small but useful section of the community — to say nothing of its intelligence, amiability, and benevolence—are experienced in an aggravated degree by the holders of business licenses, unless they choose, as probably moat people do choose, to evade the law. Properly, no person resident on the Nelson Gold Fields is privileged to trade in Westland unless he is possessed of two business licenses, and the conditions are similar in the case of any person resident in Westland, and having customers beyond its boundaries. There is, in fact, as much anomaly, unfairness, and imposition associated with the Provincial government taxation of business men as there is with the enforcement of the miner's right, and if any legislative measure is to be proceeded with, in the direction of removing the inconveniences of local bounddaries, it ought to be a measure of a general character, and not a measure which in its application is partial and invidious.