The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1881.

Kumara Times, Issue 1411, 9 April 1881, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1881.

In continuation of the remarks recently made concerning the Kumara Education Reserve and the action of the School Commissioners, we now come to second part of the question. The fees to be charged to miners working upon the Reserve have not up to the present time been definitely fixed, but the Commissioners have prepared a scale, which they have submitted to the Warden of this district, and he having agreed to the terms proposed, it is reasonable to expect that the proposed charges will come into operation without much delay. These fees are at a rate which will virtually prohibit mining upon the Reserve. It is proposed that all miners who are desirous of working within the limits of the land under the control of the Commissioners must take out a special miner's right, which will have no effect outside the Reserve, the money paid for such right to go to the Commissioners. It so happens that the Mines Act distinctly states that miners' rights shall have force and effect throughout the whole of the colony, and we are somewhat puzzled to know how such a provision can be put aside. In the early days of Kumara the Board of Education issued an entirely new code of mining regulations to apply to the Education Reserve, and endeavoured to enforce them, but they were admonished forthwith that they had gone outside the law, and were compelled to withdraw the preposterous code. The present proposal for "special miners' rights" will, if carried out, lead to the discomfiture of the Commissioners, inasmuch as the law courts could do nothing else but reverse their action. Again, the scale of fees proposed to be chargel in the way of rental is really outrageous. To illustrate the position a siugle case may be instanced. The Long Tunnel Tail Race Company have driven over two thousand feet, and constructed works at a cost of upwards of .£6OOO, and, under the proposed taxation of the School Commissioners, they will have to pay nearly £l5O per annum to their landlords, in addition to the ordinary charges they are put to under the Mines Act. This is handicapping the mining industry with a vengeance. One of the members of the present Ministry has repeatedly been denounced as an enemy to the mining community, but he is an angel of light compared to the Hokitika mandates who are now seeking to crush out the very industry by which they obtain their bread and butter. They may pass as many taxation resolutions as they please, but can they enforce them 1 They may, and probably will succeed in preventing a proportion of the gold in the Reserve being extracted from if, for years to come, by deterring those willing to mine from doing so; but in the lon<* run their avariciousness will defeat the ends they aim at. If moderate charges were made, a fair revenue would be raised, but, according to present prospects, a few victims will be fleeced while a large proportion of the acreage of the Reserve will remain untested, untenanted, and consequently valueless to the Commissioners or anyone else. It is to be presumed that the new scale of charges will be gazetted shortly, and when such notification takes place, if

the miners do not make a determined stand against the new taxation, they must have sadly deteriorated from the good old times.