MINING ON THE EDUCATION RESERVE.

Kumara Times, Issue 1417, 18 April 1881, Page 2

MINING ON THE EDUCATION RESERVE.

[to? the editor.] Sir—A gre!at deal of very natural indignation te felt b f the miners on learning that if they mine on the Education Reserve,- they \tdll have to take out a special miner’s right in addition to those now held by them, as they believe that a miner’s right entitles them to mine anywhere in the colony ; but I fancy their indignation will be largely increased when they learn that this is but a small part of the charges imposed upon them by the School Commissioners and the Warden. If I am rightly informed, in addition to the extra miner’s right, they are to be charged £1 per acre for their claims, Is per chain for all tramways, races, &c., besides 10s an acre for the land over which their trams, races, &c., run, and a lot of other charges. Perhaps the most preposterous of all the charges is one of 10s per acre for drainage areas. All these charges to be paid not once, but annually. Fancy having to pay 10a per acre for the clouds which drift across and drop their rain on the land, for this is really what this charge means, as a drainage right gives no title to the land or the creeks. Perhaps you, sir, will be good enough to let me know if the information I have received is correct; or, better still, will publish the full list of charges. That such preposterous charges should be suggested by the School Commissioners is not to be wondered at: nothing emanating from them need surprise us ; but that they should be agreed to by our Warden, as reported in the account of the last meeting of the Commissioners, is almost beyond belief. The miners have hitherto been led to look upon their Warden as their protector; but those halcyondays seem to have passed away. Now that the old part of the Kumara goldfield is nearly all taken up by sluicing claims, the miners must look to the Reserve for new ground, and several propositions are to my knowledge under consideration for working this ground on an extensive scale; but these enterprises, although “ of great pith and moment” will doubtless, un-.| der the present circumstances “ their currents turn awry and lose the name of action.”—Yours, Enterprise. April 18, 1881.