The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 1881.

Kumara Times, Issue 1418, 19 April 1881, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 1881.

The tenants upon the Education Reserve and also the miners await in fear and trembling the final decision of their musters the School Commissioners as to the new charges to be imposed upon persons permitted to remain within the limits of the Reserve. All that is known of the present proceeding is simply this : that the Commissioners ?aave prepared a scale of fees, and have submitted the same to the Warden of this district, who has agreed to them. It is a singular and significant, fact that the Commissioners have deliberately ignored the •existence of a publiclyappointed body, which has existed for several years, and has in that time done, or rather attempted to do, good service. We refer to the Education Reserve Executive Committee. It would have been but common courtesy on the part of the Commissioners to have submitted their scale of charges to the Committee before finally adopting them, but this course has not been pursued. When Mr Mackay presided over this district as Warden, he was instructed from head-quarters to confer with the Hokitika School Commissioners as to the fees to be charged to occupants on the Reserve. This was done. Mr Mackay, in obedience to his instructions, visited Hokitika, and met the Commissioners. He found them at first as impracticable as they were always supposed to be. However, in the interests of the district in his charge, he fought stoutly against the high 1 charges proposed to be made. Ee disputed the ground inch by inch, and eventually induced the arch-persecutors to listen to reason. A scale of fees was agreed upon, but shortly after this the Commissioners became aware that Mr Mackay was about to leave the district. Here was another chance for them. Possibly the new Warden would be less acquainted with the history of Kumara, and the conditions under which its population was permitted to exist. It was resolved to annul the former agreement, and Mr Warden Stratfoid had forwarded to him the scale of charges originally placed before Mr Mackay. Our present Warden appears to have swallowed the whole thing as a believer in quack medicine would accept a Holloway's pill—without discussion, .without protest, and most decidedly without that consideration which was fairly due to the interests of the district to be affected by the arbitrary action of the Commissioners. It is satisfactory, however, to know that another attempt to obtain justice is now to be made. A requisition from a number of miners has been presented to the Mayor of Kumara, praying his Worship to convene a public meeting for the purpose of discussing all matters connected with the Reserve. His Worship readily assented, and the meeting will be held at the Town flail on Friday evening. The case may appear a hopeless one to many of those who have fought a losing battle so long, but there is certainly no harm in trying a last appeal to the Government ;— seeking justice at the hands of the present Commissioners would be simply absurd.