The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Saturday, June 20, 1863.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume I, Issue 15, 20 June 1863, Page 4

The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Saturday, June 20, 1863.

It must be still in the minds of our readers that a public meeting of the inhabitants of the Lake district was held in this town on the Ist instant, relative to the removal of the Warden to Frankton. At that meeting—one most numerously attended —certain resolutions were adopted, of which the following is an analysis:—The first protested against the removal of the Warden and Resident Magistrate's Court to Frankton, and dwelt upon the injury which must be inflicted upon the countrv by the most important town in the Lake district being left without the means of protecting its interests and assisting its progress ; it also commented upon the injudicious conduct of Government in advocating and compelling this removal. The second impressed upon Government the necessity of establishing and retaining at Queenstown the services of a Gold Receiver and Warden and Resident Magistrate to protect this district against the encroachments of others; enlarging upon the absurdity of fixing the Government establishment at Frankton, where only a few tents composed the town. The third declared the opinion of the meeting that not only should a Warden be stationed at Frankton and at Queenstown, but that in addition such an officer should be provided to travel from one end to the other of the various gold workings, whose duty should be to decide disputes between miners on the ground where the disputes arose. The fourth determined that two delegates be appointed tp wait upon

Government in order to place in a conspicuous light the popular feeling of Queenstown. The fifth appointed Messrs. Bradshaw and Gordon as a deputation to wait upon the Government and represent Queenstown and its grievances. The above resolutions, of the justice of which the public cannot fail to be convinced, having been placed in the form of a petition and memorial to the Superintendent, and having had annexed thereto the signatures of the most influential merchants in the Lake district, were by the delegates duly appointed submitted at Dunedin to His Honor, upon the morning of Monday the 15th instant, with what success we must " speak now, or for evermore be silent." The deputation, coming as they did, as the representatives of the most influential mining township in the Province, as the chosen delegates of that interest which has raised Otago from a dormant existence into one of earnest wakefulness and lively prosperity, had a right, few will denv, to expect from the hands of the local Governor of a gold-mining colony, a reception more than gracious—a reception interested and sympathetic. They waited upon Mr. John Hyde Harris the Superintendent of Otago, with every anticipation of finding in him a ready and patient listener to the prayer of their memorial. They came into his presence with the assured confidence that befitted the representatives of so important a district as that of Lake Wakatip. They presented to him a petition couched in language to be considered most mild when the extent of the wrong perpetrated is properly estimated Calmly and courteously they laid before his Honor the merits of the question; with all urbanity they pointed out to him the gist of their deputation; and their sole answer was—insult. The Superintendent, in words few but pointed, declined not only to consider the petition, but even to accept it. "I am Sir Oracle," he as much as said. "lam a Dunedin Python, how dare " you petition against my inspired mandates ? "In your first resolution you have the au- " dacity to say that by the removal of the " Warden's Court to Frankton there is be--44 trayed upon the part of the Government an •'ignorance of the mining and commercial "pursuits of the Province, unparalleled in " the management of the Goldfields. You say "that to me —you from Lake Wakatip, to " the Honorable John Hyde Harris, the " new Superintendent of Otago!" What were the deputation to do in the face of so unlookedfor a reception ? Ordinary men would have been dumb in the presence of so much majesty; but Messrs BRADSHAwand Gordon, taking heart of grace, proceeded to argue the matter with his Honor. They entered into its merits; they showed that the ignorance of the Government really was unparalleled in removing the Warden's Court from Queenstown —a town possessed of five hundred thriving inhabitants, and adjacent to the Shotover Diggings, where there was no Gold Commissioner, to Frankton, a more than Lilliput hamlet, with but fifty of a people and hard by the Arrow, where there was a Warden. But all in vain; his Honor had mounted the hobby of his dignity, and no amount of spurring could induce him to ride over the really temperate language of the first resolution. He forgot that as the representative of the Queen in this Province, it was his duty to listen with attention and courtesy to the plaints of all within his jurisdiction. He forgot that Otago was a gold Province —that, therefore, first and foremost, the grievances of mining communities should be looked into and redressed. He could not bear that for a moment the infallibility of his peculiar Government should be questioned; and so with a flourish of figurative trumpets, he exclaimed " I will have none of your petitions "

Again, on the same date, and upon the same subject, another petition was presented to his Honor by Mr. Bergen, signed by 600 miners. Once more the Superintendent was troubled with the irksome promptings of a new dignity. The miners' petition was also not for an instant to be entertained, because said Mr. Harris, the same contained a threat. The miners hinted that were the removal of the Government officials to Frankton persisted in, they would fraternise with Southland, and make Invercargill the recep-

tacle of their gold. "To be threatened by 44 miners," saith the Superintendent— " de- " grading idea! I cannot suffer myself to entertain a petition embodying Queenstown "threats," and so both petitions were consigned to a limbo fromjwhich his Honor expected there would be no return—reckoning, however, without his Wakatip Mail.

The Honorable John Hyde Harris did not alone content himself with the simple and uncourteous rejection of the memorials, and thereby through their delegates, offering a direct insult to the merchants and miners of Queenstown and neighborhood; but he found himself irresistibly compelled to fall foul of the journal which represents the tone and feeling of the whole Lake District. 44 The " Wakatip Mail" ejaculates his Honor, 44 is a 44 discredit to the Province in general, and a n 44 injury to Wakatip in particular." It would be idle for us to reply to accusations so vague and wild. The whole Lake District, excepting Frankton and the Arrow, being an eyesore to the Superintendent, of course the Wakatip Mail, as a free and independent journal, expressing fearlessly the truthful opinion of the majority at the Lakes, is to be hounded down as an especial bite noir. The Wakatip Mail dares to have views not identical with those of the existing Government—dares to advocate Queenstown, a thriving town—the diggings excellence, in opposition to Frankton—a type of Goldsmith's Auburn, with all its desolation, and none of its loveliness—therefore is the Wakatip Mail to come under the club of Dunedin Gogs and Magogs. But the cause of our little newspaper we will not plead; we leave it in the hands of that people, whose tongue and expression it is. We cannot but regret the conduct of the Superintendent for his own sake, as much as for that of the Lake Districts. He had on Monday last an easy and legitimate opportunity of winning golden opinions at the hands of a very large and truly important e.ement in the population of the Province; but he allowed the opportunity to pass by unheeded. Legitimate popularity was within his reach, and he chose discredit and contumely. Ihe game was in his own h<ands, and he would not play the winning card. Into the irrevocable past has gone one more opportunity ; and the new Superintendent of Otago has begun his delegated Government by misunderstanding and treating with discourtesy those whom it was his chiefest policy to conciliate. Surely there can be no truth in the rumor that the Honorable John Hyde Harris, intoxicated with the enjoyment, for the first tic.e, of the sweets of office, has lost that mental equilibrium, without which the affairs of a weighty Province cannot possibly be administered.