The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Wednesday, September 2, 1863.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume I, Issue 36, 2 September 1863, Page 4

The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Wednesday, September 2, 1863.

We have been taken to task by the " Otago Daily Telegraph" for the manner in which we wrote in our issue of the 15th ultimo, regarding the granting of Mining and Agricultural Leases. Our voluminous but somewhat slow-going contemporary, seems to have been roused for once into writing with spirit. We do not object to his attempting to criticise our articles, but we would advise him for the sake of his own reputation to write of things of which he knows at least a little. He seems shocked at the ignorance displayed by those on the spot, and for the purpose of proving that the statements of a " Lover of Justice" and our own leader were not quite up to fact, he goes to a department which knows everything, in his idea, but in reality knows nothing, of the Wakatip Goldfields. We have a lively recollection of receiving a visit from the head of a department from Duoedin, and we were deeply impressed with the great care exhibited for our interest when that gentleman declared that he knew nothing of the removal of the camp from Queenstown to Frankton. Our mild censor, we have no doubt, however, is easily impressed by heads of departments, but we ourselves, notwithstanding the amount of our faith in human nature, generally, plead guilty to being doubtful and suspicious of some of them in Dunedin. The people of the Arrow, too, might tell a tale of a broken pledge and a back door escape from a disagreeable meeting. We are twitted with having constituted ourselves '* Guardian of the Miner's Rights." We will allow the miners themselves to judge whether or not we have persistently advocated their rights. We are also taken to task for not having consulted "the authorities on the spot." Such a mild suggestion could only emanate from an innocent. Does our contemporary not know that the authorities on the spot acquire almost the first news of everything concerning the Wakatip field from the columns of the Wakatip Mail ?

It is only lately that owing to a quiet jog of the elbow, given by us, the authorities here saw the necessity of opening what was already finished of the Frankton Hospital, so that there might be an end of deaths by the wayside. To return to the question under discussion, we would like to be informed what officer on the spot could have given us the information needful ? We are perfectly well aware that the place in question forms part of a pastoral run, and we say the more shame that it is so. The license held by Mr. Rees ought to have been cancelled long ago, in justice to himself and the public; and the fact of the Government j never having taken advantage of the power I under the Goldiields Act, and granted leases, does not in the least affect the gist of our i argument that auriferous ground should not be leased. What will our contemporary say j when we tell him that if no authority has been given by lease or otherwise, still there are close upon 100 acres being cultivated at this very moment on the run referred to. If j the ground is thus taken up for agricultural purposes, de facto, what does it matter to the miner by what authority it is done ? We have advocated the necessity of Agricultural Leases, and still do so, but not so as to bring mining interests into antagonism with agricultural. We deny that there is sufficient provision made to prevent land being taken ; up. Holders of miners' rights are allowed to j take up half an acre each of ground for residence, and we can point to five of those ; who have amalgamated and made a snug market garden. On many of the places now under cultivation there are spots where the

notice of intended occupation would never be seen except by him who stuck it up. Granted that the Warden may take these lands back, if auriferous deposits are traced to their boundaries, is it not an injustice to any man when he has established a home, and is surrounded by his Lares and Penates, that he should be compelled to remove, And is it not a still greater injustice to the digger that he should be compelled to pay a large sum in the shape of compensation before he can work the ground ? What is required is that before any ground is leased for agricultural purposes it should be certified not to be auriferous. This can be accomplished by a geologist, or by otherwise inspecting the ground, and upon his report only should leases be granted.

Presuming that parties continue to take up small farms in the same way as they are now doing on the Wakatip field, will not many questions and disputes arise out of their doing so, which a proper action on the part of the Government would now prevent. We have no hesitation in saying that before many months pass away, we shall see thousands of acres of cultivated land in our neighbourhood, and that upon ground known to be auriferous. And the heartburnings and losses which may arise from their being reclaimed by the miner will lie at the door of an inactive and incompetent department.