The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 1863.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume I, Issue 50, 21 October 1863, Page 4

The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 1863.

It has been a favorite weapon of argument, both in the Australian and New Zealand legislatures, that the miners are a wandering population Thus when measures have been introduced, having their interest specially in view, they have been met, and frequently with success, by this oft-repeated accusation of being wanderers. It is not our purpose at the present time to combat this absurd and impudently fallacious argument, so far as regards the miners in the Province of Otago. It is patent to everybody that one of the greatest grievances of which miners have had to complain is their not being allowed to settle on the land ; and that the policy of the Provincial Government is studiously calculated for the purpose of preventing any settlement upon the agricultural lands in this district until the large quantities of land held by various members of the Government in other quarters have been first sold. Victoria in its worst daya, however, was a better country for the miners than Otago. Such a thing as keeping cattle off a run in Victoria was never heard of, when such cattle were wanted for food. To the Provincial Government of Otago belongs the viable, notoriety of having converted the Wakatip district into one of the most unhealthy in the world. Nature has been prodigal in her gifts—our rulers have burked Nature, nnd paid no heed to the sufferings of many who are daily to be seen crawling about the Hospital and groaning in pain. Scurvy has become in this district so prevalent, that we venture to say, without fear of contradiction, that it has not been known in such proportions since the days of the siege of Alexandria. Thousands have had their blood tainted, and the seeds of disease sown which will lie latent until evoked at some future period, and in some other form. The diggers are permitted to dig—to pay for their miners' rights—to pay their gold duty—but still the lands are in the holding of a squatter ; and so long as he holds his lease, they

cannot legally cultivate. We believe it is unparalleled in the history of any country that a hospital has been erected and kept constantly filled with patients all suffering from the same disease, and that one arising from a want of green food, which could be grown at our doors. This Hospital must be kept up by the inhabitants in the perfect knowledge that disease will of necessity continue on the increase. In the name of all that is sacred, we ask if the Government mean to persist in their present line of policy? Are we still to remain without power to settle and cultivate the lands, and are we to be compelled to subscribe large sums for the support of an institution principally required for patients made so by the Government ? We cannot conceive anything more iniquitous than the deliberate giving over of hundreds to disease and death for the purpose of preserving to one or two individuals a monopoly. The miners in, Otago are a loyal and orderly body of men, and long-suffering, we must say. The Provincial Government have succeeded in implanting in the breasts of the miners a feeling of bitterness which will rankle long, and wijl, without doubt, show its fruit at a future period.

In contradistinction to the desire exhibited to keep the lands here closed against the population, we may call attention to an article in our contemporary, the Daily Telegraph

of the 12th inst., in reference to the lands on the West Coast. The writer of that article urges the sale of the land on the Coast, inasmuch as " no licences interfere," and that the produce would be useful in " recruiting the revenue." Such a policy as this we cannot understand; and the sale of land on the West Coast at the present time, when there is no population, will throw it into the hands of speculators, and retard more than ever the settlement of the country. We advise every one who goes to this unoccupied country, to squat upon and improve a piece of agricultural land of the kind he likes best; and then, when two or three thousand acres are being held for the purpose for which it was intended by nature, let the Provincial Government try to get them off the best way they can. They shall not, however,' if we can help it by exposing their shallow artifices, make a speculation of the West Coast, although the attempt is nothing more than what we anticipated.