The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 1864.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume II, Issue 82, 10 February 1864, Page 4

The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 1864.

Is the editorial article of the Daily Times of the 27th ult, some most insolent and offensive remarks appear, reflecting on the common sense and intelligence of the miners of this district. We had hoped that the venom so invariably displayed by the Dunedin press generally, and the Times and Witness in particular, had at last been exhausted. We had hoped that the requirements of this district and the many abuses under which it labored had been fairly brought before the public, and that the Dunedin press had at last unanimously agreed that there were many errors and abuses existing which required removing —that they were content to let the matter rest, and had tacitly acknowledged the residents of the Lake were to a great extent right, in the policy they had adopted. Such was the flattering unction we had laid to our souls, and we gladly retired from an unsatisfactory strife of words, content to wait in peace and patience for the performance of some of the numerous promises made to us. That miserable consolation is however denied us. Not content with seeing us patiently bearing a burden of wrongs, sufficient to keep any other than a most constitutional community in a constant state of fermentation, the Daily Times, without any reasonable provocation, seems always ready to wantonly irritate and insult the miners, the existence of whom amongst them the Times systematically ignores, and who have hitherto supported that paper only too well. Having made all the capital they possibly could out of the celebrated Wakatip petition, that paper has seized with much avidi f y upon the address from the miners of the Lower Shotover, and it really must be consoling to those factious individuals who compiled it, that a gentleman so obtuse and windy as the editor of the Daily Times, can find in it so much matter to comment u; on. We may as well mention here, that he follows in the footsteps and endorses the opinions of his correspondent for this district, that gentleman having in the Times' issue of the 21st ult. attacked the miners in much the same manner as his worthy chef has since done These remarks were answered in a letter to that journal, written by a member of the Committee which was appointed to prepare the address—a letter which was evidently burked, for it has never yet made its appearance in the columns of that paper. But to return to the remarks now in question. Speaking of the complaints that are from time to time heard from the Goldfields, the writer says: —" Many of them no doubt "are exaggerated,and there appears a disposi--14 tion on the part of a few individuals to make 44 political capital, and to serve private purposes 44 out of the miners' woes. Such productions 44 for instance as that of the address to the 44 Superintendent from the residents of Arthur's 44 Point. Under the pretence of congratula--44 ting the Superintendent on his visit to the 44 district, the address covers several studied 44 impertinencies. The document is altogether 44 in equally bad taste and incorrect English, 44 and whosoever framed it deserves to lose 44 the confidence of the miners. Still, we do 44 not deny that the miners have many causes 44 of complaint," &c. One would really imagine that whenever the gentleman who conducts the Daily Times hears or sees any complaints from the miners that an obscurity, dark as night, must cloud his faculties, thus causing a blindness necessitating the use of a sort of mental spectacles, which present everything to his view in a magnified and distorted manner. We can account for these remarks in no other way,

for he is always making use of these terras in connection with the raining community, whom he evidently looks upon as a flock of sheep, to be driven here and there, as the dogs of the Times, that shepherd them, shall choose. Woe to the unfortunate animal that, boldly stepping out of the flock, warns his fellows that they are being driven to barren and stony pastures —he is immediately pounced upon and worried as a wolf by nis considerate shepherds. The sheep in this case, however, can defend themselves. Not being strictly herbivorous, they carry teeth in both jaws, and can use them in self-defence. As for the " studied impertinencies" to the Superintendent, we really cannot see them. Had the Times ealled the address constrained it might have been nearer the truth. The miners were merely consistent, in striving not to stultify themselves, but to follow the line of policy they had hitherto adopted. At the same time they were most anxious to pay the head of the government the respect due to his station, and that courtesy which his position as a stranger amongst us demanded. How that address was got up is well known, but at the same time a short resume of what really occurred may not be misplaced here, and will perhaps shew wh ther the address really emanated from the body of the miners or not.

i A public meeting was held at Arthur's I Point, a committee of nine appointed I —with one exception, that of Mr Mirfin—all I miners; the address was framed by them, disi cussed clause by clause, corrected twice, and I finally sent in to be engrossed, with strict I instructions that it should be copied verbatim. I The original draught is still in existence, in the handwriting of one of the committee, to prove this, and nine good men and true to j support it. As for the incorrect Knglish of ! the address, we bow with humility to the correcting rod, without absolutely baring ouri selves; for, from the addresses of the Houses i of Parliament to her Majesty, downwards, everything of the kind is subject to the same 1 objection —at least so says the carping portion j of the press, who seek that shelter from Lindi ley Murray that their weak brains deny them I —and it is to be expected that the editor of ! the Daily Times is too well bred to differ from I his elder brethren. If the framers of the I address had been only fortunate enough to ; have had his valuable assistance, that serious objection doubtless might have been rectified. But in the name of all that's unreasonable, who ever heard that a man deserves to lose ! the confidence of his fellows for writing bad English; yet, that he does so, the Daily Times distinctly asserts. Otago has been | getting very fastidious since the arrival of the A ustralian element, and doubtless has improved | in the same proportion. We can imagine the I time when the editor of the Times grandi mother, the Witness, was only too bappy to j receive any kind of English to assist, him in I filling up his columns, and would cheerfully i devote an hour or two, with Murray on one i hand and Webster on the other, in correcting , his correspondents' communications. He has, ! apparently, made a stride onwards, but wheI ther he has gone upwards in the estimation of i the public, we must be permitted to doubt. In the same leader the worthy gentleman j dwells at some length upon the requirements of the province. Railways are to intersect it , from one end to the other, and settlements on ! the West Coast are to be made. At the same I time he administers a gentle scratch to the I sister province of Southland, for daring to show the slightest desire for a further exteni sion of territory, considerately supposing that the " magnificent estate of Stewart's Island" is amply sufficient for all her wants. He will, I we have no doubt, pardon us for being yet undecided whether Otago, Southland, or Wakatip has the greatest right to the West Coast: that remains to be seen, though we are perfectly alive to the great natural rights possessed by Southland to that territory. i We, however, appreciate the generous policy of granting " exclusive privileges" to i early settlers—there shews the cloven hoof. I We want no exclusive privileges. The miners of the Shotover, and the community of this 1 district look upon the West Coast as their right From report, it would appear that a I great deal of land is available for agriculture; and as it is likely to be the great highway of 1 Otago, every inch of that laud may eventually become valuable, and many a man at present delving in the bed of the Shotover will invest his hard-earned capital there. But how small his chances would be if he had "exclusive privileges" to fight against. No : like the Cornish clergyman, when one of his parishioners reported a ship ashore, "No monopoly; let us all start fair." | We have almost exceeded our usually allotted bounds ; but this is a subject in which we are all virtually interested, and with which it is to be hoped, the Daily Times for the 1 future will have the good sense to refrain from meddling. It is, doubtless, a capital medium for police and commercial matters,

and advertisements; but the affairs of a 1 mining community are a little out of its way i —that is, if we may judge by the remarkable specimens of ability that have hitherto appeared in its editorial columns.