COMMISSIONER OF MINES.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 107, 7 May 1864, Page 6

COMMISSIONER OF MINES.

In the Provincial Council on the 28th inst., Mr Hughes moved—" That this Council fully recognise the importance of the mining interest, and the necessity that exists for placing the responsibilities appertaining thereto with the Executive, and that the duties thus entailed can only be efficiently discharged by a Minister specially appointed for this purpose, and who shall be constituted ' Commissioner of Mines.' That a respectful address be pre- \ sented to his Honor the Superintendent, pray-1 ing that he will give effect to this resolution." j He felt that he was treading on rather delicate j ground; because if the motion was adopted, | it most probably would affect the gentleman I now filling the office of goldfields secretary.: He (Mr Hughes) had not to deal with that gentleman, but with a principle. That gen-; tleman was looked up to by the miners as the j head of the goldfields; and it was because j the secretary was so regarded by the miners j that there was such frequent collision with j the Executive. He could not do better than j state a case that came under his knowledge, j in which the person concerned was all but j ruined, if not completely so. Had the selec-! tion of wardens not been so frequently un- j fortunate, this particular hardship might, j perhaps, have been averted. He had known for six or seven years, a man named Kelly, who was really a hard-working miner. Kelly went to the Shotover, and he was the first to construct a bridge—a bridge which was fire-1 quently washed away. Kelly applied for a site near the old bridge, and Mr Warden Williamson approved of the project and gave him a ticket of registration. Thinking all was right, Kelly went up to the head of the river, to cut and float down timber for his new bridge; but when he returned he found that another man had applied for a site within 100 j yards, and disputed Kelly's right to put up a bridge. This was a man named Thackeray. 1 It seemed that Mr Williamson had gone away to the West Taieri diggings, and MrLowther j Broad had succeeded him as Warden. Kelly i applied to Mr Broad, who thought he had better not decide the case; so he referred it to Mr Williamson. That gentleman wrote back that Kelly was the legitimate owner of the site, and had been duly registered as such;, but Mr Broad misinterpreted the letter, and at once gave the site to Thackeray, who at | once commenced a bridge. When Mr Wil- j liamson returned, Kelly brought the matter j into the Warden's Court; but Mr Williamson ! seeing there had been an injustice done, yet found himself in a difficulty, seeing that a brother warden bad given away the site, and j he said, " I will submit the case to the Go- i vernment, and allow them to decide." The j goldfields secretary, when he visited the Shot-1 over, was told of the case, and he promised | to take further action when he came to town. | Kelly remained for four months without re-1 ceiving any official communication, and he 1 was then recommended by Mr Williamson to come down to town. He came down, but got no redress; and, nearly ruined, he was leaving the Province in disgust. He (Mr Hughes) feared that too many cases of the j same kind had occurred. He did not think it was due to any fault on the part of the secretary; but he thought it was due to the fact that there was no direct communication between the miners, or the goldfields, and some member of the Government. He also found that the secretary constantly had great difficulty in answering questions, because *he had no power until he had submitted them to the Executive. He could see ro means so suitable for remedying the existing evils as that which he had proposed. In Victoria it had been found necessary to make a similar change, and it had been confessedly beneficial. The time had come when the mining interest should be no longer trifled with. Now, everything that went wrong was laid to the fault of Mr Pyke; it was supposed that he was responsible for all appointments, and that he was responsible for many matters of detail. The motion having been seconded by Mr. Macandrew, on the motion of Captain Baldwin the House resolved itself into a Committee of the whole to consider Mr. Hughes' motion. Captain Baldwin said a great deal had been said and written about the inability of the Superintendent to delegate his delegated powers. The supporters of the motion simply desired to affirm that the management of the goldfields, that now came under the department of the Provincial Secretary, should be made a separate department, and conferred upon another member of the Executive; but there was no wish to interfere with the powers conferred upon the Superintendent by the Goldfields Act. He conceived that only two objections could really be urged to the motion: one, that the Superintendent might refuse to act with and by the consent and advice of his Executive Council in goldfields matters; and the other, that the appointment was not necessary. The first objection might be dismissed at once, for it could not be supposed

that in a matter of such great importance the Superintendent would refuse the constitutional responsibility of acting by and with the consent and advice of the Executive. As to the objection that the appointment was not necessary: Suppose a letter of very great importance —referring to such a case as that of Kelly—was received by the Secretary of the departmeut, how was he to act? He made a memorandum on it, or attached some other document, and forwarded it to Mr Willis, the under-secretary. He, in due course, forwarded it with forty or fifty other letters, perhaps, to the Provincial Secretary, in whose office it would be for a time—occasionally for a day or two, before it was looked at. Then the Provincial Secretary found a passage or something else in the letter which he did not understand, and so he referred it back to Mr. Pyke for explanation. Thus days were constantly occnpied when* hours were of the utmost importance. There was a Secretary of Public Works, and it was admitted that the office was a good and useful one. But which was of the greater importance —that there should be a Minister charged with looking after the construction of roads and bridges, or that there should be one charged to look after the interests of 20,000 men, who contributed one third of the revenue, and who exported more than two million sterling worth of gold annually ? It might be asked what the Commissioner of Mines would have to do. If he did his duty, he would very soon be the hardest worked officer in the Province Two-thirds of his time he would be travelling on the goldfields, finding out the wants of the miners, and bringing them directly under the notice of the Executive; and another part of his duty would be to attend in that House and to give any information that might be required. The Pbovincial Secbetaby said the difficulty lay in the Superintendent not having power to delegate the authority delegated to him. The Pbovincial Tbeasubeb opposed the motion on the ground that the new officer would only be a sort of detective in goldfields matters. Major Rtchardson thought that what was wanted was that tne Governor should be asked to do what the fifth clause of the Act allowed him to do—make such a delegation as to legalise the action of the Superintendent by and with the consent and advice of the Executive. If the Governor should be of opinion that the power should not rest with the Superintendent and Executive, then let the Council wash their hands of the matter, and pimply hand over the necessary money, and require an account of how it was spent. Speaking from his short military experience—he called it short, though it had extended over 20 years—there was nothing that had a greater tendency to destroy that moral feeling, which was a kind of innate principle in every Briton, than being at the beck and nod of a single irresponsible person. He spoke purely upon a principle; but he said that if any person could say to a warden, " I will remove you from your situation," it must create a feeling of subserviency quite derogatory to the position of such an officer. If the Council, as such, could not interfere —if anyone aggrieved could not appeal to it—let the Council get rid at once of even the appearance of responsibility. After some further discussion, Major Richabdson moved an amendment excluding the affirmation that it was desirable to appoint a Commissioner of Mines, and stating that the responsibilities appertaining to the mining interest should be placed with the Executive. The amendment was adopted. The amendment having thus become a substantive motion, The Pbovincial Tbeasubeb moved that the clause recognising the responsibility of the Executive in reference to the Goldfields be struck out, as it was a reflection on the Superintendent. Mr Vogel said, should the Treasurer's amendment be negatived he would move that an address be presented to the Superintendent communicating the resolution to him. Mr Yogel's amendment was put and carried. The Pbovincial Secbetaby desired to append to the resolution an expression of thanks to the Superintendent for " having hitherto given effect to the resolution" as it would then stand. The proposition was nega- ! tived. | The House resumed, and the resolution was reported as follows: " That this Council fully recognise the importance of the mining interest, and the necessity that exists for placing the responsibilities appertaining thereto with the Executive. That a respectful address be presented to his Honor the Superintendent communicating to him this resolution." A division was called for, on the question that the motion be adopted, when there appeared—Ayes, 12; noes, 11. The motion was accordingly carried by one vote.