THE Mount Ida Chronicle. FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 1869.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 9, 2 April 1869, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle. FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 1869.

The various lists constituting the memorial to the Postmaster-Greneral in favor of an alteration in the present monstrous mail contract have been received by the Improvement Committee, and are now ready for transmission to head parties. The number of signatures which has been obtained is about 350. and these comprise the Magistrates of the District, the business men of Naseby and the Kyeburn, and, a goodly number of miners and others. In fact, we have not heard of a single refusal to sign a document which must necessarily confer so great a benefit on all. The matter having gone thus far, it has been under the serious consideration of the Committee in what "way the memorial should be forwarded it its destination, in order to give it the greatest amount of weight, and reduce the possibility of its non-success to the minimum. With this object it has been decided to entrust the memorial to Messrs. George, Inder, and Bremner, members of . the Committee, whom business will in the course of a few days call to Dunedin. These gentlemen will form a deputation i ; to call upon his Honor the Superintendent, and the "Chief Postmaster, in order, if possible to obtain their endorsation of the prayer of the memorialists. By this means much of the vexatious delay which the tedious routine of official redtapeism invariably involves, will be avoided, and the fate of the document, for aye or for nay, speedily made known. Were the memorial to be forwarded to the Postmaster-Greneral without such endorsation, it would, to a certainty, be returned to one, or perhaps both, of the officers to whom we have referred, for their report, and much valuable time be thereby lost. The prayer of the memorial is so reasonable and just, and the grievances and neglect under which this town and District absolutely groan; in consequence of the present postal arrangements, are so well known and generally admitted, that we cannot, nor will allow ourselves for one moment to doubt its complete success. Indeed, before the lapse of a month from the date of the departure of the deputation to Dunedin we trust to be in a position to congratulate our readers upon the Dunedin and Dunstan coach passing through ISTaseby being an established fact.

We should be wanting alike in courtesy as in duty vrere we, on this occasion to omit to mention the cordial cooperation which the Improvement Committee have at all times received at the hands of Mr/J. C. Brown, ift.P.C. On all occasions when information on public matters has been sought by the Committee it has always been supplied readily, cheerfully, and to the purpose, by that gentleman. In the matter of the memorial in question, a communication was last mail received from Mr. Brown volunteering to come up to town and meet the deputation if they would telegraph to him at Lawrence upon their arrival in Dunedin. The Groldfields are fortunate in having at least one member whose experience in goldmining. matters gives Ms opinions weight, and who, at the same time, has energy enough both of mind and body, and possesses a sufficient idea of the requirements of duty, to attend to the numerous and varied necessities of the constituency which he has undertaken to represent. Such, we regret to say, has not been, nor is, the case with many pf the present Groldfields members both in the House of and Provincial Council, most of whom, having made use of the (Joldfieids' constituencies as their tools and their fools to carry out their ambitious designs and crawl into lucrative appointments —rin other words to feather their own nests —have deliberately kicked away the ladder by which they climbed to place, power '■'. and eniolument, leaving the deluded electors to : attend to their own affairs and shift for themselves. We are glad to be thus able to mention M!r. J. C. Brown as an honorable eir ception to this disgraceful, but at the same time (unfortunately) too generally prevailing ruleT As the deputation of thei Improvement Committee will no doubt be instructed to confer

with:;tie Groveniment upon the subject both ofagricultural,lease areas, and the setting aside oflahd 'fdF the purposes of commonage, we trust that .tney JwiU not neglect to avail themselves ©f Mr. offer of assistance, as we feel iQiat there are many .important points"in connection with these subjects with which" "he must, from practical experience" at Lawrence, "be better acquainted than be possible for any member of the deputation to be. "We say, therefore, if the ! deputation be really in earnest; and mean business, by all means let Mr. J. C. JJrown be telegraphed to upon their arrival in Dunedin.

It will be seen by a notice in our advertising columns that Mr. James Smith of Dunedin, barrister and solicitor, has been elected lay representative for Maniototo district for the first Diocesan Synod of Dunedin. The Popular Peadings were well attended on Thursday evening last. Mr. Win. Grumitt presided.

On the Thursday preceding Good Friday there was considerable excitement in this town from the fact of its being generally known that the squatters in the neighborhood were mustering all the strange cattle upon their runs with the intention of enforcing payment for all claimed, and sending to the pound (at Waikouaiti) all unelaimedbeasts. Occurrences such as these cannot fail to produce ill blood and ill feeling between the townspeople and the squatocracy of the district, and the sooner the Government take action in the matter, and make arrangements to accede to the requirements of the people of the district, the better it will be for all parties. The squatters have purchased rights wliich they are quite justified in defending so long as they remain uncompensated. The people, also have rights, long withheld, which it is their determination to acquire. The Government must meet the case in the only fair and honorable way—by paying the runlioldcr all he can legally and justly claim under his lease, and by conferrm" upon the people the privileges of .which they have been too long debarred—the acquisition of land for settlement purposes.

We understand that the Rev. Mr. Gilbert, a gentleman-.well known to the inhabitants of Kaseby is about to visit this town. He proposes to hold morning and evening service on Sunday next, and on Monday evening will hold a public meeting. The object of Mr. Gilbert's mission is to advocate the cause, and advance the interests of the Sailors' Mission. Oirs attention has been called to the fact that there is at present no vaccination officer fortius town and district. The spread of small-pox in the colonies is now unfortunately an established fact; and wc consider it is the i imperative clut.y o£*fee authorities to take immediate precautions to prevent the spread of this terrible scourge.

Tub hall, in course of erection by tiie 2f aseby Total Abstinence Society is fast .approaching, completion. The building is a. plain and unassuming one, and occupies a connnanding position at the top of and looking down Leven street. The number of members who have enrolled their names on the books of the society is already over 50. A meeting of the Improvement Committee took place on Saturday afternoon last. Present —Messrs. Glenn (chairman), Horswell, Collett, George, Hertslet, Inder, and M'Donald, The minutes of previous meeting having ■ been read and confirmed, the secretary read a letter from Mr. J. C. Brown, on the subject of the mail contract alteration, and on the question of agricultural areas, and volunteering to meet a deputation of the Committee if, upon their arrival in Dunedin, they would -telegraph to him at Lawrence. It WB3 resolved that the thanks of the Conuiiittee be given to Mr. Brown for his letter, and the interest which he has always taken hi the welfare of this district. It was further resolved that the memorial be left in the charge of Messrs. George, Inder, and Bremner, for presentation to his Honor the Superintendent and the Chief Postmaster for endorsation and approval, and that, before leaving If aseby for Dunedin, an emergency meeting of the Committee be cojivened for thepurpose of making final arrangements.

We have received a fine sample, which can be seen at our office, of some wheat, grown at Luks Brothers, Waihemo. The piece of land upon which the sample before us was raised was three quarters of an acre, the quantity of seed sown 551b5., the yield 44 bushels, and the weight of the grain at the rate of 66f lbs per bushel. This speaks volumes in answer to those who choose to regard this place as unsuited to agricultural pursuits, as the locality in which the grain was grown is in no way superior to that of Naseby either in climate or soil. We doubt not were agricultural lease areas, or freeholds, procurable here that the settlers would find fanning a profitable occupation. The pigeon match, advertised in our last issue, came off on Tuesday last at Woodney's Hotel, Eden Creek. There was a fair number of people, both gunners and spectators. The shooting was tolerably good, and all, with the exception perhaps of the birds themselves, passed a pleasant day. Mr. Brookes" of tliis town was the champion shot of the day. Ample justice was done to the good cheer provided by mine host Woodney. ". . . Favorable accounts from the Burster still continue to reaeli us from time to time. With-'V out being in a position to make allusion on the present occasion to any party as being parties larly or uhexceptionally successful, we can safely say that au are doing well. The. Chinese element still continues to predominate, and they are reported as a rule to be averaging over £5 per week per man by cradling. The weather has already been.somewhat severe, and during the past week there" were some hard frosts. ;.-Water on these diggings is reported as being plentiful.

As evidence that the .soil and climate of Naseby are not tmsuited to the production, of vegetable life, we may*mention that we "were shown, by Mr. Ilall, of this town, a bucket containing 22 potatoes, of an almost uniform size, .been raised hi his garden from a single seed. There have been, we believe, equally good returns from other thaFhave come under our personal inspection. '• Surely "facts such as these should make the settlers of all classes more than ever determined to obtain land for agricultural purposes without loss of tune:" It will be hy notice in our advertising columns, that people desirous of taking up agricultural areas are requested to communicate with the Secretary of the Improvement Committee upon the subject, and we hope to find that there will be no lack of enquirers. There were no cases in the Petty Sessional Court, held on the 27th ult. -

The subjoined extract will show that the settlers and miners of the Teviot are fully alive to the advantages of the agricultural lease system:—The whole of the block of land re cently thrown open for agricultural settlement at the Teviot is said to be taken up. The scene at the Court House, when it was made known that applications for land in the block would be received, is described as follows in the 'Tuapeka Times':—Long before the hour for opening the office crowds of would-be cock* atoos assembled at the door, and an exciting struggle eusued for places. When Mr. Borton made his appearance, he could hardly gain admittance; and no sooner had he opened the door than, in spite of all Lis remonstrances, the office was rushed. A large pile of applications soon littered the counter; and as each applicant got his receipt, he made a bolt for the door, and, mounting his horse, hurried off to affix his notice.