ALEXANDRA.—August 29.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 31, 3 September 1869, Page 3

ALEXANDRA.—August 29.

(From our own Correspondent.) ! "With the exception of the old story of a " rise in the river," I have nothing of local importance to communicate this week. On Tuesday night the water rose some six feet, but began to subside on the following dav. On Friday morning the water again rose, compels ling alike the dredges and the parties working on the banks to "knock off." The prevailing opinion, however, is that the present rise will not be maintained, as it is very early in the season lor the rise to acquire its final summer height. There being nothing of greater moment to record, I will relate a circumstance in connection with mining matters here which may be, perhaps, useful and interesting to other districts. A screw would certainly appear to be loose somewhere, and the bringing the facts of the case under the notice of the G-overnment and the public may, it is to be hoped, lead to the machinery being put into something like working order. Two parties put in applications for head races (to which I alluded in my last communication) between Campbell and Low's station and the Balmoral Hotel. Before making the application, the parties called upon Mr. Low and asked him to point out the boundary of his pre-emptive right, in order that they might carry their races clear of his private property. The only information, howler, which they were able to extract from Mr. Low was that " he. did not himself know his own boundaries." The parties then posted the usual notices, to which objections wer,e in due course put in by Mr. Low —his ground of objection being a belief that both races, as indicated, would traverse his private property. in the presence of the Warden the applicants again requested Mr. Low to point out his boundaries, in order that they might be able to keep their races clear of his ground. With thi3 request Mr. Low declared his inability to comply, as "he did not know them himself!" The applications were eventually granted by the Warden, who, however, in granting them, cautioned the parties that if they interfered with private property they would render themselves liable for damages, telling them at the same time that it was their duty to find j out whether they were going to work <

on private property before they commenced. the cutting of their* races. Now, if a gentleman, or any other man, residing and. possessing private property within a goldfield does not know where his property lies, and what are its boundaries; and if, moreover, the Warden or officer representing the Government does not know, 1 should like to ask, in the name of all that's wonderful and ridiculous, how any stranger can be expected to find out ? Yet such would appear to be the actual state of affairs. Is it to be expected, I ask, that every person who comes into the district with the intention of mining for gold under definite and established Acts, Kules, and Regulations passed and made in tuaO behalf, should bring with him a surveyor to ascertain what is and what is not private property, and where and where not he is intitled to " set into work under and by virtue of his miners' right, for which lie has paia a lee ot £1 to the Government? The proposition is simply an absurdity under any circumstances, and more especially so in the present case, where i Mr. Low, the runjolder, has private property at both ends of a flat Renown, to contain good payable gold. The only information, however, which that gentleman is either willing or deigns to afford upon the subject of his boundaries is that he possesses private property to the extent of " twelve and a half acres near the Balmoral Hotel;" and with this vague and absurd reply the hard-working miner must be content to undergo all risk should he decide to " set in," and be subject to all the pains and penalties of the law should he happen to trespass, however innocently, upon the sacred territory of the aristocratic squatter. It is only a short time since that one party was compelled, by a decision of Mr. Warden Pyke, to fill in two prospecting paddocks, though there was nothing to point out that the portion of the ground upon which they were working was private property, or that it differed in any single respect from the rest of the ground in the neighborhood. Surely if the Government have been sufficiently foolish and culpable to allow auriferous ground to be alienated and fall into the hands of favorite individuals, they should at least either point out to the miner what land has been so alienated, or compel the purchaser, be he squatter or what he may, to do so.