THE Mount Ida Chronicle. FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1870.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 57, 4 March 1870, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle. FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1870.

The result of the recent Conference between the miners' delegates and the representatives of the water companies must have convinced any one not already convinced that the temporising policy pursued by his Honor the Superintendent in ■ ■granting' a month's protection to. "all claims within a radius ; of t|jree miles from the Court House, was a grievous error and has been productive of much more harm than good. The granting of such protection has most unquestionably had the effect of confirming the miners in their, opinion as to the inassailability of their position by inducing them to believe that their cause is a just one, and is espoused by the Government. The result of this confidence was clearly, manifested during the late Conference. Eirm in the belief that the Superintendent would again, if appealed to, lend a favorable ear to their prayer —-the offer made bymost of the companies representatives to reduce, if requested so to do, the price of the Hogburn head of water from 50s. to 40s. per week was rejected by the miners,, and a resolution unanimously adopted to the effect that no water would be purchased except at the price lately agreed on by them, viz., 365. per week. It was further resolved that his Honor should be petitioned to extend the period of protection for three months: When we, a week or two back, alluded this subject, we expressed as alike our opinion iind our fear l ; .id.; m-cMiGjvjing the course he had

done in this matter, his Honor had done ," either too little or too much " that is to say, he had been induced, upon ex parte statements, to exercise the very large and important power vested in him to suspend the operation of one of the most vital clauses of the Goldfield Rules and Eegulations, but by suspending it for so limited a period month he has rendered his interference not only virtually useless but absolutely mischievous, and had moreover thereoy rendered the solution of the present difference more difficult and complicated than before.

The Conference having failed to arrive at any satisfactory agreement, the question arises as to what line of action his Honor will adopt when the second petition for a further extension of the period of protection reaches him. Will his Honor accede to the prayer of the petitioners? or will he allow the question to work out its own solution and find its own cure ? These are questions which equally affect every person and every interest in this district, and prospectively and inferentially in every mining districtthroughoutthe Province. The course his Honor may take in this matter will be strictly and carefully watched, and the future action alike of miners and water companies will, in a very great degree; be. regulated thereby. Having once determined to exercise the power of suspending the abandonment clause, it would have been no great stretch of power, to have extended the period of suspension to three months ; there might, in the latter case, have been some practical good result, with no greater assumption of authority or infraction of principle, than those already exercised. In whatever light a second suspension of the same clause* might be now regarded, it is quite evident that the suspension should, in the first instance, if granted at all, have been for a longer, and at the same time & clearly defined period. Having, however, gone so far as he has done we cannot see how his Honor can now very well hesitate or retreat. On Wednesday next the period of protection will expire, and if before that time there be not either some satisfactory arrangement between.the disputants, or unless his Honor shall, in the exercise of his discretion, think/fit to comply with the prayer of the petition for extended protection, there will we fear be a scene of anarchy and confusion in the district, such as has not been before witnessed in this Province. Nor could we (should such a,n unhappy state of affairs take place) hold his Honor absolved from having, by his temporising and mischievous interference, largely contributed to the catastrophe. His Honor, in the last paragraph of his reply to the miners' petition, expressed a hope that before the term for which protection was granted should have expired a satisfactory and amicable adjustment of the present difference would be arrived at, failing which he recommended that resort should be had to arbitration. All attempts at a satisfactory adjustment haying failed, we should indeed be glad to see some unprejudiced person appointed by the Government, and possessing the confidence alike of miners and companies, and recognised by both, authorised to institute enquiries as to the present state of relations between miners and water companies, and with a view to bringing to an end a dispute which is fast bringing to grief one of the richest, most prosperous, and most populous of our Groldfield towns.

The present dispute onee brought to a satisfactory issue, the future can, we imagine, be kept tolerably free from similar complications. It has been suggested by the miners that the water companies holding large water rights, without any restrictive conditions as to the maximum price chargeable for water, they (the miners) are entirely and almost helplessly" in their hands—inasmuch as, after having had the toil, labor, and expense of prospecting the country, for payable ground, the water companies can, if they please, refuse to sell water except at such prices as it would be impossible for the miner to pay, and that consequently the miner, being unable to take water at the price demanded, any payable ground might have to be abandoned, and the result of their energy and labor fall to the share of the water companies who could use their water to work very rich ground discovered by the miner. Such an event could, we imagine, be easily avoided by a written memorandum of agreement between the prospectors and the water company, whereby the water company

should bind themselves, on the event of good ground being found in a given locality commanded by their water, to supply so many heads at a certain price per head, until the claims should be worked out. It would no doubt be very desirable if the same principle conld be made to apply to grantees of water rights as is applied to the lessees of coal pits, in all of which cases there is a condition attached to the lease stipulating that the maximum rate of charge shall in no case exceed a certain amount. There are, no doubt, grave difficulties in the way of coming to a fair estimate in such a matter as that of water right, as to what would be a fair maximum rate for a short race brought in at little expense would not remunerate the owners of a long and expensive race which had probably occupied years in construction. Though difficult, howover, a fair and equitable adjustment of the present water question should not, connot, be insuperable ; and as the present strike is only one out of many which may (unless provision be made to prevent it) probably take place, the sooner his Honor shall appoint a Commission to enquire into the whole question of the water rights of the Province the sooner will the solution "which we desire to see effected be arrived at, and the sooner will the relations between the miners and the water companies be thoroughly understood, and perfectly defined. We commend our suggestion to the consideration of his Honor the Superintendent.