MINING V. FARMING.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 69, 27 May 1870, Page 3

MINING V. FARMING.

Many of tGe settlers on the Taieri Plain are beginning- to feel uneasy, owing to the gradual rising of the bed of the Taieri liiver, caused by the extensive sluicing into tne river going on at toe Upper Taieri. Evident signs are given by every flood that the time i 3 not far distant when a great portion °*'. *!\ e taieri Plain will return to its original state—namely, a vast swamp —unless some extensive scheme is carried out by which the river will be kept within its banks. The Waipori Lake, which within the memory of some of the neighboring settlers was over ten feet deep, is now less than that number of inches. The result was that the country surrounding the lake was inundated five or six times in the course of last year. The same process going on in the beds of the Taieri and Waipori Eivers for twenty or thirty years would make the Taieri Plain uninhabitable. Some months ago, at the solicitation of the settlers on the plain, Mr. Thomson, Chief Surveyor of the Province, was instructed to report upon the flooding of the Taieri, and, if possible, to point out a remedy. That gentleman has now furnished a masterly report on the subject, treating it in a most comprehensive manner. He i submits two schemes—one involving an ! expenditure of £145,000, which would be "a complete" safeguard from the flooding of the river doing any damage to the- adjoining property; and one involving an outlay of £70,000, which would be . of a less beneficial character, and, besides, would involve the immediate destruction of a good many' holdings. The Taieri settlers met on the 30th of last month to consider the schemes suggested by Mr. Thomson, and from a report of. the meeting given in the ' Bruce Standard,' we notice a great many silly things spoken by men who might- be supposed to know bet- i ten The great argument used by the ' various speakers is the following— If the Provincial Government give £200,000 to encourage the mining industry—the one to ' which they attribute the evils they complain of—why not give them a li&e sum to carry out the surveyor's plan ? If the Government of New South Wale 3 expend £150,000 on a river which is constantly overflowing its banks and causing destruction to property, why should not the Government of Otago do the same? One of the speakers, a Mr. James Beid, commenting on the proposed recommendation of the Superintendent to develope the Goldfields by a guarantee 011 £200,000, is reported to have said that *'if a farthing was to goto the Goldfields, they (the Taieri farmers) ought to have £1 for every sixpencespent there." The chairman of the meeting, a Mr. liennie, with about as good logic as Mr. Pieid, " considered that the Taieri Plain was entitled to more consideration than the Goldfields,

m-.ineijt in But, we ask, is tka^ retaining ot a patch of land in 0110 cor- J ner of the Province to be set against 1 the more speedy development and settlement of the'Goldlields, which Constitute by far the greater part of the-1 entire Province? Surely not. j would use, although with a dilfcrent ' application, the closing words ia MrThomson's report, as an answer to the bad logic of .the Taieri farmers: "Wo must neglect," says he, " the limited interest for the large majority—the inconvenience of the few 'for the safety j of the whole." \Yero not blame these unfortunate farmers in their efforts to stem tne flooding of the river 5 something must eventually be done for them;; but tney should try to view with a more liberal mind the farming interest on the Goldiields, as also the great mining interest which has bepn the making of Otago. They should remember that the Taieri is n»t Ot-ago, and that the Taieri Plain would have been of very little consequence for generations t: come had gold no*; been discovered in the Province. To the development of the Goldaelds we look for the future prosperity of the country; and until the Government initiates some great water scheme, conjointly with either a more liberal Land Law or a more liberal administration of the present one we do not anticipate anything but a continuance of the present stagnation and depression of trade which exists in nearly every part of the Province.— ' Tuapeka Times.'