PROTECTION AT ST. BATHANS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 94, 2 December 1870, Page 3

PROTECTION AT ST. BATHANS.

(To the Editor of the Mount Ida Chronicle.) Sib,—The population of this place is decreasing fast, in consequence of the high price of water, and the maimer in which protection of is granted to the water companies. At present a man has to work a considerable timesome three six, or twelve monthsgetting a tail race, &c. (and to pay for water all the time) ; cut ten to forty i'ett deep, and then the fall is so little that the same quantity of ground cannot be got away as formerly j". and if complaint is made of the water bill,- he is told to " clear out" if he ddes ? nbt like it. At the same time, the water companies are protecting all the ground they can get, and will let their water run ...to jyvaste.. rather than employ men to work it. Some few months ago a party of miners objected to protection being granted to ground held by the companies, as they will not work it themselves, or allow anyone else to do so. At the hearing, Mr. Warden Robinson told the miners he. would grant the protection as long as be thoughh proper, which will most probably be until some poor men are broken down and obliged to leave, and their races made available for the companies.

The miners here must be a most persevering lot of men, from the fact that they have managed to live and pay the high water rates in ground that cannot make pay. The whole Chinese population, with the exception

of two or three which are leaving, have disappeared. '•" ' If the present system of alio wing the water companies to take up and not work the ground is permitted, in a short time the whole population may leave, as the present claims cannot last long, and no new ground is to be had. But why grant protection to the water companies at all, if other parties are ready and willing to work and pay them for their water ? There is no excuse now for protection, the sludge channel being a sufficient outlet for the whole basin.° I hope Mr. Warden Robinson will bear these things in mind before granting protection again, as there are many men now ready and anxious to work, and if nothing can be got here must go elsewhere.—l am, &c, Sluice-Box. St. Bathans, Nov. 28, 1870.