THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1871.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 134, 22 September 1871, Page 5

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1871.

"We call attention to a letter from a correspondent, which appears elsewhere, on the present state of the road between the Kyeburn and the Maerewhenua Diggings. The usual Governmental courtesy as to supply of copies of the Appropriation and other Ordinances has not, this year, been extended to us. This neglect, however, we are willing to believe to have arisen rather from the impecunious state of the Provincial exchequer than from any desire or intention to disparage or ignore any portion of the Fourth Estate, however humble and unaspiring. So far as we have been able to gather, however, from the newspaper reports of the proceedings of the last session of the Provincial Council, the sum of £SOO was appropriated for the purpose of forming and cutting a bridle track between this place and Mae re when ua. That such a work has become a matter alike of expediency and necessity no one will, we imagine, attempt for one moment to dispute. It would appear, however, that a maximum sum of £SOO having been appropriated, the appropriation has been and is contingent upon the contractor for the work being willing to accept payment therefor in land. So far, so good. "We desire to quarrel neither with the sum nor with the manner of payment. But we do desire to know, and we have, we think, a right to ask, why tenders have not, after a lapse of several month*, been called for —setting forth the locality of the block from which selection for payment is to be made, and stating whether or not the contractor will have the option of selecting such a block in such locality as will suit his own immediate circumstances ? We will briefly put a case in this form: A holds under permission of one of those lords of the creation, the squatter, a portion of land on the line of road or track which it has been decided to construct on the payment in land principle. Now, A has a direct and personal object and interest in having this road constructed, and is willing to make it upon more favorable terms than any other person could possibly do, for the reasons above assigned; there being the additional fact also that, living in the immediate neighborhood, and having all necessary material at his command, he would therefore be in a better position than other persons to form and construct such road at less expense to himself, and consequently at less cost to the public.

The fact to which we desire to draw attention is that, though the payment in land principle has been introduced, there is, so far as the public are concerned, no information as to whether selection is to be circumscribed to particular blocks, already surveyed or to be surveyed, or whether the contractor shall have the option of selecting such land —of course of a non-auriferous character —in a locality which will best suit his personal views and his ordinary occupation. In other words, whether he will be permitted to select such land as will suit him, or be compelled to make selection in localities in which he has never possessed an interest, in which he has no desire to possess an interest, and to which all his present interests are opposed. As more than one road in this district is to be constructed upon the priDciple of payment in land, we think we have' a right to ask what interpretation the Government put upon that term, and to know for the satisfaction of the public generally, and more particularly of persons willing to construct, whether the choice of land is to be circumscribed to a particular block or blocks, or whether the Government are willing in certain cases to withdraw from the operation of the Goldfields Act such non-auriferous blocks of land as will ensure the contracts on the payment in land principle being taken up at once and upon the most favorable and reasonable terms. Upon these points the public are, we consider, justly entitled to a fair and full explanation at the hands of the Government. Tenders for the construction of roads upon this principle should be at

once called for, and at the same time a full explanation of what is intended by the "payment in land" principle, so far as selection is concerned, notified.