MAEREWHENUA PETITION.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 193, 8 November 1872, Page 5

MAEREWHENUA PETITION.

The following memorial from the Maerewheriua, on the subject of Mr. Campbell's alleged purchase, is that which we in our last issue promised to publish. The case is one no only of local but of general importance, and we only hope that the miuers on the various Goldfields will combine, and strive to the utmost to prevent, by every possible means, the alienation of auriferous ground, whether by lease or by actual purchase To HIS HoNOE THE StTPEBIKTENDENT OF OTAGO. The Memorial of the undersigned miners and others of the Maerewhenua Gold field, Humbly sheweth— That your memorialists, while thanking your Honor for the declaration recently made by you, that the application of the Hon. Mr. Campbell to purchase a block of 10,000 acres of land on this Goldfield, known and proved to be payably auriferous, should not be granted; and while endorsing to a very great extent the report of Mr. Warden Uobinson upon the subject, beg nevertheless to express to you Honor their firm conviction that even within the area known as Mr. Campbell's original application there exists a large extent of ground of a payably auriferous character. That your memorialists do not desire to let the question rest upon their simple assertion, but respectfully beg ..-that a Commission of two or more competent gentlemen may be appointed to visit the ground, in order to determine the question by actual prospect. That, pending the report of these gen-

t lemon, no alienation of land in this Goldtield, to Mr. Campbell or any otlier person, may be permitted. TliaO the alienation of auriferous ground cannot fail to be not only ruinous to the mining interest and unjust to the district, but must eventually prove highly detrimental to the best interests of the Province. That, as the survey of this ground is being rapidly pushed forward, your memorialists earnestly desire that steps may be taken to have the question set at rest with the least possible delay. And your memorialists, &c.