CORRESPONDENCE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 199, 20 December 1872, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

We do not hold ourselves in any way respon- - - Bible for -the views and sentiments expressed by correspondents. All communications must be accompanied by the correct name and address of the writer, 5 not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. ••c.

(To the Editor of the Momst Ida Chboxicle.) Sir, —Cases of great importance tothe raining interest crop up almost every week in the Wardens' Courts of the Otago Goldfielda, that the Goldfielde Rules and Regulations are entirety silent upon. Whether the judgments delivered by .tue. Wardens, in particular cases' Where ttie Rules ahd Kegulations do not protidies for'any special edurfee of Action, have met with the approval of the majority of tlie miners interested! #r it. IB not my purpose toehqtnre: ' ♦ Tb&t a' newG-oldfields Consolidation Bill is necessary, and of: the utmost itnpo|!tanre, to become law as soon as possible, iriusib be the earnest «ud ' sincere wish I.prtjiq niint'r eVpifoliflti That of£bunds should be at ihe mercy,

of an am big \om cla-ise of, at best, a skeleton of an Act, shows clearly that the rights and privileges conferred on the miner by the Goldtields Act are nothing more nor less than a delusion and a snare. The enterprise, pluck, and perseverance of the miners have opened up the wild and almost in accessible districts of the interior of the Province to trade and prosperity, and by the same unflagging energy the wilderness is forced to yield its golden fruits. It is an undeniable fact, admitted by the Government., as jvell as by the farmer and the squatter, that our Goldfields have made Otago what she now is, and that, as these fields are developed and fostered by the Government, the. more prosperous will she become, and the more powerful- for her interests in the Parliament of the Colony. That the success or non-success of vast mining speculations, where thousands upon thousands of pounds are concerned, should be determined by Tons, Dick, or Harry,. who perhaps awn a flour mill, or some other establishment (thirty or forty miles outsider proclaimed Goldfield); where water is used as the motive power, is, to say the least, something absurd. TheGoldfields Rules and -Regulations (such asthey are) were framed for the Goldfields, and the miner acting under them in justly carrying out the provisions of the Act, in so far a 9 the. diversion of water, the construction of* races or dams, or in pegging out a claim is ~ concerned, will surely be protected in so doing both by tha Warden and by the Government. If objections to the granting of water rights - from parties residing at such a distance from a pi'oclairaei Goldfield are entertained by the Government; there will be no end of unpleasantness and litigation. Surely the miner, through special taxation, severe frosts, and ' long-continued droughts, has quite enough troubles to contend against without inflicting him with addition 1 hardships. Better that the Government should proclaim •_ all rivers and streams having their source on _ the Goldfields as a portion of the Gold field i of Otago, and to be used under the Rules and Regulations, than that objections to the granting of water rights to miners by owners of" establishments situated on the banks of these rivers or streams outside the proclaimed boundaries of the field, should have it in their power to successfully object to the granting of ' water rights for the development of the mining interest.- Bytliismeans the m ner would bfe protected the or,e hand, and the merchant or miller on the other, by holding his , dr. tlie x fifth ijpir,, sixth right (by priority: df course)'to '.he water of the river or ere* in questi n. The fifth or sixth right to sufficient water power to drive a water wheel or to be used tor scouring purposes iu a fellmongery, from a river like the Kakanui, draining a watershed of over 400 miles, would be very valuable. •

I£. tlie Goidfields are to-prosper; -water to work them must be obtained, and every facility should be afforded to the miner by the Government to unearth their hidden trea.sjires,>l cannot beikre for a single moment that the Government or Wardens will'take other than formal notice of objections from parties residing outside Goldfielda to the granting of water rights. "When the- mining interest has to play second fiddle to the-miller ■ or sheep washer—when the owner of a fellinongfry can regulate the water supply on a. Goldfield—when tlie prospective employment, of hundreds of miners vanishes like a dream—when the richest and largest of our GoldJL-lds is to remain unopened, and its treasures buried in its bosom, through the caprice of the miller and the aheepwashcr—then let mining be prohibited; discharge all GoldfieHs officials; clo4o the Wardens' Courts; let immigration be abolished; and welcome poverty, pauperism, ruin, anu Colonial bankruptcy. Trusting that these few remarks will have the effect of ventilating ai matter of great importance to this district, I am, &c.,

A KA.K4NUI Govs. Maerewhenua, Dec. 17,1872.