THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1873.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 215, 11 April 1873, Page 4

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1873.

Ybr? few will fail to recognise that the development of a mining district of average prosperity mast be exactly in proportion to the cheapness or otherwise of provisions and tools necessary for the miners and other residents Whether the articles affected in price be picks and'shovels, meat, bread, milk, ■coal, or even oats and chaff, any improvement in price that enables a miner to live well on forty or fifty shillings a week,where before he was half starved on sixty shillings, must be a great and powerful acceleralive to the prosperity of the whole commu-. nity. It has often been a matter for remark whsit a hap-haz ird business the coal supply has been on the Goldfields. JNature out cf her very bounty has done us an injury, for we are content to go on depending, on the; inferior lignites, rather than be at the trouble and small expense necessary for a proper survey of the coal seams of the district. The Kyeburn and Wetherburn coal pits have been great boons to us, and still promise to be of great service. Pits at Hills Creek and near St. Bathans have also supplied large,, quantities of fuel. Stiil we should not be content. These numerous pits—for the most part only stumbled upon by a chance gold prospector —are, we are confident, only so many signs of the riches that are within our reach, if

only: we will be at the trouble or gras~ ping them. Hitherto steam power has not been •a-great desideratum on the district I gold fields, al though lately we hear that i the Energetic Quartz Milling Com pauy at Kough Ridge intend to try the Ida B..rn coal for furnace purposes. This:, however, may not always he so. Should lit happen that so. far on the Hogburn i only a fa be bottom has been dealt with, and that deep ■■auriferous leads remain to be opened up below, coal to drive machinery would he invaluable. I tis most desirable that these q jestions as to the existence of deep ground and coal supply should be set at rest. The ■■boring rods are lying at the disposal of the inhabitants - The Corporation, wh >, we believe, will be held answerable for their safe keeping,"might very well try to arrange with the Miners' Association to have these rods put to the greatest possible use, under their superintendence We are confident that results won!d be arrived at that would far more than compensate for the necessary outlay. But more especially with regard to coal should immediate enquiry be made, and the step would bo to apply to the General Government for a report by an expert on the coalfields: of the Mount Ida District. Dr. Hector has been busily eniraged in the North and South reporting on and examining into coal Beams of all descriptions; and 11 > doubt, if application was made in a proper, way, this gentleman's services could be secured. A good seam of real coal under the very town itself, is a 'far more likely and probable tact than many projects.. floated ostentatiously with toasts drunk in chain,: at»ne. Such an enquiry, into at first sig t so small a matter,will seem to many chimerical. We think this should not be so. A matter of vital importance to all the towns in the district, and also to a large scattered population that often have to cart inferior and bulky coals many tnilcs, is hard by to be classed as chimerical. Prospecting for coal must sooner or later 'be gone into, and it will be far cheaper that this should be done under the most ski)f'ul gu'id- j awe that, can be procured, than that I it should be left to merely the unguided energy of so-called practical L;en. We have said nothing of the ; net-work of rail and tramways that' ere long will make a great drain on the coal supplies of ihe Province, A

Quite lately a petition for a Commonage ■■has been handed round ibr signatures. We are sorry that no opportunity was afforded us of giving it the fullest publicity. ■ Since then, a correspondent signing himself " Miner" wrote a long letter to us on the matter, which this week is replied - t6 by " Pro Bono Publico." One of the most difficult Provincial questions of the day is this one of Commonage. Mr. Bastings pointed out at Macraes that owing to the alterations in the Waste Lands Act, now law, in its passage, through .the Lower and Upper House ; the fac lities that were given to the .■.■ Provincial authorities for dealing with the matter, were very cramped and curtailed. Indeed, as the law now stands, if the runholder chooses to be obstructive, it is almost impossiblewto take land away for strictly grazing ■purposes. We do not; know that we have any more to hope from an Executive headed by . Mr. Donald Keid, than from that headed by Mr. Tolmie, in the matter of Commonage. - Certainly a big block might very possibly be -..throvyn..'Open- under the former tlemail's administration, ami sold to the .runholder as a freehold, as at Moa Flat, Teviot, and very nearly at Maerewhenua. We certainly do not want that. The rise, during last year, in the wool market, is making the matter of Commonage a very serious one to this district. Owing to it, squatters are doing all in their power to stock up every acre of ground with sheep, no expense is spared in fencing for this purpose, so that the cattle and horses —really necessary-—about the town, a e standing a very fair risk of starvati >n. One thiug however is to be guarded against in this matter, and that 'ma partial concession. Supposing Lhat owing to a moderate and rather vaguo agitation, the Grovernment consent to give—as Mr. Bastings men-

tioned here—a probable 10,000 acres, and chat immediately round the town, we are> quite sure our last state* would be worse than the first, while the Government would at the*sarne time consider they had done well by us. The Hogburuand the'Uunstan Creek areeert inly entitled to some protection for the great cattle that must be depastured, and it would in our opinion be wiser to try aud get a block of 3;),000 acres snu ited oetween the two township*, than to agitate for 10,. 15, or even 2J,00U acres in the immediate vicinity ot iNasehy. " a Mirier " may be rignt as to the facilities given hy the neighboring runholders to owners ot cattle aud horses u Pro Bono Publi. o ' implies that he is Be that as it may any favor shown is a matter of <jrace which .should not be. We believe it would be. a good' step tor tiiose who are anxious in the matter of Commonage to call on the Mayor to summon a public meeting to arrange on some plan of action be enforced in the coming sessiou of the Council through the district mein lers. As w<i*a said above, -if the,Naseby and JSt; B.jthans districts were to act together, they would increase their Btre.ngr-b and double their benefits.

We have pointed out that the law i* defective, or at least is said to-be s > by the present Provincial Executive the Act indeed being very vague. The matter could be easily tested by proper pressure bein„j brought to bear during tlie session., Let our Members be iust.ru ted what it is we require, and. if the law will not j;ive it it will be their duty to see that the law. in thedeficient particular be amended. ]\~u.merous amendments must be made in the said Act, and this question of ommonage may very well be definitely defined along .with them. The object aimed at by the private pelitiou in'circulation must, to be a success, be made a public matter. It would, we be a lamentable-thing to find ourselves with 10,000 acres enclosed around the town —the halt' of w d-ii would be worked l out ground, an I of eoirso we s'tould be bound to keep the enciosing fence in repair, aud all our stock inside it.