THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 1874.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 253, 9 January 1874, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 1874.

We are glad to see that tenders are called for the remaining portion of the contracts on the Head Kace at the Naseby end. It is hardly necessary to; insist on the necessity of a time-limit being fixed for the completion of this contract. We have very little sympathy with the' puling complaints of contractors that they cannot get men 1 owing to the harvest; &c. A contractor undertakes certain public works, with their risks, and should be made to fulfil his work, for it is patent that other contractors can get the mensome even are open now to complete the whole work under heavy penalties. We grant that labor is not easily to be got; but still a contractor has certain capabilities to, do his work outside of capital. 'J hese may include knowledge of the work and popularity among his men. We do not see that a* contractor who happens, to hold a contract, who is unpopular himself or through his overseers, and therefore, maybe, .cannot obtain bands, should be excused from fulfilling his work to timie, when another man, quite able to get hands, is just as likely kept idle. It is a matter of yreat moment that there should be no delay inr these works other than is absolutely n/icensary. The progress at present being made on the Head Mace is by no meaus ereditable to the supervising.Government or the contractors themselves tho evils of delay iii a great measure arising from committiugtoo large works to individuals, with the appeaVance of an unlimited time for completion. We say appearance, because vJtivrlo not believe what the Provineull; authorities

the accepted tenders enabling; them to close tae'conti acts at any time, without payment fop , work done, it" the fixed time agreed upon is exceeded—provisions that only require to be enforced to be respected.

Only last week we expressed a hope that such an attempt as was made in 1873, to coerce a few miners at Maerewhenua, would not again be permitted -to take place during 1874. It is with sorrow we this week have to inform ourreaderßthatffeshpfoceMihgß*have been taken by Messrs. Borton and M'Master. Action has been begun in the Supreme. Court against the miners at Maerewhenua, for pollution of the river there, for which damages are laid at £IO,OOO. It is with sorrow we have seen such determination evinced by a a few of one class, who; cannot for. a moment be supposed to lie acting alto* gether by themselves, or without support, to endeavor to stamp out mining industry. For this action,'if it means anything, at all, means! no less than this—that mining is to be exterminated, unless it confines itself to the gentlemanly and refined form of quartz reefing, affording the elements of sport:—of gambling in —to the general public. Such a plebeian, dirty job as sluicing, for the maintenance in comfort of men,and happy families, with its heavy escotts —4,000 ounces from Mount Ida alone this'last month must not be tolerated. Why, the very fish we are spending some of our pro-; fits in introducing are poisoned, and; our country houses,. With lawns and cool, sparkling' fountains, are robbed of their beauties by this habit of sluicing. Our wool, too, we cannot wash. -—our wool now"" (owing to' the pros- ; perity of the gold-producing Colonies) ; so high in price. "Consider our loss' and estimate our patience, in tolerating for so long this canaille mob, that stray away in the mountains, breed children in uneducated wildness, and then injure us —! . Nonsense quite as foolish as we have •written is often said by those who, having made money owing to fortunate marketsand' a sheer accumulation of capital, have no patience with others l who assert that a man has 'a'' full right to be considered in his comfort and his rights—above all, his right that the country shall keep faith with him, whetherhe owns £50,000, or fifty shillings and a miners'.right—have no patience with those who, preaching on the text, Is not a man better than a sheep ? prove to the satisfaction of the political economist and the moralist alike, that the settling of an industrious population, living on the produce of the land—be it gold, iron, or corn—is the only stamina to render a country manently,.prosperous. . ? n.>.The -fact- that this question* is 4b come to a definite decision we ; •hail with some pleasure" for the stability of the Gold fields. It has always been intended to amend the law to protect tho goldminer, but this action has been again and again partly owing to the want of union; among the Goldfields 'centres, and partly: through the half hope of leading statesmen that the Goldfields. difficulties would settle themselves, by a cohesive attachment, or rather amelioration, with the agricultural interest. It will be interestling to observe whether the landowners in this country have the rights they assume that they have interesting, but expensive ;. after all, legislation must interfere before any definite conclusion is arrived at. If such a hurly-burly and pandemonium "was called- into being by -a: mild attempt to obtain a reduction of a sixpence taxation on the gold duty, we can easily imagine the dismay of Superintendents at the idea of losing the gold duty and* the gold altogether. Perhaps then they might not endorse> Mr. Macandrevv's reported unguarded expression the other, day at;;the Taieri—that it would be better if the miners were to take to growing wheat, instead of mining for gold—an unlucky attempt to please the . audience of the moment that will be remembered.

The theory; born in England and promulgated lately in Victoria, of the State as the sole owner of;theland,tthe occupiers being tenants merely, has' found advocates in New Zealand. We hardly like to say that the carrying of such a theory to a practical issue is an impossibility—not believing in impossibilities nevertheless, it will be fraught with such difficulties that, to overcome them, an effluxion'of-time so i considerable will be required that all i the best land in the,. Colony' will be—ere the conclusion—alien tted from the Crown. These diiliculties are not only of a practical, but also of a moral nature. An immigrant, induced to leave his native country to settle in New Zealand, on the express inducement of becoming, with the least possible difficulty, the owner of a", freehold farm, would consider a decided breach of faith had been committed if he found' ?he, could only lease, although the Crown were the landlord.' It is, indeed, a peculiarity of human nature, to crave, afterjownersbip of;a portion of the earth; This is so well:understood that . gifts and easy purchaser of land are the sole bribes held out by coun-.. tries' competing -together for settlement. A refusal to sell or to divert on any terms would, for a great time, check immigration altogether. Then, again, under such a (system, would the land be conserved ? Under the landlord and tenant system, as existing in Great Britain, the tenant is bound in every conceivable way as to the maintenance of the land—the-. very system of rotation, fallowing, and fertilising, being often detailed in the leases. Could the State exercise any such precautious measures wisely? We think uot. Never yet has {be

State attempted uay coer&veTspgiifationof the sort, but fenders has been so great, that auJffidemnity Act has had to be* passed, condoning the general offence. We conclude, then, that such a system of landlord and tenant would very speedily conduce to the destruction of the country's landed estate —more especially here, where, through some natural difficulties j eVeri freeholders Save been deterred from taking measures to secure, by a proper system of cultivaThen, again, would not the mere fact ofthe refusal to'sell another increase enormously the value of Ithe land already sold, and so make it "impossible to resume, by payment of any ordinary rates of compensation. Enforced resumption we cannot conceive as ever being sanctioned , for- such a purpose, because, if it could be shown to be on the same level as resumption for public purposes—as gold-mining, railways, canals, or telegraphs —stili the interests involved would be too great ever to allow such a measure to pass our freely-constituted legislative bodies. "What, too, about our creditors—would they -allow it ? Has it; ever been found that leasehold is ari equivalent as security, in the eyes "of capitalists, for freehold ? What is the security of our loans ? Is .it not the : lands ? We cannot take up af nefrs-; paperwithout finding in the ; adver6is-. .ing columns "Money to lend-on;free-; " hold securities." The most fatal objection, in o.ur eyes, is that a system of; leasing "would infallibly.tend, if not -to; decrease the value ofthe Waste Lands, at any rate not to increase it. r There; would he no inducement in a lease" to make • land valuable by improved working, o?, by planting. We see that characteristic of non-improvement now in the pastoral leases. * Many ~ fo£ these have been held for nearly fifteen yeairs, and will, before they expire, have run for some twenty years. What improvements'have been effected ..outside the lessees ' pre-emptive ~ rights—the fifty acre freeholds ? None whatever, except, perhaps, a moveable wire fence for subdivision, or boundary purposes ! The very shepherds' huts are, as a rule, on ten-acre pre-emptivea. As it is, the runs so leased will not have been improved, if not actually deteriorated by the lease to the present tenants for twenty years. K obody can shut their eyes io the tact that freeholders in &&t time would have enhanced the value of the country at least fourfold—not only in actual improvement, but in'"the establishment of a large, well-to-do, population, infinitely : of more value than hundreds of miles of wire,, fencing. With that, however, we have now nothing to do—a bargain is a bargain, and must be sustained. Let ~us, see, however, that, we do not, by a<Bystemof cheap leases, establish a far greater evil than ever has been believed;-to. exist, even in the exaggerated accounts jof the : hardships entailed on the bulk : |of the .settlers thrbugh' the immense [areas of country locked up • in./thjk. handsof the .pastoral tenants.- - In thfe- | interests of the G-oldfields solely, a few (difficulties could- be escaped from by a system—the difficulties, of rip-; arian rights, resumption for mining purposes, &c,, as' affecting diversion of istreams and river pollution—fruitthese, difficulties can be got- over by otheir measures. , The .prosperous gold miner is a desirable man to settle in the country, and in nine cases out of ten is quite willing, when getting p up in years, if he has been fairly to invest his savings in land,,where the? rest of his days may be spent in a less arduous though, pierhaps, 'not so profitable a'pursuit las the mining for gold has proved in his case. We hardly think a proffered lease would prove-a detaining influence to him. -if a fair , value was put on air lands sold,- and I restrictions proof against jdummyisin established, regulating the size of blocks,sold, it appears, to us that there is no better system, now it has gone so far, than to trust to private ,energy .to develop tho soil it has or may become the unencumbered owner of.