PETITION.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 260, 28 February 1874, Page 3

PETITION.

The following petition has been handed to us for publication, and is at present in circulation lor signatures. We refer to it in our leading article :

[copy.] To his Honor the Superintendent of Otago. The humble petition of the undersigned • miners and others resident on the Mount Ida Gpldfield, Sheweth: _ '

1. That your petitioners are all directly or indirectly interested in the mining interest in the Mount Ida district, and have lately heard that a petition lias been circulated in the said district asking that land, supposed! to be .payably auriferous, may be declared opsn for sale. 2. That your petitioners beg respectfully to point out to your Honor that, until the. Head Race and Sludge Channel nowiircourse' of construction in. itliis district are completed, it" is, difficult to ascertain the quality and situation of ' the land that such race and channel may render pay ably workable. '3. That your, petitioners believe that the opening of land for sale, either on deferred payments or otherwise, within a radius of four (i) miles from, Naseby, or five (5) miles on each side of the "course of the Sludge Channel, "will prevent sucli ground from being fairly tested, whether payably auriferous or no, as the. compensation payable would deter many, miners devoid of capital from prospecting. 1 4. That your petitioners would instance the case of the Maerewlienua sale to the Honorable Eobe.rt Campbell as a reason why tEe greatest caution should be exercised in' alienating from the Crown any land supposed to. be auriferous without first' thoroughly .testing the same. ' \. 5. Tn conclusion, .your petitioners %?ould ask that no land within the above limits be opened for sale, on any system, until a,.thoroughly practical test has decided that such land cannot, with the aid of the Head Kace and Sludge .Channel, be- prqfitably mined upon for gold. And your petitioners will ever pray, &c.