MAEREWHENUA DEFENCE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 262, 14 March 1874, Page 3

MAEREWHENUA DEFENCE.

The Mining Conference agreed to ask Messrs. Bradshaw, Pyke, and Oliver to act as a deputation to present a memorial to the Provincial Government. The following is a copy of the memorial drawn up by the Committee :

That your petitioners are gold-miners and others directly interested in the GoldfieHs of the Province of Otago. That many of your petitioners have been engaged in their present occupation for years. That their method of working is that by which nearly the whole of the gold from the Province, is obtained—a method which renders unavoidable the pollution of every stream on the Goldfield watershed.

That they have been so acting under the sanction of the Goldfields Act, and by virtue of miners' rights, certificates, and licenses granted thereunder. That, though they have been, as they supposed, acting in a strictly legal manner in their mining labors, it now appears to your petitioners they have exposed themselves to prosecution for pollution of a certain river at Maerewhenua—a suit having been brought, by Messrs. Borton and M'Master (as the owners of freehold land on the banks of that river), against Howe and Co., one party of miners following their occupation on that field, to compel them to pay damages (laid at £10,000) for lessened value of the said freehold land through this pollution; and praying for an injunction to restrain Howe and Co., and all others engaged like them in mining on the Maerewhenua, from repeating the alleged offence, That, should Borton and M'Master be successful in this suit, there is not a stream' in the Province, polluted by miners, where such an action might not be brought—so that- the very existence of gold-mining as an industry in this Province is endangered. That, in the ordinary works of the miners, it is impossible to avoid polluting the streams into which the water and debris from their claims are discharged. That your petitioners believe, though your Government has been aware that the miners (notwithstanding the rights conferred by the Goldfields Act) have been carrying on their works on sufferance only, yet have failed to make such provision as would protect the miner in his authorised labor.

That your Government are now expending, out of public loans, the sum of £300,000; with a portion of which, at the present time, they are constructing certain works at Mount Ida, which, when completed, will cause a vast amount of debris to flow into the Taieri; and should a successful action be instituted on the part of some freeholder on the banks of that river, below the said work, the whole of the large sum voted for that purpose will be lost.

That your Government are participators in the act for which your memorialists are now being sued, inasmuch as they have advanced to certain miners in various parts of .New Zealand—notably the sum of £I,OOO, to Messrs. Botting and party, to construct a water race at Maerewhenua for ground sluicing purposes, the debris from which will naturally flow into the Maerewhenua River. It will thus bee seen that, if such suits can be upheld, the mortgages held by Government as security for repayment will become valueless. :'.'■■'

That your petitioners Submit the case in point is one of unprecedented oppression—that the result of years of persevering toil, accompanied in many instances by great hardships and a large Outlay of capital, should be imperilled and probably lost in consequence of your Government having neglected to make provision for such a case, though specially commended to your notice by your Gold Mining Commission of 1871. That, if Messrs. Borton and M'Master should succeed in stopping the miners at Maerewhenua, the result will be the gradual yet certain abandonment of gold mining; that thereby a terrible loss will accrue to the mining community, and one which will probably peril the financial security of the Colony. . That your petitioners submit, inasmuch as the Government are participators with them in the offence, justice and equity—and, they might add, public policy—demand the Government should defend the action now pending. That, for the above reasons, your petitioners humbly pray that your honorable Government will take the matter into your serious and immediate consideration, and adopt such measures as will relieve Howe and party of the responsibilities of the suit, and enable them to pursue their occupation undisturbed.