HAMILTON.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 269, 1 May 1874, Page 3

HAMILTON.

(To the Editor of the Moctnt Ida Chronicle I think the writer of the communication which appeared in your last issue has been considerably annoyed at the supper and ball lately given in honor of Mr. Bailey and Mr. Cunningham. Had his services been required, and two guineas paid for them, I doubt if you would have been troubled with the communication. Mr. Bailey was very obliging, and contributed o the enjoyment in many ways of the people of Hamilton. The supper was got up purposely for him, and, as Mr. Cunningham goes home at the same time, he received an invitation. The guests and .all those invited enjoyed themselves well, and the wishes of many here are that they may have a safe ana good voyage. Mr. Bailey and Mr. Cunningham were both highly respected, and several of the Hamiltonians escorted them as far as the Kyeburn to take their farewell. Great praise is due Mrs. Barber for the creditable manner in which the arrangements in connection with the supper were carried out. I am sorry your correspondent does not evince a greater desire to adhere to facts He. says our population numbers about ninefty altogether, and that it is well known we all subscribe towards the support of the Mount Ida District Hospital. I see by a receipt from your Treasurer that the sum collected is only £10 6s. I question very much if he is a subscriber, as I never saw his name on the list. There are only five subscribers here over £1. I trust your correspondent will be more cautious in the future, and lend us helping hand to keep up so good an institution.—l am, &c., James Nicholas. Hamilton, April 28, 1874.

(To the Editor of the Mount Ida Chronicle.) # Sib,*—Will you kindly allow me space in your paper to make a few plain state- . ments anent a case which came before the Warden's Court on the 27th April: Homeward Bound Company v, Charles Francombe Roberts, Moore and Co. I, being ®ne of four shareholders in the Homeward Bound Compa.njr, Naseby, two years ago this month obtained a grant for a tail race, commencing at the Extended Water Race and Sluicing Company's shannel, below the bridge, to opposite the camp reserve —we agreeing to pay the above-named company 2s. (3d. .per week for each Hogr burn, head of water run through our tail •race. The cost,of the construction of our race, before vre got one pennyweight of gold, was £250. We then bought the right- to work four residence areas at a poat of about JI?6Q; after working which

we applied to the Naseby Corporation for leave to temporarily close up the road leading past the Naseby school—we providing, in the meantime, a temporary road to enable the traffic being carried on. This was granted under a bond entered into by the Homeward Bound Co. to make good that portion of road within a given time. We then applied to the Naseby School Committee for leave to use a portion of school reserve, principally for a tail race, although a rich deposit of. alluvial is contained therein. For this we paid some £3, and wages for removing soil, about £lo—besides being under a guarantee to refill and deposit soil on said ground in a given time. We then applied to Moore for the right to work his residence area, offering £35, or to leave it to arbitration.' This he declined to do; took the case to Court, and got £36 lUs., and put us to costs over £4. This was considered by every disinterested man far too high. We paid this, and took possession of the same on the 18th of April, 1873; sinccv which time we have worked continuously .every working day when water was available to the present time, and reduced that and another residence area (Harper's, which cost £3) to less than two men's ground. Seeing that our claim was about worked out I marked ofl twe men's ground in Camp Gully, misnamed Moore's, from the fact that Moore has held a surface race down the centre of said gully for some years. The race in question was originally constructed by Peterson and party, and abandoned, when Moore applied and got possession, and evidently considered that he was, on that account, sole proprietor of the said gully. I marked out two men's ground, and applied for .extension of tail race to work the same, and informed him of my intention, asking him it he had any objection, as I had to go under his race twice with my tail race to reach the ground; I offered to secure his race by boxing. His answer-was, " J[ will consider the matter." I heard no more until the day previous to the hearing of my application, when I was informed that Charles Francombe Roberts, President of the Mining Association, Moore and Company, had visited the ground and remarked the same. On applying at Court next day I was therefore not surprised to find objections to'my tailrace by Charles Francombe Roberts, Moore and Co. I may here inform you that a day or two previously the Warden declined to allow. C. F. Roberts to plead as im agent in Court (and no' doubt the arrangements were made to suit his case). The objections to grant of tail race were not entertained by the Warden, but C. F. Roberts was . not there with one string to his bow; so he proved that the marking out by me was not up to the regulations. The Court in law, not in equity, gave hi in his choice of half the ground—Moore and Company not being possessed of miners' rights to hold the other half. After trying to jump the claim we presently possess he next day came and marked off his ground. He has no facility for working said ground—we holding the only tail race deep enough to do so. But, in the meantime, like a dog in the manger, he has put us to a deal of trouble, expense, and loss of time. I may add that our weekly payments for water, wages, &c., amount to over £25 for the last two years, besides the first cost of over £4OO ■ for construction of tail race and purchasing residence areas; yet a man likeC. F. Roberts can, by talcing advautage of the merest quibble, completely upset the. whole of our arrangements, and prevent us from advantageously working ground which enables us to pay and be paid. One note of warning to the miners: Look out for your rights and pegs ; Charles Francombe Roberts, President of the Mining Association, is in Naseby ! —I am, &c., James Stewabt.