PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ITEMS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 271, 16 May 1874, Page 2

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ITEMS.

THE SURVEY STAFF. Mr. de Lautour mo\ed—"That, in'the opinion of this Council, it is desirable that the survey staff of the Province be increased, and that compulsory surveys made under the Wardens' Courts—whether for agricultural ' area?, for the inspection of races in receipt of subsidy from the General Government, or mining lease areas—be prepared free of charge." The mover pointed out the exces- | sive delays which had occurred in important works in the Mount fda district during the I past year through the inability of the district surveyor to overtake the work. This wa3 not the exception, but the rule. In the report of the 3urvey department laid upon the table the Chief' Surveyor admits this, but refers with satisfaction to the cadets being trained in the district offices—but meanwhile the country is suffering for' want of competent surveyors. The object of including agricultural areas in the motion was to place agricultural lessees on the same footing as applicants for sections on deferred payment. This was imoortant,. mire especially as the present head of the Government ,had frequently stated that there'was no reason why land should nit be.openad-on the Goldfields independent of the 30,000 acres under the deferred payment system, by effecting cancellations of leases, or portions of leases" under the . Goldiields Act. The Goldfields would be satisfied with this, but they should be put on the sam.3~fouting as if settling on the deferrad payment system, and not haudicapped £lO on the section'for a survey of 20J acres which is gra-ited free in the "other case. - The excessive charges made to visit races under subsidy from the Government, to' reporc on the progress payments, was also alluded to. ' Mr. R. Clarke seconded the ; motion. -.

Mr. M'Kellar had much pleasure, in supportin i the motion. die did not quite understand what was meant in the motion with regard to the including'of races under subsidy. He thought the motion should go further. With regard'to,'the l delays spoken of, he could ..confidently the statements made. " "Hemight instance the "wellknown case of the Carrick Water Race Company. In no case did blame attach to the District Surveyor.

Mr. Ireland moved an amendment, that, the words " Waste Lands Board" should be inserted. Cases of great hardship arose from excessive charges made, for,residence areas. The amendment was duly seconded. Dr. Alenzies reverted,to the discussions that had taken place last session in the Council and inCommittee. jhe recommendations had not, he believed, been carried out.

Mr. Keid quite agreed with the first part of the motion, that the survey - staff of the Province should be increased The remainder required much consideration.. He thought the scarcity of surveyors arose from the alteration in the'old system—an alteration for which he was not'responsible. With regard to what had been said a3 to charges for survey on sections in agricultural - blocks, lie might say that, in cases' where the Government with which he had been connected had declared .such blocks, they had .been previously surveyed into sections before applications were received. One thing might be said why such a charge might be made, however, which was that under Lhe agricultural lease system, the residence qualification was not insisted iipon. The whole matter was, however, one of great importance, and might involve serious financial disturbance. He would ask the mover not to press the motion at the present time, until, at any rate, the financial statement had been made. Mr. de Lautour, in reply, "stated that, after what had fallen'from the Head of the Government, he would not be justified in pressing the motion to a division. He thought, however, that Mr. Keid was under a misapprehension in saying that the old system had nof. been reverted to.—(Mr. Keid: No.) —He still thought that there was a misapprehension—that the old_sysfcem was reverteJ v to a few mouths ago. It would wtaken his c-tse very seriously if it were not so. -It was the charges under the old system that he, protested were so excessive in many cases. The amendment was then- put and nega-. tived, and the motion withdrawn, by con- ■ sent. .. '■-.'}' MINING BOARD.' Mr. de Lautour asked the Provincial Secretary whether the Government would be prepared to take advantage of the powers delegated to than under the Gold fields Act,' 1856, and th j Amendment Act, of 1867, to grant the desire expressed by the Mining Conferences of 1872 and 1874, -'That a Min-' ing Boar.l, to frame their own bye-laws, should' be appointed for the Province of Otago." The hon. member said he did not wish to piess the -Government to give an answer at the present time, unless they- had made up their minds on the point, as it was a matter'that would require serious consideration. Mr. Eeid said the Government would take; the matter into their' serious consideration,' and state what course they intended to take. . FOREST TREES. '• Mr. T?. Clarke moved, ' That in the opin-! ion of this Council, it is desirable to encourage in every legitimate way the planting of' forest trees in the unsupplied portions of. this Province, and, with a view to give ef- • feet to this desideratum, that a respectful, address be presented to his Honor the Superintendent requesting him to take such steps as he may deem best calculated to'encourage l the planting of forest trees in such portions of this province a3 are inadequately supplied with timber." ' Dr. Webster explained that the Govern-,' ment had received £11)0 worth of seeds from.South America; an order had also been sent! to England, but the seeds had not arrived. - It was intended to put them up to auction. The motion was carried. •! LONGWOOD GOLDFIET.D. Mr. "R. Clarke moved, " That all papers, •and petitions concerning the claims of John Aldr'ed to be considered and rewarded as the prospector of the Longwond Goldrield, be, re-. ferred to the Goldfields Committee for consideration. "—Carried. MINING LEASES Mr. E. Clarke moved, "That there be, laid upon the table - of this, Council a return showing the quantity of land held by virtue! of mineral leases in each , Goldfield of this; Province, and the amount of rent received! duringthelast twelve months for such lea3es." —Carried. RUNS. Mr. J. C.Brown moved, "That there be 1 laid on the table a return showing.the position of each run in the Province of Otago,' number of stock depastured, and amount of rent received during-1873-4; also, date of expiry of said leases, acreage of land taken from each run, whether for sale, lease, or deferred payments, during the last five years, detailing each year separately."—Carried.

THK STATEMENT.The Provincial Secretary in his statement said we also propose to recommend the proclamation of new Hundivds in addition to those recommended last session. I am not in a position now to state the locality of each of these Hundreds, or the area; but in-all probability it will amount to some 60,000 acres. Then we have the areas.recommended last session: 411,000 acres, > and the 60,000 acres on deferred payments, or 160,000 acres altogether. Assuming that we are not able to extend the deferred payment to Goldfields we purpose va. tho3o districts to open up land' ,under the agricultural lease system. And I memtwrfa Moiu^t

Ida that that will meet the view 3 of the miners as well as if the land was opened under license and lease.

STAFF SYTEM OF SURVEY. The Hon. Dr. Menzies.asked the Provincial Secretary, "Whether he could inform the Council why the recommendation of the Waste Lands Committee of last session to return to the staff system of survey has not been carried out, and whether the present Government was prepared to do so ?" Mr. Reid: To some extent the recommendation made last session had been given effect to. He believedtherehadbeensomemisunder-vstanding,-the impression having been that it was only to apply within Goldfields, and any alteration of that character could not be made without considerable delay. In regard to the second part of tbequestion, hemight state that it was the intention to return as soon as practicable to the syst.-m of staff survey But in doing that if. would be necessary to do ifc gradually, because the works at present under taken by the surveyors, m.iny of which were a long way in arrear, must be completed under the present system. Again', many of the officers who had to expend a great deal in procuring the necessary staff, in equipping themelves with waggons, or what were called express vans, and bosses for the service, would naturally think themselves hardly dealt with, if, after having gone to tint expense, the (>overnuient altered its.system and went back to I the o'd one. Therefore it must be dona' , gradually; and' furthermore he thought, the j Government should be prep ire.l to take over 1 the equipment of those individuals'at a fair valuation. Then there wis'this fact- to be ; considered, that at the time the alteration was m-ide in.many, of the districts apportioned to those officers, ; there was little.to do. They were almost starved out; '1 here was net sufficient employment to maintain surveyors, and they left, the service; and now tha'-some of of them ware makif.g'handsonie incomes, they would naturally svy, *'Now that itjiegins to pay you reverse your decision, and we don't know what position we are m" Having I ! pointed out these things he (Mr. Keid) would I i.dd that the Government would endeavor to 1 revert to the old system, but, at the fame , time, do as little injustice as possible to tlieofficers. lie thought it would also be' found necessary to'do as" had been done in "other prov.nces—give the 'surveyors engagements for a definite-number of years at a-certain salary. That had- bc-en done in the adjoining province, and the coosequence was that the best men were being weeded out of the service . here, beciuse they had acted ciprieiou-ly with, them. -,Haying nude, these exp an.itious, he bejged to say that the Government wouhi ret urn to the old system as soon as they could do so. " - •■•-'.- OTAG-fl WASTE LASD3 ACT. . , Mr. de Lautour asked the Government whether rebuilt ion*, under' sub section 6, clause 54 of the Otago-Wast eLands Act, - - have been framed, or .when such, regulations will be framed? • _ '. The provincial Secretary, replied that he did not believe t hat- any regulations whatever hid -yet been framed under the Act,", b'uv the Government purposed at the earliest moment to have regulations framed. A number of reaohuions were agreed to, reeommeudiug the setting aside of land' as reserves for schools, cenieieries, and municipalities in various parts. ' of the Province. PETITIONS. Mr. Robert' Clarke presented a petition from 110 residents in-the Wakatipu district* praying fo<." the cessation of traffic on Sun Jays on the lmnedin an l.Port Chalmers Kail way. Petitions to the same effect were presented fcy Mr. Wdson from 483 and 285 residents in the Jnvercargill district; by Mr. Kinross from 93 residents in the Oteramika district;. and by Mr. de Lautour from 105 residents atMount Ida. Mr.. Keid presented a memorial from, certain miners' in reference to a - channel' being.. opened at Clarke's Diggings.' •Mr. De Lautour presented a petition from settlers in the Mount Ida district, asking: ttie Council to consider the question of • settint; apart land for settlement on the Maniototo Plains. Mr. Hazlett presented a petition from re3i-. . dents at Drybread, praying that a block of land might be set aside under the deferred payment system. MOUNT IDA. -'- Mr. de Lautour moved- - "'■.— That, the petition of the residents Htithe Mount. Ida district, praying for, the* settings apart of land for .agricultural -settlement, be referred to the favorable, consideration of theGovprnment. . ~ , The hon, member explained that he.would nit have tabled the motion had lie known at the time that the matter had been referred, to. the Goldnrids Committee. The motion was withdrawn. -NASE3Y, DBYBIiEAD,'ETC." Mr." Bastings bro'nght" up the'following Te--ports of the- Select-Committee on Goldiields:— - " '-' In re petition of 33 householders andi pa-ents of families residing in Xaseby :.Tiiis. petition,prays that;the'only Public Recreation. Reserve in the town of Naseby may not dessroyed by the cutting of, an open tail race through the centre of t'>e same. Your committee, bavin? had the above petition under- - consideration and taken evi lence thereon, has to ree.ominend.that the Government- be requested to vest the Recreation Reserve referred lo in the petition for recreation purposes, in the Corporation of Naseby, less the twochains required for mining purposes.'* ■ '• Tn re petition of 29 residents of Black'sv Tiiiker's and Drybread : This petition pvnys. 5,000 acres of land on Mr. Glassford's run be thrown open under the deferred payment system: {"Your committee has carefully consid-. ered this petition, and is of opinion that theprayer thereof to the extent of 2,500 acres, should be granted:"