AGRICULTURAL LEASES

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 321, 23 April 1875, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL LEASES

The following from Mr. Warden Stratford's report is of general interest:— " The vexed question between the rightsof agriculturists and miners is becoming more harassing each year. Undoubtedly it is very difficult to decide what land is • auriferous and what "not. At the same* time vast tracts ot country are lying useless which could afford- employment to thousands of men to, their, own advantage and to that of the treasury chest. It having been. decided by the .District Court that the agriculturist has a > ricmt to the land to the centre-of the earth downwards, * and the cumbersome machinery of arbi- : tration having caused ,so much delay and - expense, has aroused the miners to oppose agricultural settlement wherever there is a - possibility of gold being found.. /The consequence is the Wardens.have no. fixed basis on which to decide, and it becomes safer to refuse the leases until legislation provides that the agriculturists shall have no control over the minerals, and that an uniform price shall be paid, if required, tor mining purposes. Then the agriculturist will. be. able to calculate whether it is worth his while to fence" in arid cultivate the land, and opposition will cease. Jn all decisions he should have a right to remove all improvements, and tittie be given, if the land is under crops, for them to mature. lam of opinion that in this district the introduction of such a law would cause the almost immediate occupation of about five thousand (5,000) acres under the" Agricultural Lease Regulations The advantage both to the Government and - the • people by revenue and settlement would-be very great." "- .-., ~>, .»t:.« L