MR. DONALD REID AND THE MINERS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 337, 20 August 1875, Page 3

MR. DONALD REID AND THE MINERS.

(To the Editor of the Mou:>*t Ida Ckeokictj:.) Sib, —In a recent issue of your pape 1 ' you made some very pertinent; remarks on the proposed sale of an auriferous block of land ip the Arroyy; district, and. also on an expression of Mr. Reid's on the same subject—to the effect that, unless.the miners ii compensate the leaseholder, the land would be sold to him. Allow me to submit a facts ,who take>- an interest in : this.. Setting-aside the:broad principle involved of selling known aliriferous lands, which was-rejected by the session belore last of the Provincial we have first and foremost to deal' with the fact that_ in the minute book of .the Court the application of Mr. Kerin (the leaseholder of.the land under condition'), is underwritten ■ "refused.". How, -then, did Mr. Kerin come-into possession of the land as a leaseholder, and how does this circum - stance affect his claim-for compensation? Next we have to consider a.promise of the Warden, Mr. Be'etham, who is now District Land Officer, that the land should be gold, and this' reconimendation was "net only- sent to the pvoper authorities, but was also recorded on the survey map of the district " not to-be sold" being written on the sections how applied for. This map cannot be found at present. Upon this promise, which was tacitly endorsed "by the Government, a race was brought in by a party of miners at a cost of £2OOO, and they were subsidised .to the amount of j£6oo by the General Government. 'Three other races 'will become valueless if this land is sold. The land itself has been proved to be highly auriferous, and is situated on the line of at least two quartz reefs; (besides this it is lying at the foot of the ;Crown Terrace, where hundreds of acres of payably auriferous land are known to exist, and which are locked up by this lease. These ' facts are a ■ few of the surroundings of this " little job." Mr. Reid, it appears: to me,, does not shine very favorably in this case, take it in whatever light you please. He shows his real color in a most foolhardy manner, which does him no credit as a statesman. If he is allowed by the country to override its expressed wish, as stated above, in the session before last, and at the same time break the pledged promise of the Government—to the effect that this land should not behold—l may well ask where will he stop? I think.that the country, and especially the Goldfields, have had quite enough of Reidism. A High Church dignatory Btatecl as; his opinion,, that nothing .but a .Revolution could save Home. ■yVhat if the miners were driven to try the same remedy? Mining history has got its • Eureka stockade,' and anti-chinese rjots, and we fire tpld that history:, repeats itself; whether Mr. Reid wishes for such a repetition or not-I cannot say. w | I do not know whether I am correct in my deduction, but it appears to me that in all matters concerning mining or the miners Reidism appears in an intensified form. This - Reidism pervades the whole old indentity clique, and it also spreads its onesided, and baneful influence beyond its original circle. Thus is the present Goldfields Secretary so thoroughly permeated with it, that, he has become a Reid in embryo. Another observation I have made is, that Mr. Reid and his clique are particularly odious in purely

mining districts, that this feeling "is mollified, where miners and farmers are united, and that in solely agricultural localities they looked up to, somewhat in the fashion as the Chinese regard their Josh.— I am, &c. SAgitta. Arrow, August 6th, 1875.