THE Mount Ida Chronicle. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1875.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 339, 3 September 1875, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1875.

We confess to take such an interest in the Pollution of Kivers from a mining standpoint as to be fairly chargeable with being jaundiced in considering any legislation proposed to remedy the inequalities and uncertainties now established. If Mr. Shepherd's zeal had been tempered by discretion it is probable we might now have before the country a Government measure, in which the full responsibility of failure ; could not-be shared by a private member* As it is the Bill, which we printed last week, is still Mr. Shepalthough patched tip; by the Solicitor-General. Without venturing to condemn the Bill as finally emanating from, the Goldfields Committee, we do not scruple to say that, if it had been introduced by the Government, after mature consideration by the Crown lawyers, it would have promised in its birth to succeed, better when put to practical test. The Bill, as we read it, would not reach a case similar; to

that lately heard in Dunedin before Judge Johnston, in which certain miners at Tinkers defended an action for damages brought against them by the runholder, who was also the proprietor of an agruultural freehold. If Thompson's Creek had been a proclaimed mining watercourse the la. for injury to the riparian right would have been saved, but not the ;&>0 damages allowed for deposition of tailings. 1 ! fot course the £SO, equally as the' is., would throw the costs of the caße upon the defendants. •■■••••-.'■ A. mere right to discharge tailings -into- a watercourse dependent upon pre-proclamation would not convey any more than without it, ithe slightest right to deposit mud or tailings upon the edges of that watercourse. As Judge Grey ofteu used to put it, in homely words, it would convey no right to dischage tailings down a neighbor's chimney. The compensation is not a payment for injury done to lands by licensed mining operations, but for a prospective damage to riparian rights —a damage that would be inflicted in its fullest extent instant upon the proclamation of a watercourse as a tailings bearer. Before a drop of discolored water reached a proclaimed stream, the compensation, which is alone contemplated, /vou? d, haw been incurred. As preventative to further litigation the BULwould thus very seriously fail. The majority of future disputes arising out of the present state of the law wil not be found to be between landowners and miners, but between miner and I miner. When our bush lawyers get better posted up in the power placed by accident in the hands of a few minI ing. parties actions for damages will be always cropping up. It will also fail , politically as not being likely to disarm the miner's jealousy of settlement ion Goldfields—a developed jealousy | to which he has been, driven. Leaving out of the question as admittedly hypothetical Judge Johnstons ruling that where mining is carried on lawfully under license parties so mining are protected.from the damages they may inflict* there can be no that ntfiiera. be -jast as . lialileJtqprgßecutiojQs>for> damages done *« Property as they are-now, whether 1 the Bill passes in its present shape or not. The only gain would be the that riparian right could not. be in sll cases assertea' against'them:Whether this gain will be so great as to make the passing of the Bill advisable, we cannot say. It seems a porry thing to play the carping critic when a honajtde effort has been made to meet the miners, and a good deal of. liberality has been shown in proposing to charge Consolidated Revenue with the burden of compensation. Yet, on the whole, we rather incline to the opinion that, unless the compensation, in the proposal before us confined to prospective damage to riparian rights, can be extended to limited actual damages on the banks of watercourses, the Bill had better be withdrawn if it cannot be further amended, As it is, if the Bill becomes law the gains will be theoretical only, while the losses will include an increased difficulty, the Government will find, in endeavoring again to meet the agitation,,that will be protracted, if not enlivened; by the passing of a I measure which will lay itself open to I be freely stigmatised hereafter as a sham. The difficulty is one of extreme j entanglement, and the lolution has not yet been hit upon. .

THB.English Mail, eta Suez; Was deurered at the district post offices on Tuesday last.' y - Terdebs are called for concrete to be ,erected,ajb ; Clyde, and:Arrowtown. Nl'sbby, Clyde,""and'Arrowtown hare been fixed upon as central.Goldfield townships for police purposes. THuart unionin aid of the Catholic Church, St. Bathans, is postponed, by advertisment, until the Ist of November. Mb. Hall announces that his Quadrille Class will be continued in the Town Hall every alternate Thursday evening. Thbre was little business of interest at the Hyde and Macraes R.M. and Warden's Courts. Our report is held over. A tehpebanok sermon is to be preached by the Kevi. J. M'Cosh Smith at the Presbyterian Church, Naseby, by request of the Good Templars. Thb concert given by the Naseby Brass Band, on Friday evening last, at the Town Hall, was a financial success a little over £2O being received. ■ ~ Thhbk being but little business anticipated, and the weather being unusually rough, the Warden did not visit Hamilton last week, a3 previously advertised. '• '■ Thb -■ •« Daily Times'' Wellington, correapondent reports that the Government will let the Local Government Bill drop, but adhere to the Abolition Bill at all hazards. The dates for the September sitting of the Licensing Court are fixed at the seperate districts by advertisement. Ho new licenses cau be granted until the June Court. Thjsrb appears to be little or no doubt but that the man Hepburn, who was reported .last week as missing at Hyde, was reallydrowned. There is a mystery about the affair not yet cleared up. "During the passage through committee of the Campbelltown Athenaeum BUI, the Government promised they would endeavor to bring in a general measure affecting those institutions, by which the necessity for bringing up seperate Bills would be obviated. Mr. STOUfin Wellington said "he knew for a fact of a portion of the Press in a certain part of the country where the directors at a meeting carried by a majority of one capitalist that the paper mast go.in against; Provincialism, That- was how public opinion was fostered." Does that directorate five in Dunedin? .. -- ■.>_.'.■ ~ .■■-■*. .'-■»■ : v,'-~' <' . v ; - : ■'!-' - We understand that-:the Committee of theArrovv District-Miners' Association; have >: ten-dered-their-sincere thanks-to the executive officers of th-? Central Association for the valuable services they have rendered to the miners of Otago during their last term of office ; at the same time respectfully requesting tlietri to reta"n their respective offices- for another term. At a meeting held at Maerewhenua a resolution was proposed by. Mr. T. bmith, " Tbat the Secretary to the Association be'instru'cted to communicate with the Goldfields Secretary, relative to the petition forwnded to him from

Maerewhenua last. May, and to express lb* indignation of the' miners at the treatment they had received at the hands of the Provincial authorities." The resolution was car» ried, and a copy ordered to be forwarded to Mr. Mncandrew. Tail race robberies are still the order of the day at Naseby. Robbing apples in the autumn is nothing to it. It is too much to expect the small local police force, every man of whom no doubt is watched each night, to be able to stop these almost nightly raids. On Wednesday night some thirteen yards of a tail race were washed up. It is creditable that some speciarprecautibns have not long agobeen taken tdputVstbp to what has been pointed out for : months.- ~-%t is ri-« diculous.. to suppose that the 'offenders are Chinamen. ■""-..■"*" _-; ;At Macraes, a Mr. Hartstongue was sued by a gang of Chinamen, for trifling sums, ranging from £1 7a. in each case. Judgment was given fowamount claimed, and 9s. costs. Mr. Hartstongue did not put in an appearance, thus entailing upon himself the future expense and Blight annoyance of distress warrants. On a a previous occasion the claim was made in a lump sum by one Chinaman, on behalf of the others; but the defendant, who then appeared, elected to take each case separately—accordingly judgment was given against him for the amount due to the first Celestial plaintiff, the Celestial-includeat* being left to take each his fresh summons. A pretty heaYy bill of costs has been run up against Mr. James Hartstongue. ttoldnelds Act Amendment Bill No. ii wai committed, and some discussion arose 'bn the question of the area of land to be taken upon Goldfields. Mr. Mervyn, the wished to retain that clause giving" 320 'acres! A. division was taken, resulting in the clause being negatived by a majority of seven* Mr Mervyn then asked to withdraw the Bill, aiad moved that the Chairman vacate the. chair, but this motion was overruled, and the next clause was proceeded with On the motion for the third reading, Mr. Mervyn demanded a division, stating that at the time he- gave notice of his intention to press the clause there had been a sufficient number of members favorable thereto to have carried it The ayea had it by 14 to 10, and the Bill was passed. The Hero brings newß of the murder of Commodore Goodenough, of H.M.S PearL and two seamen, by natives of Santa Cruz, New Hebrides Group; on the vl2th:of August. The Pearl was off Carlisle Bay, Santa Cruit. and,.leaving the ship in the offing, the Commodore landed,, accompanied by- some officer* and men; in hopes of QoncUiatingthenatives, amlopening intercourse. _Thelatter, assem•bledm goodly numbers On the beach;; and accepted- presents : ih apparenflyV-a' 4 friendly -spirit,, and seemed willing-to barfed £: The ..Commodore and:!:others entered "the 7 village and for some time.mixedifreely with the natives, who showed no : signs of "hostility until preparations were made to embark. While -the .Cpmmodbre and. .one or two remained near the village, a native standing near him fired an arrow, which struck the Commodore in the side, before any of the arms, iwhicfc W t l a- in boats, could be reached.' Several flights of arrows were discharged on the party, wounding five men, and the Commodore was again slightly wounded a second time in the head. A few revolvers and rifle* were fired to stop the attack, which was entirely unprovoked, and only one native fell. ■The Commodore determined, after returning to the ship that he would show his'. disapproyal of this treachery by simply burning the houses of the village near which the a£ tack was made, and gave explicit order? that no lives should be taken, directing that blank cartridge should be fired to warm the natives away previous to the men landing. Jor the ..first.-few .days the- wounded i*ere (fcnng well, and hopes were entertained* ihat they would recover, but after five days*ymptoms of tetanus appeared in three cases, and gradually increased until Thursday night. One of the seamen, named Edward who received an arrow wound in the shoulder, died the next evening. On August 20, at 5;30 p.m., Commodore Goodenough died: and early the following morning the third seaman, named Frederick Small, followed. He had received a severe wound in the head. The other three wounded are doimg well. The funeral took place at Sydney on the 24th August.