Untitled

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 374, 12 May 1876, Page 2

The inference we drew from the information telegraphed to us last week that the famous cancellation of the 18th of April bad beeirrevpkej turns out :to be

untrue. It wrs not possible to revoke the cancellation, if it were good, except by Act of Parliament. If it were bad it.needed no revocation. At the meeting of the Board last week the conspirators fell out. Mr. Keid admitted that clause 150 of the Waste Land Act prevented cancellation without consent of the lessees. On the other hand the applicants, through Mr. Haggitt,had previously protested they had never consented. If they are right, the original cancellation is bad, and of course the regulations framed upon the assumption of its integrity are bad also. As we held last week, it appears to be certain, from Mr. Eeid's statement, that a consent, or at least concurrence, sufficient to justify the cancellation undoubtedly took place. This beingso, the action of the Superintendent in superseding the .Board and reletting the cancelled area to the tenants, without the Board's consent, or without the public competition prescribed by the law, is worth fur. her enquiry, No paper haa given the Provincial party stronger sup--portthan we have done, or are prepared to do ;—we by no means intend, therewink at the wrong doing of leading Provincialists. The publican consequence of the too great greed of certain powers in the State, are now possessed of a fine estate, which will keep men, women, and children. No false sympathy with the biters-bit will prevent ua following up every nook and corner of the most infamous public transaction ever perpetrated even in Otago, to again grant a monopoly to a few men.

; How has the alleged reinstatement of the runholders been effected ? Here is the process—a plain story of fraud upon the people and upon the law. He who runs may read. There is a clause in the Goldfields Act of 1866 which gives the Superintendent, as Governor's delegate, power to make regulations for the depasturing of stock upon areas cancelled on Goldfields, for the benefit Of mining communities, and to regulate the number of horses and cattle which may be run upon such lands by the holders of miner's rights and business licenses. The intention of the clause, although there is a repetition in it which gives it, if strained, a doubtful meaning, is evident. Small areas were expected to be cancelled round mining townships, as was done at Hyde ; and, in lieu of warden's as in Hundreds regulations under this clause (14) were to be made to enable a miner or ness man to run a horse and one or two cows. This is the clause which has lieen set up to reinstate the repentant runholders. In last week's ' Gazette ' regulations under this clause were pub lished, purporting to be forms of application for all desirous of occupying ihe cancelled country. The shorn lambs Ywere furnished with copies before publication, which probably their own lawyer drew up. No competition was enjoined, and they obtained leases, each for his cancelled area, at what rent no one knows. As the regulations gave power to lease the country for ten years probably the victims get three years'additional lease as a salve for their injured innocence. "Worse still: If the regulations are good the Superintendent can continue the tenants in their leases for any subsequent term by altering, revoking, or amending the same. Thus a neafc mode has been discovered to give an extension of pasto,ral tenure on Goldfields without Act of Parliament, heretofore foolishly considered necessary. It would be better that' Goldfields Acts should be buried 1000 fathoms'deep in the great Pacific than that such a fraudulent pretence shouldhavea shadow of justification under their shelter. :./. - .' *

fortunately the so-called reinstatement is a;u illegal ' Act .;,. Now, ; it is common to say no one can: punish the Government for doing wrong. That is quite true. The act lately perpetrated in Dunedin with public estate, if done by clerks, or managers in charge of private funds, would, in nine cases out of ten, end in the treadmill for life. As the public is the victim it is but an error of .judgment. A ltboiigh a subordinate Government is able to do an illegal thing and go;unpunished the titles; conferred illegally are absolutely void. Such titles are held at the takers' risk. We all know that miners hold what are now said to be illegal rights under due license of Parliament itself, and have no redress.. : ..'.■■

The Superintendent can, under certain circumstances, effect cancellations of country held under: license or lease. He cannot deal with- country soreleased, i he Waste Lands Act of 1872 places " any waste lands of the Crown " within the Province oiOtago " atthe disposal of the Board. Clause 13 says —"All business connected with the " sale, letting, disposal, and occupation " of waste lands shall be transacted by " the Board." To prevent conflict with the Land Acts, the Goldfields Act, under which the reinstatement is made, expressly provides in clause4s —"That " nothing in this Act contained shall in- " terfere with the powers or functions " for the time being vested in any Com- " missioner of Crown Lands." The Superintendent personally recognisedthat the cancelled lands svere in the disposal ofthe Board by attempting to bully the members for not consenting to sell. Mr. Reid also recognised it. If it was indeed so, how could Mr. Macandrew and Mr. Reid, as leaders of an Executive, in defiance of clause 45 of the Goldfields Act, supersede the Board and lease waste-lands without its consent? If the Government, could lease these lands under clause 14 it could also sell them under clause 49. If the can cellation is good, and the regulations are good, why would not the sale be good without the Board under clause 49, which says that, after cancellation under the Act, " It shall be lawful for " the Governor from time to time by to declare such lands or

" any part thereof open for sale or se- ,: lection in sections of such size and " form as he may determine. . ." ? Why did not the Government open for " sale," instead of, as they elected to do, open for " selection" ? .Refusing the power it claims to have, it is monstrous to accuse the Board for stopping the public works. The conspirators did not dare to Bell and buy, because they knew a Crown grant could not issue unless tho land was sold by the Board. In the same* way the new leases will be valueless, unless the Board can be even yet bullied into sanctioning them. The cancelled country is in the disposal of the Board at the present moment. The Board was created to be removed from political influences, and ought to assert its power. If it refuses to do so a Parliamentary enquiry cannot fail to throw a little light upon the titles issued as a stop-gap for the enemy. It will bo Mr. Basting's duty, on behalf of the Board, to demand such, enquiry. The Waste Lands Act provides for fraudulent preference being given to lessees by powers extraneous to themselves, or being assume!, and throws the onus upon the recipient of a bad title. Clause 56 says, "If any " person shall become the licensee or " continue to hold a license of any *' waste lands, in violation of a nout: compliance with any of the provisions " of this Act, the same shall be fraud " under this Act, and such license shall "be forfeited and void. . . ."

If the cancellation were good tiie lessees were to be compensated. Being so compensated the vineyard is not Naboth's. Even Naboth could not hold his vineyard for ever, and had no claim for compensation. We covet the Man.oto Plain for the people of Otago, and nothing -will deter us from exposing all .raudulent attempts connived at in high places to perpetuate the leases beyond the term fixed by law. We almost omitted to add that the proclamation making the regulations ur.der which these titles have issued is bad in itself. It conditions under clause 17 of the Goldfields Act 186b*. Now clause 17 of that Act is repealed."