THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1880.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3654, 11 September 1880, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1880.

When we took up the question of the Miners' Bights fees and endearored to throw some light through the mist of obscurity tliat shrouded it, we felt ourselres quite unequal to the task of thoroughly investigating such a tangled matter, and iv. referring to it at all we were actuated by a desire to incite public opinion, hoping that some practical good would result to the mining portion of our community when that powerful engine was set iv motion. We placed the main points and facts of the more easily ob-

tamed evidence supporting the claims of the miners, at the disposal of our readers, and they at once saw the question was worth looking into. The calling of a public meeting and the appointment of an investigation committee was a step in the right direction, and now we hear another matter is springing from the agitation of the main question. Those who attended the meeting will remember that Mr Carpenter showed that since the opening of the field the miners of the Thames had paid £59,000 and odd in Miners' .Bights, licenses, etc. Our local bodies have discovered that- they have a claim to a portion of the money so raised, and are taking steps to prefer that claim upon the Government. It is on the following circumstance that they base their claim. Prior to the abolition of provinces, the Provincal Council retained a portion of the fees obtained under the leasing regulations to recoup them for the expences of the admistratioD of the affairs of the goldfield—thus obtaining a very handsome revenue without trenching on the rights of the native owners under Mr Commissioner Mackay's agreement, which only gave the natives the miners' right fees pure and simple. On the adoption of the present system of local Government, the Ministry of the day with unaccountable blindness allowed this right of the Auckland Provincial Council to lapse—at any rate they permitted the miners' right, leasing fees, and all other gold field's revenue to go to the natives, and this state of things has continued ever since. Now our local bodies—especially the County Councilthink that they being the successors of the Provincial Council are entitled to at least a share of the leasing fees paid since the abolition of the provinces, and that either the natives should be called on to refund the money illegally paid to them, or the Government themselves be made o bear the consequences of the mistake, if such it was, and -recoup the loc 1 bodies for the loss of revenue. The reports that will no doubt result from the operations of the two committees should have the effect of bringing the matters at issue prominently under the notice of the Legislature. We would recommend that an effort be made, to induce the Government to appoint a commission to enquire into the affairs of all the goldfield s in the colony, when the matter could be thoroughly investigated, and no doubt upon our case being proved we would receive redress—a benefit to the community as a whole, and to many of our residents individually. To bring about this desirable object it will be necesssary to secure the cooperation of the West Coast and Otago gold fields, which likewise have grievances requiring redress. This course will probably be recommended oy the committee appointed at the public meeting, and, together with the result of the labors of the joint committee of the local bodies, we trust will have the effect of directing attention to the matter, which was our object in first writing upon the subject.